Hello all, I am new to this forum, but read many many useful notes and advise. My son had his take down about a month ago, he sufferred a pouchitis attack before his take down and now he is going through his second pouchitis attack, I am worried if this will be a frequent occurence and wondering if anyone had tried smoking and if this really prevents pouchitis as I read in some articles that smoking has positive effect in reducing pouchitis and even colitis.

I have read just the opposite...it can cause pouchitis to be chronic and occur more often in patients. I wouldn't advise it.

I believe there are studies that show that nicotine may be beneficial, though i dont think they are conclusive.

Is nicotine beneficial for the rest of your body?

Do a search here on smoking/nicotine. There have been people who's colitis has been helped. But I would think that nicotine patches would be better.

Is your son taking NSAIDs? If so, he needs to stop as it's been found that they can lead to pouchitis. He could also start taking probiotics to see if he can keep his pouchitis at bay.

kathy

Thank you all for comments, is true nicotine is bad for health, but sometimes, I think quality of life maybe improved assuming that it helps keep pouchitis down.

Kathy, my son is not on any medication, infact we are so gratefull that he did not need any imodium or any medication at all after the TD operation except when the pouchitis hit him. As I mentioned he had one attack before the TD and treated with Flagyl/Cipro combination for 10 days, he recovered, did his TD, and 3 weeks later, pouchitis signs came back, so treated it again with same combination which seems to control it with 2 days, he took a 7 day course just to be sure, and he is symptoms free. I hope it dose not come back soon. He is trying to maintain probiotic yogart in his diet and takes plenty of fluids, one cannot go wrog with these, but not sure if enough, we will find out soon.

Basil

Before having the surgery, I was put on nicotine patches to control my colitis. There were ten years between my first real flare and my 2nd and my 2nd happened when I was pregnant with my 2nd son. I had quit smoking with my first. I smoked until I got pregnant with him and never had a flare. Didn't even know what uc was.
I started smoking again when my insurance stopped covering my patches and inevitably had a flare that made my choices very slim. Remicaid or Surgery. I chose the one that required less drugs and have been smoking since What can I say, prednisone, no patches, and impending surgery doesn't make quitting easy. I am waiting for my test results, but I am pretty sure I have pouchitis and possibly c-diff. I'm trying to quit and am hoping it will help my healing instead of hurting things. I do not recommend using nicotine. The side effects outweigh the benefits. Antibiotics and Probiotics are your best defense with pouchitis. Lay off all sugar it only enrages the inflammation. Hope this helps. Good Luck and Good Health.

been of the butts for ten years and was told that potentially my colitis ( diagnosed in 05 ) could have been kept at bay because of smoking. The Dr did go on to say that not smoking is still way better for my health than smoking.

I know very little about the effects of smoking/nicotine on colitis (though the idea that nicotine can control colitis is very interesting to me, as a non-smoker). That said, it's notable that the surgeon I saw for a second opinion mentioned that being a smoker makes you a poorer candidate for the j-pouch procedure. Then again, being a smoker probably increases the risks for any type of surgery. Still, it's food for thought.