Posted 11/18/2019 6:01 PM (GMT -7)
Former smoker (quit at 24), diagnosed with UC after battling GI problems for years in my early 30s.
Had a GI doc that wasn't worth anything for a couple of years and finally went into a major flare that he couldn't or wouldn't touch. Got a new GI guy. In the week before that appointment, my UC went hyper crazy and I started bleeding so hard I couldn't leave the house. By that point I knew about the reintroduction of nicotine theory and was desperate so I went out and bought a pack. And it worked. The bleeding stopped. By no means did it stop the flare but it allowed me to manage the symptoms. Which I did for the next five years.
I am not advocating smoking, but I am telling you it worked for me. During the five years I quit smoking many times when my symptoms were better, and also tried all of the nicotine replacement systems. Patches, gum, lozenges. None of them seemed to do anything for me. I tried vaping a couple of years ago and actually believe it made things worse. Didn't really study it as hard but I ended up with some funky symptoms that went away when I quit vaping.
But smoking always helped me. Pure, simple cigarettes. Nothing else.
Now that I've said that, I will strongly agree with iPoop. The stronger UC meds are a better choice. I quit smoking for the last time at my colectomy surgery and do not miss it a single bit. Smoking sucks.
But there is something there and I honestly wish the medical establishment would get over their aversion to all things smoking to figure out that there might be a key to understanding this disease in those nasty, publicly unpopular little boxes. I challenged my doctor on it one time. In my career, if something offered a clue on how to figure something out I would rip the walls down until I understood it. They seem totally disinterested in it because... cigarettes.