Vaping?

[Rasdaan]

I started smoking my sophomore year of highschool. I was never a heavy smoker, and gave it up about a year before being diagnosed with crohn's at 16. I am now 19, and picked up the habit again a couple months ago due to stress in my life. Today marks the first week I havent had a cigarette!

Today I bought an e cig mod since my friends strongly recommend it as a way to stop smoking cigarettes. So far I enjoy it, but to my knowledge, nicotine can aggravate crohn's symptoms, do i'm gonna taper down on the nicotine as fast as I can.

Has anyone else with crohn's have any experiences with e cigarettes? Did it effect you in a positive, or a negative way?

Discuss.

P.S. My friends also recommend marijuana since I have an auto immune disease. (crohn's obviously.) any quick thoughts on that idea?

 

[ronroush7]

There are threads in here on marijuana. I, myself, don't have any experience with smoking.

 

[fuzzy butterfly]

Hi i have been on e cigs for 22 mths. Since bowel resection.So far no side effects that i know of re crohns. mine contain nicotine but so far so good. Hope they work for you..

 

[Zzz]

I'm not a smoker but I understand you can buy fluid for your vaping that has no nicotine.

 

[Lady Organic]

there is a lot of controversy around e cigarette. But many doctors now recommend it as an aid for tobacco/cigarette cessation for those who have tried and failed other methods. My take on it is that it is a great tool to help for a transition, I know it can work and it helped some people I know. But I would not take it for the long term. There are still chemicals in these and no research as been done to my knowledge on the possible impact of the ingestion of these chemicals. If you feel you are able and can get the will power to quit smoking without e cig that would be my first choice. If you can find a registered hypnotherapist in your area, these professionnals can help with tobacco cessation. It may take just 1 or few cessions for great results. Thats what I would do first if i wanted to stop smoking. (less expensive than buying a e-cig btw)
as for medical cannabis. Im currently trying it. Oil version. Smoking it is not recommended. Inquire for medical quality cannabis and supervision by a medical professional. you will read plenty about it in the cannabis thread Ron talked about. good luck.

 

[kiny]

P.S. My friends also recommend marijuana) any quick thoughts on that idea?

I would follow your doctor's advice, there is no real evidence marijuana is helpful for treating crohn's disease. I posted an unpopular study a year ago, while cannabis provided symptom relief, that same group of people had more surgeries than people who didn't smoke cannabis. I value this straightforward study, the sample size is large, it showed cannabis merely masked the symptoms, it didn't result in better outcomes, it resulted in worse outcomes. There are no studies that convince me that cannabis is in any way helpful for crohn's disease, they all have either far too few patients, or they use patients who are on other medication. http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=60920

 

[Lady Organic]

people who are not fallowed/monitored by a GI doctor and who rely on cannabis on their own is poor and risky management of IBD I sure believe that. As for any alternative treatments, a patient may want to try, very close supervision with GI doctor is key to ***** the efficacy or non-efficacy of the so treatment. the problem may come from people quitting on the doctors or sub-optimal supervision. I can imagine that very few people are comfortable enough to tell their doctor they take cannabis... It happened to me that I was not even comfortable to tell my doctor I quit the medication and I was lying to him. We learn from errors...

 

[TommyBones]

I was a smoker for 10 years, I quit 1 year after developing gut problems because I know the two are linked. 6 months later I was dx'd with Crohn's. I'm not saying that I got sick because of smoking, I quit because it makes treatment of the disease harder. Avoid it if you can.

I was able to quit only because of vaping, and I still vape to this day, 18 months. Sure, it can't be 'healthy', but I know it's way better than the cancer sticks. I say vape on, but only if you really need it to stop yourself from smoking... And if you want to be 'healthy' about it, stick to unflavored, pure vegetable glycerin, no propylene glycol, 3mg of nicotine, or 0mg. The flavorings are suspected to cause lung disease, but in reality we don't know the potential harm from vaping yet.

In truth, we really shouldn't be putting anything like this into our bodies but at the least I know that it is generally better than cigarettes. Also, I'm curious as to whether or not the nicotine is damaging to the guts. I've had no negative effects from vaping, however, I'm over 2 years into Crohn's and have not had any positive effects from my treatments and wonder if vaping is related.

As for the wacky tobaccy: It may or may not be helpful. Smoking is the worst way of ingestion, but in really small amounts shouldn't be an issue as far as the guts are concerned. Also understand that it treats the symptoms of your disease, not the disease itself. My Dr said that I could develop some condition I forgot the name of but otherwise moving forward with treatment it won't be a problem.

I use these two things to help elevate my quality of life, which can be pretty low sometimes. I've done the research to satisfy my apprehensions about them. They both carry risks and you must educate yourself so that you can make the decision that is right for what you're trying to accomplish.

Above all, you must tell your healthcare team everything that you're putting into your body. They're only there to help you so don't lie to them.