Following the Liver Course at Birmingham university. One of the professors said that PBC could be triggered by smoking! As I have never heard of this before thought I might do my own survey. Can you just answer Yes or No to whether or not you smoked prior to diagnosis. Thanks
Were you a smoker prior to diagnosis? - PBC Foundation
Were you a smoker prior to diagnosis?
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Gioielli5
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42 Replies
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Hello Gioiellie5.
I personally don't believe smoking is a trigger for PBC. I have never been a smoker but my parents were so until I reached 18 I lived as a passive smoker.
Hi Gioielli5
I was a smoker around 10 a day before getting my diagnosis earlier this year, and yes my Consultant suggested that I stop smoking immediately. He didn't say it was a trigger just that It wouldn't help matters, but when I asked him to clarify how he couldn't say. That said I stopped about 3 months ago but on my terms not his and certainly not because i've got PBC.....I want to go to New York and Dubai next year lol, and the money I would spend on smoking is now my holiday fund.
Hope this helps.
Take Care
in reply to Gillyano
Hello Gillyano.
I think smoking can be contributed to a lot of things but my late father (he was in his mid-50s when he died back in 1997) he was admitted as an emergency to hospital (burst stomach ulcer) and never recovered from the operation. For the last 2 weeks of his life I never saw him wake up following going into hospital with him on admittance.
Attempts were made to remove certain life supporting equipment but it was his lungs that were the problem. He had been diagnosed with emphysema several years prior to his death and he had attempted to stop smoking and had cut down daily but his death was caused due to his lungs and it went down as COPD that is the terminology used nowadays. He had been a smoker since his later teens.
Yes
Yes I was a smoker but had given up at least 5 years prior to diagnosis.
Yes, I was a smoker but gave up almost 20 years ago and long before being diagnosed with pbc.
Have never smoked and nobody in my house smoked either so not a trigger in my case.
I was a smoker 31 years ago
I am on that course too
I was told the trigger could be hair die
Yes but stopped 9 years before diagnosis x
It doesn't matter what triggered me. I've got it. I can't see the general public stopping smoking because of a let's face it, little understood condition when they won't for cancer. Your liver doesn't like poison. Any chemical we put in our body has to be dealt with by it. Be it booze, smoke, medication, hair dye too much of the wrong fat etc. Some livers can't cope & mines one of them. So I watch what I put in my body & look after it the best way I can. I eat low fat low sugar & healthy take as few pain killers as I can & don't drink alcohol & keep 'other' chemical things away. & have lost 5 1/2 stone. However I will not compromise on the hair dye. I've been blond since 17 & always done at a salon & I will carry on. Hopefully I will pass with it rather than it get me. Live for now don't dwell on what caused it. You don't get born saying I'll avoid chemical substances just in case. You learn to live around it all. X
tend to agree here. not getting PBC as a reason not to smoke is unlikley!! not smoking because it clearly is a trigger for lung cancer does not stop (us) all
I did stop some 20 years ago, but cigs, booze, bad diet, drugs, life, weak genes, I dunno........liver transplant has helped!
I am a ex smoker who gave up in 2002. I started to get ill with pbc in 2010 and diagnosed 8 months after in 2011. I was asked by specialist if I had smoked. That was in Spain, I later lived in France. There is a french web page that states that smoking could be a trigger and smoke can advance the disease, here is the link
albi-france.org/maladies/ci...
If you read under paragraph of causes it says this. Cigarettes are filled with loads of nasty chemicals so it wouldn't surprise me. But i'm sure non smokers also have it but maybe a variety of chemical triggers are responsible.
YES
I on that course too.
I queried a mention of this (before I did the lesson that mentioned it)
This is not much spoken about on this forum
I tend to agree if you have PBC you have it... end of.
If smoking triggered it with no time machine I can't undo it.
People who smoke are stupid, they risk all sorts of health issues that are more definate than PBC I confess to being one of this stupid group, we should educate people not to smoke for all the other health benefits of not smoking whether it is or is not a trigger for PBC which it might or might not be.
I have not put yes or no as I already did that and dont want you to miscount!!
Yes
No I have never smoked ☺
I have never smoked although my parents smoked when I was a child. By the way, my father quit smoking in the 1950's when the first reports of cancer due to smoking came out and he just died at age 97!
in reply to tinypixie
I think with smoking long term you could probably be prone to allsorts of things healthwise. I know quite a few of my family members as in great uncles, late grandfather and late parents were all lifelong smokers.
My father's lungs had started to be a problem and he wheezed when he hit his early 50s, it was apparently COPD t hat went down on his death certificate even though he was admitted to hospital as an emergency with something else.
I do think that smokers are either lucky or unlucky with being lifelong smokers from looking at others around my family. My late father-in-law died last year, he was 82 and it was a kidney problem that caused his demise not smoking. But I'd known him over 30 years and he was a walker, didn't drive and remained active until he reached his late 70s. On the other hand my husband's mother died this year (she wasn't connected to my father-in-law) and she had developed COPD 3yrs ago and had been taking oxygen for up to 17hrs a day for the last 2 years of her life. It was her lungs that were her demise at age 72. My husband's stepmother is now going through the same pathway with COPD. My husband has never smoked.
Yes I was a smoker for 45 years, gave up 8 years ago, diagnosed with PBC 4 years ago.
I was a smoker for decades (20 a day). Gave up on the eve of the new millenium, and was diagnosed with PBC three years later.
Never smoked and live in a non smoking household. Like Peridot find it hard to believe that smoking would be a trigger?
in reply to Jackie71
Hello Jackie71.
I think for PBC it is going to have to be something that we have all encountered for it to be somehow said to be a more accurate picture of how we come down with t his PBC.
My first thought when it was said I had some liver disorder prior to being informed I had PBC in 2010 was having hepatitis vaccinations in a job set in a medical environment. But then I thought as time went on everyone would have had to have had the same vaccinations and even people who did and never contracted PBC, it would be then a case of some could be prone to it and others not. But I think we'd all have had to have had the vaccinations (I had 2 types of hepatitis vaccinations) regardless as to whether some did or didn't then come down with PBC a few years later wouldn't we?
Jackie71 in reply to
When I think back I put mine down to a holiday in India - second time I wen picked up nasty bug only to be told when I got back by GP that if you go to those places then expect to pick something up. Nothing was ever done about it then several years later bingo PBC diagnosed at stage 4 so clearly I had had it for awhile. Was given all the tests to see if I had hepatitis but all appeared to be normal - though at no time did anyone ever ask if I had been abroad. All I can say is that I had lived with tummy aches for a long time but no one ever picked anything up. Another thing that did cross my mind was cleaning agents. I lost my sense of smell and put that down to a well known bathroom cleaner but in hindsight I wondered if that could have been the start of it. Guess I will never know how I got it but certainly not going to get rid of it now so have to live with it.
Yes, I was a smoker but gave up 34 years ago. I've been diagnosed with PBC for 4 years, although the itching began 7 years ago.
Yes i was a smoker, i gave up, went on a diet lost weight, everybody ( GP ) was delighted with me and then bang PBC, I will also not lie and do fall off the smoking waggon from time to time and at the moment have 3 e cigs, a inhalator, a nicotine spray and patches and I am like a raving lunatic ( still in killer mode ) in fact my husband keeps asking me would i like 20 Regal Kings.
thank you dollydaydreams, your reply was spot on, and made me laugh, I'm using an e cig at the minute also and when the battery goes flat my raving lunatic goes into overdrive, however from today I will be referring to killer mode as my new name for my moods. Thanks x
Ha Ha Gilly I have now got round that one, this morning I had a little package come with the postman and i have 4 new spare batteries for my fave little ecig mini :o))))))))))))))), it's been discontinued and i found someone who had 4 left so I knabbed the lot.
XX
Yes
Yes. And I do believe it could be a trigger, I also live next to an incinerator.
I quit 8 months prior to diagnosis by the way
Yes, 20 a day for over 20 years but gave up 5years before diagnosis.
No. Never did
Thanks everyone for replying to my survey. The results are yes 19 to no 7. This is certainly not conclusive as quite a small sample. I, personally do not think there is any evidence to suggest that smoking is the cause and believe it was wrong for the Proffesor to make that assumption. I think it is far more likely to be caused by something which had a direct effect on the liver such as a hepatitis vaccination. I had mine prior to a trip to India and Africa in 2006. When I came back my energy levels dropped considerably (prior to my holiday I was outrigging training at 5.30 every morning followed by teaching full-time!) I lived in Australia at the time and after a visit to the doctors they told me I probably picked up a virus overseas (my alkaline phosphatase levels were 8 times the upper limit), and they would come down over time. It wasn't until I returned to England that I was diagnosed with PBC in 2010. I manage quite well with it now. Have never experienced the dreaded itch (haven't eaten meat for over 20 years but no idea whether or not this has anything to do with it). Am now retired so do not have to struggle in work anymore which helps a lot!
Although I agree that we have it and we live and make the most of having to put up with it, I also think it would be interesting if surveys were taken to try and find if we do have any possible "triggers" in common, not for our sakes but for others. As we appear to carry the catalyst for PBC in our DNA then knowing possible triggers would allow us to warn our children. My daughter recently went for LFT tests and was over the upper limit. She does not have PBC yet but I think she may develop it in the future particularly if "triggered"!
Anyway enough of my ranting! Thanks again for your responses. Take care one and all. X
Yes, but stopped 10years before diagnosed, but I could have had PBC for many years. Only when I got the loose stools and itchy skin I went to see the drs.
Yes, but what is OBC? Isn't this about APS?
PBC not OBC!!!
I smoked a little when I was a teenager 35 years ago but wouldn't have classed myself as a smoker
Yes but quit over 30yrs ago.
It's one of the things suggested as a possible environmental trigger. I don't think they know too much about it at all.
I'm more interested in why it's overwhelmingly middle aged women diagnosed. That makes me think that even if smoking has a part to play it's not a big part. Hair dye makes more sense as it tends to be more of a female thing. But even then it's not caused by hair dye, or it would be more prevalent.
I'm newly diagnosed, but have probably had it for a few years, which coincides with a couple of terrible UTI'S (so bad I ended up being sent to urology, loads of antibiotics etc). It's possible there's some sort of association between UTI's and PbC, I really wish they were researching this stuff.
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Thanks for taking the time to read this message and I wish you all well ♥️
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