NICOTINE AND ULCERATIVE COLITIS

Report #6160 4/2/94

Smoking causes heart attacks, lung damage and cancer, but a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that nicotine from tobacco may help to treat ulcerative colitis.

Ulcerative colitis is a disease that causes bloody diarrhea severe intestinal cramps, weight loss, high fevers and a terrible sick feeling. No one really knows what causes it, but many doctors feel that it is caused by a defect in a person's immune system. When a germ gets into your bloodstream, your body produces large amounts of proteins and cells that help to kill it. Your immune system is supposed to kill germs, but it is never supposed to damage your own tissue. In ulcerative colitis, your immune proteins and cells attach to the inner lining of your large intestine to punch holes in it and cause cramping and bleeding. Nobody knows how nicotine helps to control the symptoms of ulcerative colitis and it certainly is not a cure. It may be that nicotine causes the cells in the inner lining of the colon to produce a mucous layer that helps to coat the inner lining of the colon and protect it from substances that trigger symptoms.

No responsible person would recommend smoking to treat ulcerative colitis, but nicotine, taken in a patch applied on the skin is much safer than most of the other drugs that are used to treat ulcerative colitis. Nicotine patches can cause nausea, dizziness, headaches, sweating and shakiness. The people in this study did not become addicted to nicotine patches in the same way that most cigarette smokers become addicted to smoking.

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News