Crohn's Disease & Ulcerative Colitis Support Group

There were experiments with nicotine as an anti-inflammatory. They with the nicotine patch. The small positive effects were outweighed by the negative - nicotine addiction.

It gets weird if you quit smoking and have UC or Crohn's
Read this:
http://ibdcrohns.about.com/cs/ibdf...

Everytime I see a doc they tell me to stop smoking. I don't think that (where I am from anyway) they would tell you if it were helpful in certain cases because everyone is on this big stop smoking kick here. Not sure if it is the same everywhere, but here it is getting downright invasive. You are not allowed to smoke within 25 feet of any building anywhere in the state. You are not allowed to smoke in your own vehicle if children are in it ($1000 fine 1st offense), no smoking in any restraunts, jails, prisons, hospitals, anything...and that includes the OUTSIDE property. Our University hospital has a Stamp Out Smoking program right now and that is where I go for medical care so they would never tell me it is ok to smoke...even if it would cure me they would not tell me that. LOL But if you find out more I would be interested in researching it. I would like to know where you heard that and what your resources are.

The benefits seemed significant.

I am not really an advocate of smoking, but the drugs I have been prescribed are arguably even more dangerous with more serious side effects.

I have not smoked since I was 18, but I am considering smoking 2 cigarettes a day for 2 weeks (no more or less) then stopping if I go into remission or if I dont see any benefits.

But then smoking is bad for the MS, so in my case I should not be smoking.

I was a smoker prior to getting UC and long after. Every time I tried to quit My UC got worse. My doctor confirmed this was a common occurance. Once when I tried to quit it got so bad I opened up an artery in my large intestine and almost bled to death.
My advice is never start smoking. If you do smoke cut back as much as possible. When trying to quit do it at a time when there are few stressors in your life.
I finally had to quit or be taken off the liver transplant list. I did it by reading a book called "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" by Alan Carr.
Don't quit prior to reading read it slowly and follow the instructions.

I am against it because I am severely allergic to cigarette smoke. But not cigars, go figure, eh? Apparently its not the nicotine or tobacco, but the formaldehyde and rat poison. So, personally, I'm glad I don't have to worry about being sent to the hospital when I go out in public because someone else wants a smoke.

I haven't heard that it would be good for CD or UC. However, I have heard great things about marijuana. So if you hear that "smoking" is good for UC/CD, check what it is that they're smoking.

I am probably not going to start. It might help the UC but not the MS, and I would rather have UC than MS.

If I was going to start, I would buy only the purest organic tobacco in a pouch and smoke it out of a water pipe. I wouldnt be smoking 'cigarettes'.

I already do smoke marijuana for both conditions. I just posted an article about it.

I can only report my experience as a life long smoker who quit a few years ago. My intention was to quit in the hope of living a bit longer and get more out of my pension fund before I pop off!

However three months after quitting big flare up of UC. This is typical of ex-smokers who get UC I have been told. Control by steroids and symptoms returning a couple of months after finishing the steroids. I made the decision to start smoking again and the symptoms of UC went away. Two years later a co-vesical fistula resulted in the last 24 cms of colon being removed. I suspect the abcess that became the fistula started during the UC flare-up. Now I had never had diagnosed UC before but have suffered from Crohn's for many years. Research I have seen suggests that smoking reduces UC but may make Crohn's worse so one is rather between the hammer and the anvil on this one, a French saying.

A lot of sites, some medical, support this view. My feeling is that if I had never smoked then I would not start now to prevent UC flares. Not convinced the nicotine gum prevents UC flares as I was on that for a couple of months after giving up the weed. I am trying, with great difficulty, to cut the smoking back which in some ways is more difficult than quitting! My GI seems to support the above view but thinks I still smoke too much. My GP still thinks that smoking is the spawn of the devil and is worried that I may develop COPD as have had breathing probs during the last two winters. Bit of a case of heads you win, tails I lose!A bit of a b****r!..............JR

Well I do have a story. I smoked faithfully for 26 years. Decided it would be best for my health to quit. Within 6 months I was admitted in the hospital with severe pancolitis UC for a month. I was a sick puppy. A year later I am still struggling with it. The docs believe I have had UC for a longer period of time but with smoking it could have easily kept it at bay. If you smoked and got the symptoms after quitting I would do the nicotine patches and see if it helps. Nicotine is a hell of alot easier on your body then prednisone. It isn't smoking its the nicotine. Smoking has millions of bad chemicals in it but nicotine has been studied for healing properties.
I do no that it doesn't help Crohns. But I think there is something to be said about the cause and effect.

I wonder if being a smoker makes UC worse when you quit compared to never starting, or if it actually helps prevent it without increasing risk later.

It is somewhat strange to think about the benefits of smoking.