Quit smoking, get Ulcerative Colitis? -
My friend is 51, and has been smoking 30 years. She recently quit, and around the same time came down with bloody stool, and the runs. She got checked out, and found out she has ulcerative colitis. She claims that she has read somewhere quitting smoking causes this condition. I think she-s full of crap and trying to guilt everyone around her that told her to quit smoking.......it sounds so ridiculous!
I have Crohn-s, which is the only other Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD) besides Colitis. They are very similar, so when I research Crohn-s, a lot of Colitis info. comes up, too. Quitting smoking is actually a good thing for IBD. Smoking doesn-t make the actual disease worse, but it does makes the symptoms worse.
There are two time frames that people will usually develop an IBD if they are going to in their life. Those are in their teen to early 20 years, and again between about 50 and 70. It is just coincidence that she got it when she quit smoking.
She-s not talking crap. As unlikely as this may seem to you. I too (and many others) have started to see symptoms of UC almost immediately after quitting a long-term smoking habit. I quit for the 1st time a couple of years ago, and this brought on UC. I started again, and had the UC just about under control, and quit again recently. As a consequence my UC is now raging.
It is not the stopping smoking that causes UC, rather that the nicotine has an effect on the gut that soothes and masks symptoms.