More at Risk for Crohn's if you... Smoke?

[Jennifer]

Now I haven't done my own research on this yet but this is the first I've heard that there's a direct connection between smoking and it causing Crohn's Disease.

AOL news pops up when I start my computer and I look through the news articles and lately there have been some on Crohn's. There's information about the disease which is fine but then there's a short video and at the very end it says how you're more at risk but only gives two possible risks. A family member who also has it or if you smoke and then the video cuts off.

We've debated on the benefits and harmfulness of smoking on this forum but never did anyone chime in saying that smoking can cause CD. What do you think?

Link to article and video: http://www.everydayhealth.com/speci...cid=maing-grid7|aim|dl9|sec1_lnk2&pLid=149175

 

[Terriernut]

Not sure it can be said to cause it, but I agree it can certainly make it worse! And I should know. But can I quit...

As for causing Crohns, how can that be? Theres babies with Crohns and no one smokes around them, etc. So, I do wish it was a simple cause.

What I find really strange is that it HELPS UC, but makes Crohns worse...weird!

 

[Jennifer]

My gut says that the guy in the video is wrong and simply wanted to take a jab at smoking but I'm not really sure. How could someone allow that on a news video informing people of a disease if its completely false information?

 

[Terriernut]

Well, I'd say it's pretty typical nowadays tbh. Perhaps he should be a politician or a Fox news reader?

 

[Jennifer]

lol, perhaps

 

[CLynn]

I know my cousin, who is a nurse, told me that smoking decreases the effectiveness of all medicines. But I had never heard it caused it, or made it worse for that matter.

 

[Jennifer]

I never even heard that it decreased the effectiveness of medicines. Even if smoking causes diarrhea, its the diarrhea that's making it hard for some medicines to loose effectiveness rather than there being a direct cause from smoking. Unless its the nicotine that is the problem?

 

[Terriernut]

But how is that nicotine helps UC sufferers? It clearly does according to the CCFA, and the medical community. For instance, you would think, since my crohns is large bowel only (at this point and thank goodness) that my smoking would help...but noooooooooooooooooooo.

So how is it that it helps Ulcertive Colitis people?

 

[CLynn]

Well, keep in mind that she told me this YEARS ago, when I was first diagnosed. And she is a non-smoker, of course. The GI never told me either way, except that all doctors should tell us we should not smoke, for various, obvious health reasons. Not sure why she had that idea, about it making any medicine less effective. Maybe the nicotine takes up more space in our blood cells that the medicine could be using...

 

[notfullyfathomed]

Hah, I definitely don't think the editing lends to the credibility...it's like he added it on as an afterthought! That said, I have definitely heard that people who smoke are at a higher risk for developing Crohn's. Here's a nice article:
http://www.usagiedu.com/articles/ibdmech/ibdmech.pdf

Key here, though, is that it's one factor of many -- so it might increase your risk of having Crohn's statistically, but it's not a direct cause.

 

[lumberjack]

I was a smoker and it would definitely cause flare ups.
have since stopped

 

[PsychoJane]

It is very well documented that it worsen the crohn. Why the crohn and not the UC, that, I don't know but it goes from "causing" it to flare and accelerating the progression. I've never smoked and was blessed with a very violent form of crohn. My mother and her bf were smokers though... So I dealt with lots of secondary-hand smoke. I guess it may have influenced the course of the disease. Several publications have been written on the topic and here are some of the conclusion:

Crohn’s disease (CD) is a heterogeneous inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that can be divided into clinically different subsets or phenotypes based on disease behavior (transmural aggressiveness) and on anatomic site of involvement [1], [2], [3] and [4]. Behavior consists of three types: inflammatory, stricturing, or fistulizing disease. Inflammatory disease is periodic active inflammation that usually follows a benign but recurring course. Stricturing disease is nonreversible narrowing of the bowel lumen, manifesting as complete or partial bowel obstruction. Fistulizing disease is development of fistula, abscess, or perforation that is not secondary to surgery or to an established distal stricture (5). The fistulizing and stricturing disease subsets are considered to be stable phenotypes after the defining complication has occurred and usually do not cross over to the other types [6] and [7]. However, patients with seemingly inflammatory disease may develop fistulizing or stricturing disease because of genetic predisposition or environmental factors.

--->

The prevalence of inflammatory CD decreased with time. Tobacco consumption was associated with this decline during the early phase of disease, suggesting that tobacco may influence the progression of inflammatory to stricturing or fistulizing type disease.

(Michael F Picco, Theodore M Bayless, 2003)

Ive read a paper about the effect of smoking, paper by Philippe Seksik, Isabelle Nion-Larmurier, Laurent Beaugerie, Jacques Cosnes. It was mostly to determine if the type of smoker you were (light, mild, heavy smoker) had an influence. And well, hospitalization rate, level activity of the disease, duration of the disease, need of anti-tnf, etc were always higher in the group of smoker versus non-smoker and also significantly higher according to the amount smoked.

 

[Jennifer]

This is the only research I have for smoking and its relation to UC and Crohn's.

"Researchers have discovered that it is the nicotine in tobacco cigarettes that has a positive influence on symptoms of ulcerative colitis... It is theorized that the nicotine in cigarettes affects the smooth muscle inside the colon. This effect may alter gut motility (the rate at which food material moves through the GI tract)... Smoking cigarettes actually has a detrimental effect on Crohn's disease... Nicotine does not appear to be beneficial as a maintenance therapy; it may not help patients stay in remission. Rather, it seems to have a positive effect on active disease (flare-ups)." http://ibdcrohns.about.com/cs/ibdfaqs/a/smokingguts.htm


I'm still not sold on smoking or the nicotine in cigarettes making you more likely to develop Crohn's (just like you're more likely to have it if it runs in your family) which is what this thread was about. The video did not mention making Crohn's worse or bringing on a flare in someone who already has CD. It said flat out that Crohn's can be caused by smoking.

 

[PsychoJane]

Well statistics say that there is a greater incidence in smokers than in non smokers. Without saying that Crohn's can be "caused" by smoking, it's more a contributing environmental factor. It is listed as one of the factor along the lines with having a close relative that has IBD, just like Ibuprofen and Accutane are pointed out too?

 

[CLynn]

Maybe we are more anxiety prone, which is why we smoke, and why we have Crohn's flares.

 

[Robert747]

It is really interesting because I am determined to completely change my diet to, in the longer term, come off medication and beat Crohn's. However I am a self -employed Cigar Consultant (there are not many of us!) and cannot give up my source of income - even though it would probably be better to do so.

So a balanced decision for us smokers - I get huge enjoyment from cigars.

 

[CLynn]

I should cut down my cigs daily. Not sure I could completely drop them yet, but with warmer weather here, I could cut them down by having to go outside to smoke.

 

[tiloah]

You're spot on Crabby. Correlation does not imply causation. All we know is you're more likely to develop Crohn's if you smoke (and your Crohn's is more likely to worsen if you smoke). But that is not the same thing as "Smoking causes Crohn's." Anyone who is saying that at this point is completely full of it.