Smoking and UC.....nicotine replacement

Afternoon all, hope you are having a good Sunday afternoon.

I am intrigued by the association with smoking and UC.

I gave up smoking two years ago and have been recently diagnosed with mild Uc. Since I have stopped smoking I use Nicorette Quickmist spray. The consultant stated not to give up the nicotine because it could make my UC a lot worse.

Is it the nicotine in cigarettes that potentially relieves symptoms? Or is it some of the other nasty ingredients?

Quickmist is a spray that I spray under the tongue, do you think this is the wrong way to administer nicotine to help with UC? Should I try patches? I WILL not start smoking again but if it's worth trying patches, as an alternate if I will.

Thank you in advance!

My understanding is that smoking thickens the mucosal lining of the intestine, an area that's usually thinner and problematic for uc patients. You might've had uc for longer, but smoking essentially hid/masked it. Only when you stopped, did uc appear. It's possible reintroduction of smoking could help your uc symptoms some. There's no eliminating uc at this point, the genie is outside the bottle and there's no fixing that.

Personally, I've never been a smoker and I developed UC when I turned 18. None of my family member smokes and I tried smoking last year to calm my bad flare, it worked.

I tried the nicotine patches and they didn't work for me. Everyone's different on how it's going to affect them positively or negatively.

None of the regular cigarettes worked for me, it had to be a strong menthol flavored cigarette to get some relief out of it. I think it has to do with the delivery mechanism along with the mint flavor, assuming that the nicotine was helping me.