I’m a real rebel with a cause. – Nina Simone
It’s now been 33 days of nicotine replacement therapy use and 27 days off prednisone. I posted recently about the results of my 8/4 GI follow up, but to recap: they think I am close to remission and want to confirm via a sig scope in the next few months.
Since choosing to vape has been such a huge decision for me (as a former smoker), I have spent a good bit of time trying to ensure that I have made the best choice for myself. I figured I would share some key information that I found to ease my troubled conscience.
The first is a study found here:B Electronic cigarettes: review of use, content, safety, effects on smokers and potential for harm and benefit that concludes “Allowing EC to compete with cigarettes in the market-place might decrease smoking-related morbidity and mortality. Regulating EC as strictly as cigarettes, or even more strictly as some regulators propose, is not warranted on current evidence. Health professionals may consider advising smokers unable or unwilling to quit through other routes to switch to EC as a safer alternative to smoking and a possible pathway to complete cessation of nicotine use.” While I realize this study is based on assisting current smokers to quit, the findings are still positive for my purposes.
Additionally, I found this lovely article:B 9 research studies to silence the vape haters.B Here are the 9 points of interest which the article lists studies to support:
- Secondhand vapor is not dangerous
- Vaping can improve lung function for smokers
- Nicotine alone is not powerfully addictive
- E-cigarettes are not full of formaldehyde
- Sweet vape flavors are not aimed at children
- Vaping is substantially lower in toxins than smoking
- Vaping can help people quit smoking
- Vaping is not a gateway to smoking
- Vaping is NOT as bad as smoking
While I feel some guilt about using nicotine to save my life treat my UC, I remind myself often that: had I been prescribed nicotine, I would not feel so poorly about it. And, when I remind myself about prescription medication that was suggested to me, I remember that I made the best choice out of those currently available. I hope to not have to make any tougher decisions down the road, but at least I know my options.
While I am here, let me shout out ECBlendFlavors.com real quick. I’ve been using their 100% VG organic vape juice. Totally affordable with a great selection and fast shipping. I just ordered 4 more flavors in a nice 5ml trial size. They have a custom flavor wizard as well. Give them some business!
MY UC AND ME 
Hey Jenn, are u on any other medications for UC or just stopped the predisone?
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Donna, I am on mesalamine. Apologies for the delay. I thought I had replied.
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Hi Jenn,
Here Patri, writing from Barcelona. Thanks for this wonderful blog!
Ib ve recently been diagnosed ulcerative colitis. I quit smoking 11 months ago and started feeling worse almost immediately after. I must confess that reading your story has frightened me, since I can see some parallelism. My GI told me to stay calm because I have only developed a mild proctitis. He says it rarely extends and it is in most cases easily controlled with 5asa meds, topical mostly. However, I find that thereb s a suspicious lack of such success stories in the internet, and I canb t stay so optimistic. I hope anyone can testify to support my GIb s statements. Anyway, I wanted to ask whether you have considered to start smoking again and why/how you have ruled out this option. It never happened to me before diagnosis, but sometimes itb s very temptingb &
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Hi, Patri. Thanks for writing. What you will notice is that those who are doing well with UC are not going to have much of a presence online – unless they are trying to sell you something. Anyone offering a miracle “cure” for a fee is usually full of nonsense. I say this because I would never charge anyone with this disease for possible ways to make themselves feel better. The thing is that UC affects everyone differently. However, I spend a lot of time doing research and base my little personal experiments on science (which I share here freely). Your GI is correct in that most with mild proctitis do heal, but my GI told me the same thing. When my proctitis turned into severe extensive UC, he didn’t seem well equipped to handle that. I even had to order my own stool test as he refused to do so. I now see an IBD specialist at a research-driven hospital (one of the best in my area).
I intend to be a voice of success on the internet because I noticed the same thing. Even if I attain remission, I will still blog here. It may not be as heavily focused on UC at that time, but all of my documented journey will remain for those looking for hope.
Regarding the smoking of cigarettes – I never intend to go back to cigarettes as they are known to contain harmful and carcinogenic chemicals that I never want in my body again. My journey is one of health. I discuss why I made the decision to use nicotine replacement therapy – vaping and/or patches – in my first blog on the topic here: https://myucandme.wordpress.com/2017/07/14/nicotine-replacement-therapy-for-uc/
Other countries use nicotine as an alternative treatment for UC. One of the studies I link on my first blog linked above shows conclusive evidence that nicotine helps those of us in this subgroup of former smokers with refractory (aka stubborn) UC. I’m glad that you found this particular blog entry, though, because this one discusses my battle with guilt over returning to nicotine and my acceptance that I am doing something better for myself than inviting in the side effects of biologics.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to inquire. I do have some resources to research articles here that can help you as well as forums and diet information. I am part of a few groups on facebook and one of them is very inspiring where many members are using diet alone to keep themselves in remission. That is my ultimate goal. For now, I stay on my mesalamine, nicotine, and diet as I let my body heal and complete the LEAP/MRT (nowleap.com) food sensitivity program. Today I actually woke up feeling amazing after 4 days of detoxing on the introduction phase (I also blogged about that, phase 1). Good luck.
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