How many people quit smoking & were then DIAGNOSED with IBD/CROHNS/UC ?

[Musicalchairs]

I was diagnosed with Crohns after a 12 week stint on Champix (smoking cessation) tablets.

Nearing the last 2 weeks of the 12 week program I started to have abdominal pains & then ended up in the ER after 4 weeks of finishing the 12 week cycle.

Has anyone else out their had this happen to then ?

 

[Jennifer]

Probably just a coincidence. I doubt the drug gave you Crohn's and I doubt it set off a flare. Those tablets are dangerous in general though (psychosis- no thank you!) but then again, what drug isn't?

I quit smoking recently. I just stopped buying them. I usually quit cold turkey but have used an electronic cigarette in the past to help me quit.

 

[Musicalchairs]

Fair call.
Was just curious.

 

[Nyx]

I've never even tried smoking. I'm just one of the lucky ones to get Crohn's I guess!!

 

[vonfunk]

If you were diagnosed with Crohn's it's most likely a coincidence.

If you were diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis there is a good chance that quitting smoking may be the environmental trigger. I not familiar with Champix, so I don't know the procedure. I quit smoking at the end of August 2008, in October I started my first flare up. My doctor informed me that my quitting smoking was the trigger for my first flare, and that years of smoking had been keeping it under control. Unfortunately you can't unring that bell.

 

[lynx]

I have been told and have read though that by using either nicotine gum or nicotine patches that it MAY help put a flare into remission. BUT, the problem with that in my opinion, is that knowing how much I love nicotine I would become addicted to the gum again. I was on the gum for almost 8 years before I quit finally. I love nicotine. Like some people love coffee lol. I hate smoking though. It is an interesting question. I was originally diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis but this was almost 3 years after totally quitting smoking but I was still using the nicotine gum. Now they say that Crohns disease is aggravated by smoking but do not go into detail as to WHY. Is it the nicotine? I would guess yes but I don't know.
Nicotine is a really interesting chemical. Research has shown that if you apply it topically on external wounds it helps heal them faster, even faster than using antibiotic creams.

 

[vonfunk]

I know I've said this in another thread, I can't recall which one, probably the smoking thread.
There are few theories why smoking helps UC.
The first being nicotine. The second is that people UC have less sulphite reducing bacteria in the gut, which causes and excess of hydrogen sulphite. The hydrogen cyanide in the smoke mixes with the hydrogen sulphite turning it into something else that I can't recall the name of.
Then it could be a mixture of the two, which I tend to agree with as it appears that nicotine patches and gum do not have as string of an effect as regular smoking.

 

[lynx]

that is pretty interesting Von will have to check into it further but I know i need to avoid getting back on that stuff it was a very expensive habit for me..i would chew probably 10-15 pieces of gum a day! Had a nice jawline after a couple years.LOL Now i got moon face! Gotta laugh.

 

[scifi-enthusiast]

I quit smoking cigarettes when I was diagnosed, but didn't quit smoking (if you know what I mean).

 

[Boltmannz]

I smoked for 42 years. I must admitt that I did have a dicky gut. I tried all forms treatment to give up smoking then I went on to Champex. Then my dicky guy started with vengance. I was diagnosed with crohn's twelve months after giving up.

 

[Musicalchairs]

Thanks for all the reply's people.
If I had my time again I wouldn't have bothered jumping on the Champix.
The tablets had a side effect of abdominal pain and passing of blood. I stopped them when this occurred. 4 weeks later diagnosed with Crohns due to Ulcers in my lower bowel.
Hence the theory these tablets have caused the ulcers and now my bowel can't stop attacking them with my immune system.

 

[Rebecca85]

I guess champix could have been the trigger that set off your flare, though I doubt it actually caused the Crohn's. However, if you hadn't taken the champix, something else would have triggered it. Like Boltmannz, I had a dicky gut for years, but always attributed it to food intolerances, until I got admitted for suspected appendicitis. In my case, the trigger was a throat virus combined with plenty of ibuprofen.

 

[Musicalchairs]

I guess your right,

In the days leading up to my dx I had taken 2 ibuprofen tablets to numb a groin injury so that i could work around work and sell TV's and the like.

Boss needed me for that weekend and without the ibuprofen I wouldnt have been able to stand up to the task.

That following Monday I arrived at work and then asked to leave as I had a fever and didnt feel 100%.

7 hrs later was in the ER.

At that point had been off the Champix for 4 weeks.

Had groin pain for 2 though, put that down to an injury at work.
Maybe it was linked, maybe not. Pain in groin isn't as severe since I've been on Pred though. Abdominal pain is not existent after 4 days of Pred.

 

[Rebecca85]

I took a lot more than 2 ibuprofen! 6 a day for a week, plus codeine and paracetamol, and I was still crying from the pain! That was some infection, I think my immune system had gone haywire and that's why I got it so bad. Then the ibuprofen was the last straw.

 

[Musicalchairs]

Gee, well I'm not one to take pills if I don't need them.
For example, when I have a headache, I'd prefer a glass of water and a nap.

The only reason I was on the Ibuprofen was because of a groin injury.

From what I've been told Ibuprofen increases blood flow to areas that are in pain. So that was probably enough to boost the flare I didn't even know I was having, which then gave me a fever and got me to the ER.

Funny how I wasn't one to take meds hey ?

 

[Rebecca85]

What are you trying to imply?

 

[Musicalchairs]

Ummm. The irony.

Was never one to take pills.

Now looks like I don't have a choice

 

[Rebecca85]

Oh right, thought you were trying to say I took too many!

 

[Musicalchairs]

Not at all.

Sorry if it came across that way.

 

[Miss Spencer]

Have read about this connection before.

At first I thought it must be a coincidence but then I kept re-reading about it again and again and again.

Happening too many times to too many people for it to be a coincidence surely.

And looking back I was shocked to realise that I gave up smoking and one month later first noticed blood in my stools and from there it just got worse as the months progressed. Three years later I was finally diagnosed with UC.

Thing is, I had given up smoking a number of times in the past but never lasted long before taking up the habit again. That time round though, I gave up and kept off them.

I think I would almost risk the dangers of smoking again if I knew then what the outcome would be, compared to what my life has become now.

 

[aliciars]

I quit smoking in April 2009. By Fall 2009 I was having lots of issues, but didn't want to go to the doc. Went to doc in June and was dx with UC, later dx with Crohns....my doc said there is most definately a connection to stopping smoking and onset of sypmtoms, however the other side-effects of smoking (aside from the cost, and nasty smell) don't make it a recommened treatment....however, the side effects of prednisone are better???? How's that??? LOL

 

[Lydia]

The FDA has a hotline to report things like that. Chantix is a fairly new drug and they encourage people to report any suspicious possible side effects.

 

[Grumbletum]

Interesting topic. I quit smoking back last January ( have had a major blip and am gearing up to stop again. ) I used the Inhalator and Niqitin minis.
But for someone who rarely got sick, I had the worst few months ever. Three weeks after I quit, I got flu and a really sore throat and ears, which then developed into labyrinthitis. That was horrible - like being on a ferry when you're not!! That lasted til April.
Then in August, I started getting the UTIs etc and have found out just in December that it's a bowel problem ( possibly Crohns. )
Was chatting to an ex-smoker friend and she was saying how she'd been iller than she'd ever been in the first 3 years after she quit. Kind of ironic.
I'm still going to try quitting again though, cos I think it does aggravate my symptoms.

 

[Nytefyre]

I started smoking at 16 and continued smoking through diagnosis, hospitalizations, and surgeries. Then, my wife's mother died of lung cancer and I haven't had a ciggy since (April, 2010). Her father quit smoking too, but I guess the grief and such got to be too much and he started back up. My wife actually started smoking again, as well! She quit as a New Years resolution though. It's such an insanely powerful addiction.

Anyway, I have noticed a change in my funds (I have more), but not really anything I can associate with the Crohn's. Maybe that's because I smoked less and less as the years went on, so by the end I was only smoking maybe one every couple days.

 

[roundtuit]

I could go waay out there and suggest that the rise in Crohn's disease in developed countries could be because the number of smokers in developed countries is going down. Sounds silly and ridiculous...but is an interesting thought. Statistics can be twisted to mean many things....hmmmm.
I too am a former smoker. Took me 7 times before I quit for good. I tried the patch twice, the gum once, cold turkey, antidepressants twice, and finally succeeded with Chantix. Oddly, I did have a long period with less symptoms when I was " off the wagon" but I still had flares.
That does not mean I am going to start smoking again though...