Quitting Smoking with UC

[Guest guest]

Hello,

I'am not new to scd I've been following the diet for over 3.5yrs,

and have had great success. Except when attempting to quit smoking

even though I'am a light smoker it's something that I really want to

do. Quitting smoking at age 38 is what triggered the disease for me,

I was mis-diagnosed as having irratible bowel for more than a yr.

before a new doc I saw finally sent me to a gi. who put me on asacol

which worked for a couple of yrs. Unfortunetly while working a

demanding job and doing some heavy home improvement projects I start

using alot of ibuprofen. That caused me to flair after 9 mns. my gi

put me on immuran for a while but that didn't work so he added

prednisone which worked for 3 days. After that I started bleeding

severly and lost 50lbs. and could barely function, my gi wanted to

send me to a surgeon to get the cure well I wasn't interested in that

and started looking I didn't believe that food didn't have anything

to do with it like my gi kept telling me. And luckily I found a doc

that perscribed BTVC!!! and felt better immediatly I had been on the

diet for a few months when I hurt my back at work after my employer

got ahold of my medical rec. they blamed my UC because my injury

wasn't responding to treatment and wanted to fast track me out the

door. With all the stress I was going through I fell back on an old

friend and started smoking again I didn't make the connection at the

time but that was when I went into remission. Every time I try to

quit smoking I flair so I start back, well after 3.5yrs I'am feeling

pretty good so I try again and actually make to 35 days before I

start flairing but instead of starting smoking I hold on hoping it

will pass but after 5 days I'am bleeding. I bought a pack. I checked

the database at the scd support and found out I'am not alone. Sorry I

didn't mean to write a book but I was hoping that somebody out there

had found a solution that might work for me???

Thankyou

UC 10yrs

[Guest guest]

, I can't help with personal experience but thought I would post this in case it's not what you have researched. Katy

*SMOKING AND UCELAINE WROTE:*I'm not for smoking but since you are new on the list I must tell you that there is a negative correlation between smoking and UC. The chances of someone gettig UC within a year after they give up smoking is greater than normal. That only means that you may need some nicotine help along with SCD.Mike S. website: Smokinghttp://www.scdiet.org/7archives/scd026.htmlRACHEL WROTE:Basically my smoking history. I don't know how much nicotine (as well as many other harmful ingrediants) is in each cigarette, but if you can get well without going back to smoking, you should definately do so. It's an awful habit, pure and simple. Hopefully, the diet itself will work for you. Anyhow, here's my story;I'd started smoking in high school. I think the first time (of many), I quit was when I was pregnant with my son 32 years ago, but I went back to it a few years later. I'd always had stomach problems, mostly severe constipation. Then about 20 years ago, I stopped again, and it was probably a year to 18 months after that the bleeding & D started. I'm trying to put the time sequence together, but it's hard. A few years after I was diagnosed, but way before I'd heard about the diet, a friend of mine heard a news report that smoking seemed to help UC. We both laughed about it & I put it out of my mind, until I was sitting with my daughter (who smokes) on a lovely beach in Cancun. I took one of hers & before long, I was once again hooked. No, it did nothing for my UC. I was still smoking when I began the diet, which is what completely eradicated my UC symptoms. A few years into the diet, I decided to quit again, and boom, my bleeding resumed as soon as I went off the patch. I caved in & went back to smoking. Last year I tried again, only this time, the bleeding started while I was still on the patch. It's hard to choose between losing a colon & lung cancer, and I'm hopinghard, that neither happen to me. http://www.forces.org/evidence/carol/carol40.htmhttp://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/band39/b39-5.htmlhttp://www.vitacost.com/science/concerns/ulcerativecolitis.html **Vivian V. Z. wrote:My experience is similar. I began to have my worst flare-up ever last year just a couple of weeks after I quit smoking. There's a strong link between smoking and IBD. I have read the experiences of many others who developed IBD symptoms for the first time, or went into a bad flare-up, shortly after quitting smoking. Poppet wrote: Smoking has worked!I bought a pakcet of cigs on march the 9th ( ironic as it was national no smoking day) and i onlymanaged 3 that day i felt dizzy, and sick but kept on and within 2 days i was well, i smoke half at a time and only 6-8 per day and i am in remission.. i also found out that the food i was eating was making it worse, i have an allergy to wheat, so i cut this out completly i lost 3 stone within a matter of months i have energy and no grumbly bowels.. Poppet **Anne wrote:I really hear you about the nicotine. I used to be a smoker and I consider stopping smoking as one of my greatest achievements. I didn't come down with UC immediately. However, I do know that the sort of anxiety that triggers me in the more psychosomatic aspects of my UC, are anxietiesthat were VERY effectively medicated [supressed/ contained] by nicotine.Feel free to mail me off list. I am definitely addressing the roots of my original anxiety as part of a multi fronted onslaught on my UC Helpful Links, Glossary, Dr. Koop and WebMD - Great source of informationabout most illnesses and medications. *http://www.drkoop.com/template.asp?ap=93 ** wrote:I also have ulcerative colitis for 6 years now and was in remission for aprox 2 of those years in the midddle (unfortunately i am sick again now 2005-6) but improving. I have only been trying the diet since the first of this year Jan 2006 and let me tell you i definately am already "cheating" but trying really hard to stick with it. I do think it has helped me improve but i've had such a hard time being 100% with it every day that it's hard to say. I just wanted to type back a response to say that i feel it definely will and has helped me and i am going to stay with it i just have found it hard to figure what you can and can not tolerate, etc esp since just because a food is legal doesn't mean you will be able to tolerate it! I haven't been in remission yet to say really but if you have any questions I'd be more than willing to try to answer them!! I have been on remicade for a long time( like maybe 4 years) and have had excellent results- esp in the beginning . Unfortunately if you stop and start taking it you can build antibodies to it and i also waited too long between infusions and it started to not be as effective. I really think itworks though.I am a co-leader of a crohns and colitis group here in Delaware and have found the other people to say they also have had good results. As far as 6mp i had a BIG scare this summer because I was jaundiced and had endema that "could have been caused by the 6mp" where i almost had liver failure! But they(the doctor) was not checking my blood as they should so as long as your getting checked you should be fine. It could have been my birth control pills for all they know!!! I'm glad to be off it though and would love to just be drug free if that were possible!!! That's why i'm trying this diet-with the hopes of getting well soon!!!!! Good luck to you and i hope you are feeling better!!- ** Liebert SCD for UC- Wrote:Nine years ago I went on the SCD, stayed on it for about two years, and was in remission from UC the following seven. This past summer I had surgury, lots of antibiotics which wiped out all the good bacteria, and voila: Uberflares. NOW I'm back on SCD which has helped slowly but steadily, and am much better than I was. Still, it's taken six monthes to get on a subway with confidence that I will not need to get off immediately to run and find a bathroom.One thing I do remember from the first go-round,( pre- computer days for me) was that all the people in my UC support group seemed to have similar personalities to mine: creative, A-type, driven, worriers, and stressed not just about UC but also in general. People who had a hard time relaxing or really resting back when they were healthy to begin with. I don't know what your husband is like, but if this sounds at all familiar consider this: My UC support group decided as a group that the medicines were clearly NOT curing us, but only controlling the symptoms, and only in some cases at that( this was 9 yrs ago. I understand there are several promising drugs out now. Personally I'd still rather do it with food if possible but each case is individual) We decided to concentrate on guided, focused relaxation and gentle exercise to music as a therapy, and for an hour 2x a week we really did relax. Amidst the severe stress of being ill it is easier to do this amongst those who understand illness and/or are experiencing it for themselves.. See if you can find a similar bunch of people near you who might be interested in starting one, or maybe a pre-existing group connected to a hospital/outpatient center. There is one connected to an infusion center (gentle exercise and yoga/relaxation)near me. Meditation, prayer, foot rubs, relaxing music, warm baths, calming scents, and romantic candle light dancing with your sweetie(SMILE)... none of these will cure your husband, but I have found relaxation really helps to get some much needed rest that ISN'T FROM EXHAUSTION. That will probably help to counteract some of the side -effects from all those medications. Which in turn helps you to get to remission. The other thing that has helped TREMENDOUSLY is IV iron, which helped me recover from the severe blood loss UC often brings. Your doctor should check your husbands iron levels. Good Luck!! L. ** Rebe0505@... wrote:in answer to your question i am still on steroids but not predizone..at one time it did not work for me and so i use another one..anyway i am on the tapering phase but continue to still have blood..and i am hoping the imuran will work after kicking up the dosage i am on ..but it takes three months to see if it will work..it did nothing for me on the lower dosage.. scd is worth going for because even my doctor says it can do no harm..and often gives his willing patients my telephone numberto speak to me about it..unfortunately rhe diet has not been my magic bullet either..but i continue on it because the things it eleminates seem to be things people not on diet tend to avoid as well..and with u.c which is very stubborn could take at least two years ..even elaine sayys that inb the book..but i am not sure that one may not need the combination of drugs and diet very often to control the u.c. and if that is the case then that is what we must do..hopefully newer safer drugs will continue to come out for those of us who continue to flare and have ongoing problems..and that is very likely..so we must hang in there...rebecca u.p,u,c sept03,scdmay04,colazol,decadron,imuran,rowasa Michele Hellmann UC wrote:I am glad that my experience could help. I was originally diagnosed in 2002 with UC..then last year when I was in the hospital everything was coded as CD...now everything is UC again with my doctor...I tried to ask which I really had and my doc said it didn't matter because they were treated the same so I never got an official answer. As far as I know I have always had UC by definition but it is a case very close to being CD....with the inflammation usually left sided and reaching as far as it can without being CD by definition. I also have very severe anemia from the blood loss...am due for IV iron treatments starting this week which I am nervous about. My definition of perfectly helping would be no meds and no blood in the stool/cramping etc..and I am only there 75% of the time. Still I feel that the diet has helped tremendously, and it is the only reason that I have had any kind of life for the past year. I have always had a quite severe case and have been labeled steroid dependent. I have been recommended surgery and imuran but have refused both of these options to date as I would rather regulate with diet. I particularly find that I do best with almost no carbs/nuts in my diet and I mostly am eating meat and cooked veggies. If I eat the other legal baked goodies I tend to flare-up. When I first went on the diet I was eating more toward meat/veggies before I had many recipes and found great relief. I was dancing around the house with my little babies, etc. Then as I added some of the new recipes of baked goods and stuff I found I wasn't doing as well and my "die-off" if you call it that landed me in the hospital. (As a side note...For a short while I thought Splenda was legal because the book says it is but I did not know that the website says that it is not....it is not and I have since discovered that I process Splenda like sugar and can not tolerate it at all! It may have been splenda that landed me in the hospital.) Now I am in a flare-up after a bout of family flu..........so I have not had perfect luck with SCD but am so much better than I would otherwise be. Before SCD, meds did not help the flares and I would just get worse and worse. Now on SCD I sometimes still flare-up but it is usually attributed to an illegal that I will discover or something and usually medications can help.My condition is definately also related to female hormones and I have mini flares at the end of every cycle regardless of diet, but it is under so much better control with than without SCD.I personally do not feel SCD is the total answer but I would not go off of it either because it has restored my life. Hope this helps. Michele

_____________________________________________________________Purify your water with professional water treatment. Click now!

[Guest guest]

Hi there .... after many many attempts to quit smoking ( i was also a very light smoker ..less than 3 per day -but still would flare every time!!) this january I bought (well, financed) an infrared heat sauna which I used twice daily for the first 6 weeks ...and it worked! Well...at least i think so ...i'm in a mild flare right now ( brought on by a too-heavy anti-fungal regimen combined with a cold) but nothing like the "knocked-right-onto-my-butt" & sleeping on the bath-matt type of flares I had gotten with quitting before ... I know its a pricey method (lol -- I'll be paying for it for a decade! ) ...but so far, for that, it's really helped! ( I'm hopefully that reducing my metal toxicity will help alleviate my gut issues ... i think it'll take a while tho! :-(