[Should one use tobacco if they have a family history of Parkinson's disease ... something to think about.]



"Smoking lowers Parkinson's disease risk"

By Megan Rauscher

"NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study adds to the previously reported evidence that cigarette smoking protects against Parkinson's disease. Specifically, the new research shows a temporal relationship between smoking and reduced risk of Parkinson's disease. That is, the protective effect wanes after smokers quit.

"It is not our intent to promote smoking as a protective measure against Parkinson's disease," Evan L. Thacker from Harvard School of Public Health emphasized in comments to Reuters Health. "Obviously smoking has a multitude of negative consequences. Rather, we did this study to try to encourage other scientists...to consider the possibility that neuroprotective chemicals may be present in tobacco leaves."

As reported in the March 6th issue of Neurology, Thacker and colleagues analyzed data, including detailed lifetime smoking histories, from 79,977 women and 63,348 men participating in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort. During about 9 years of follow-up, 413 subjects developed definite or probable Parkinson's disease.

Compared to people who had never smoked and were considered to have "normal" Parkinson's disease risk, former smokers had a 22-percent lower risk of Parkinson's disease and current smokers had a 73-percent lower risk.

"The results were similar for men and women, and were also similar to the results of studies by many other researchers looking at the same topic," Thacker noted.

In former smokers, more years of smoking, fewer years since quitting, more cigarettes per day, and a higher total amount of lifetime smoking were all related to a lower Parkinson's disease risk. The researchers also found that the duration of smoking and the time since quitting influenced risk more than the average daily amount of smoking.

"A 30 percent to 60 percent decreased risk of Parkinson's disease was apparent for smoking as early as 15 to 24 years before symptom onset, but not for smoking 25 or more years before onset," the investigators report.

"The results of our study," Thacker said, "can probably be explained by something in cigarettes -- most likely in the tobacco itself -- actually protecting people against getting Parkinson's disease. That would be the simplest explanation that makes the most sense."

Studies to determine if, in fact, there are neuroprotective compounds in tobacco are warranted, the researchers say. "The observation that smokeless tobacco users also have a lower risk of Parkinson's disease suggests that the most likely candidates are not compounds generated by combustion, but rather constituents of the tobacco leaves."

REUTERS

How soon before the hardcore antis claim Michael J. Fox is being funded by Altria - they will HATE this. According to them, tobacco has no medicinal value.

The attributes of tobacco are and have been known for some time to the medical profession. I became aware of this when studying the research of the tobacco industry turned over after the MSA.

On PBS's Lehr Report, last night a doctor was describing the likelihood of developing Alheiserm's (spelling) after a heart attack or cancer diagnosis. No mention of how many patients who smoke got the disease, but the one thing that comes to mind first for these patients is to quit smoking or using tobacco in any form.

It make take a while for the disease to appear but tobacco stimulates the brain to work faster. Reduced stimulation is bound to have an impact on a brain use to the stimulation or in the case of ADD or ADHD have always needed the stimulation.

Reducing tobacco use only generates more patients for these quacks to treat. They know it and so do I.

Nicotine can also help those already afflicted with PD. Has anyone read if it's being used to any large extent yet?

I have no idea whether or not Michael J. Fox is a current smoker, but there is no doubt that he WAS a smoker in his younger years.

However, it is my understanding (and I may be very wrong about this) that early-onset PD is different than the onset of PD in older people, so I don't know if the smoking issue is relevant or not.

In any case, if I were MJF, had quit smoking and subsequently came down with Parkinson's, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'd pick up the habit again, pronto.

Regards,
Jenny

quote:

Michael J. Fox

Read Michael J. Fox's Inspiring Interview with DATELINE


http://www.michaeljfox.org/news/article.php?id=196&sec=2


Couric: Let's talk about some of the perplexing risk factors that some studies have yielded. People who take more risks with their health including smoking and drinking are less likely to develop Parkinson's. PD affects one in five Jewish people. Biological scientists, teachers, doctors, clergy, and computer programmers have the highest odds. And people with higher levels of education and demanding careers have an increased risk.

Michael J. Fox: Well, the thing about the people that are professionals--and education people having a higher instances of it--again they are more likely to seek diagnosis.

Couric: Right.

Michael J. Fox: More likely to seek treatment. And as far as the risk stuff--you know, it's strange. I mean, it's no secret I was a smoker and a drinker. So, I mean I did my bit to not get it. (laughter) I got it. So anytime you attached kind of labels or whatever, it is a disservice to those who don't fall into those categories. In the six years Dateline's been following Michael's story, his condition has remained relatively unchanged. But that's unusual. Patients like him, diagnosed before they're 50, are said to have young-onset Parkinson's, which usually progresses faster. So while Michael cares about knowing the cause, his more immediate concern is finding the cure.

quote:

Originally posted by squeezer:
Nicotine can also help those already afflicted with PD. Has anyone read if it's being used to any large extent yet?

RJ Reynolds was doing research prior to the MSA. I tracked it to a new company after the settlement . You can find in obscure "Other" business in their financial reports and web site.

I posted this information on a local paper's comments section and the site disappeared from view within a matter of minutes. It was still available from the RJR website under other though.

Targacept, Inc. was spun off from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company as a private, independent company in August 2000. Today, Targacept is a privately held company dedicated to the discovery and development of therapeutic products that interact with nicotinic receptors in the human nervous system with the potential to treat Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, pain, schizophrenia, ulcerative colitis, obesity, anxiety, Lewy body dementia and Tourette's syndrome, among others. Reynolds American continues to own a minority interest in Targacept

From their web site

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce:
Targacept, Inc. was spun off from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company as a private, independent company in August 2000. Today, Targacept is a privately held company dedicated to the discovery and development of therapeutic products that interact with nicotinic receptors in the human nervous system with the potential to treat Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, pain, schizophrenia, ulcerative colitis, obesity, anxiety, Lewy body dementia and Tourette's syndrome, among others. Reynolds American continues to own a minority interest in Targacept

From their web site

I take it from that there's no major nicotine use yet. LOL

It must have been well over 5 years ago when I told someone I know with PD to try a nicotine patch to see if that helped his condition. Even after explaining it to him and handing him several pages of information on testing, etc, he looked at me like I was nuts. I never brought it up again.

Some time later he had surgery where they implanted electrodes in his brain and the results were amazing. He said the results were temporary though; eventually it would get bad again.

quote:

Originally posted by squeezer:
I take it from that there's no major nicotine use yet. LOL

It must have been well over 5 years ago when I told someone I know with PD to try a nicotine patch to see if that helped his condition. Even after explaining it to him and handing him several pages of information on testing, etc, he looked at me like I was nuts. I never brought it up again.

You should have advised him to start smoking some strong, clean, additive free tobacco in nonfiltered cigarettes, since nicotine by itself helps only slightly against Parkinson's (it's a bit more helpful for Alzheimer's). Only full tobacco smoke does the trick in either case (reduces Alzheimer's tenfold), by virtue of near doubling of dopamine levels (by inhibiting MAO B enzymes by 40%, whose levels increase with age, being the highest in senile elderly, and which destroy dopamine). Interestingly, brief smoking doesn't have this MAO effect, only long term smoking somehow does it. If you look at the brain scans photos of two women age 50:



you can see smoker's brain is about couple decades younger (lower MAO B), despite deceptive coloring scheme which paints the nonsmoker's brain as bright (had they also shown a brain scan of 30 year old person, it would look like that of the smoker there). With their color choices, a 70 year old nonsmoker would look even brighter then the 50 year old shown, while an Alzheimer's patient would appear brilliant white, the whole brain being gunked up with the oxdating MAO enzymes depicted as bright pixels above. (Note how low the antismoking "science" has to stoop to make their case, where dim is shown as bright and bright as dark, aiming its propaganda apparently at the far left tail of the Bell Curve, such as this antismoking genius.)

As described earlier, pharmaceutical drug deprenyl (selegiline), which has become all the rage in life-extension circles, is used for smoking cessation "therapy" since it mimics selective MAO B inhibition by tobacco smoke, and is also used in treatments of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, along with nicotine patches (which upregulates acetylcholine, another vital neurotransmitter along with dopamine).

Since dopamine is vital biochemical messenger molecule not just in brain but also in all other organs and tissues, the selective MAO B increase with aging makes other organs, especially heart, go "senile". Tobacco smoking (also long term only) blocks the peripheral MAO B as well (again, nearly halving its levels), keeping thus other organs decades younger from middle age on. Here are few "prematurely aged" chain smokers...


46 year old chain smoker, 122 year old Jeanne Louise Calment
and 90 year old chain smoker Deng Xiaoping

This message has been edited. Last edited by: nightlight,

Very good post, nightlight.

I love reading your posts, as they are very thought-provoking.

quote:

Originally posted by nightlight:
You should have advised him to start smoking some strong, clean, additive free tobacco in cigarettes, since nicotine by itself helps only slightly against Parkinson's (it's a bit more helpful for Alzheimer's).

The only thing I'd seen back then was the use of nicotine patches. In fact, that's still the only thing I've seen.

The surgery as I mentioned was amazing. If I were to rate his spasms (if that's the correct word here) on a scale of 1-10 I'd rate his at 10. After the surgery I'd have rated him at a 2, 1 being a person without PD.

Nightlight, have you actually seen any studies involving nonsmokers taking up smoking to reduce their loss of control?

quote:

Originally posted by squeezer:
[The surgery as I mentioned was amazing. If I were to rate his spasms (if that's the correct word here) on a scale of 1-10 I'd rate his at 10. After the surgery I'd have rated him at a 2, 1 being a person without PD.

Surgery will relieve symptoms but, as you can see on Michael J. Fox, in the meantime the underlying dopamine loss continues and in the longer run the patient is worse off, since the crude surgery is an irreversible brain damage.

quote:

Nightlight, have you actually seen any studies involving nonsmokers taking up smoking to reduce their loss of control?

No, you won't see in the current zeitgeist starting smoking studied as a therapy. You can only get indirect indication of benefits of smoking by looking at the smoking cessation pharmaceuticals which mimic or replicate some aspects of tobaco smoke, such as nicotine and selegiline, used also as a therapeutic agent. In the case of Parkinson's disease, nicotine (slow, flat delivery systems of nicotine, such as nicotine patch may worsen the symptoms, though) and selegiline are therapeutic (they also relieve symptoms) individually and there is a syngergistic effect of the combination.

In addition to the dynamics of delivery (e.g. flat vs cyclic) variable, there are also numerous other neuroprotective effects of smoking which fall outside of acetylchoiline (raised by nicotine in cyclic delivery) and dopamine (raised by MAO B inhibitory effects of long term tobacco smoking) upregulation benefits. For example, upregulation of glutathione (nearly doubling it in long term smokers), which is the master antioxidant and detox enzyme in human body is protective against toxins, such as mercury which induces, among others, Parkinson's like neuronal damage and symptoms (tremors, loss of motoric coordination). There are probably many other such effects, which may combine with still unknown proximate biochemical causes of PD, to result in at least threefold reduction of PD rates in smokers, which is statistically observed (which will tend to attenuate the benfits of smoking, due to skewed sampling disfavoring smokers under present social and economic pressures).

If I were in that position, a nonsmoker with PD wishing to experiment with tobacco smoking therapy, I would first get proper supplements at the levels needed by smokers, such as higher doses of C (2-3g), E complex (800-1200 IU), selenium (100-200 mcg), B200 complex (C, B need to be spread out in 4 or more doses throughout the day due to short half life). Since the most benefits of smoking are due to gentle 'exercise effect' (of immune, circulatory, endocrine and neurotransmitter systems) one would have to start slowly, just as one would do so with taking up running or weight lifting, to avoid injuring onselef by getting in too fast. I would also stay away of from additive and pesticide laden junk supermarket cigarettes made from reconstituted "tobacco" sheets and from filtered cigarettes, and use instead pure, additive free, real tobacco leaf, such as Americian Spirit (there are many other similar brands nowdays in the RYO/SYO market), roll/stuff my own cigarettes and smoke them the oldfashioned way (just plain or with cigarette holder). Note that Winston full flavor are now made from the whole additive free leaf, so one would only need to clip the filters off to get an old style smoke, the healthiest kind possible.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: nightlight,

quote:

Originally posted by nightlight:
Surgery will relieve symptoms but, as you can see on Michael J. Fox, in the meantime the underlying dopamine loss continues and in the longer run the patient is worse off, since the crude surgery is an irreversible brain damage.

quote:

Nightlight, have you actually seen any studies involving nonsmokers taking up smoking to reduce their loss of control?

No, you won't see in the current zeitgeist starting smoking studied as a therapy. You can only get indirect indication of benefits of smoking by looking at the smoking cessation pharmaceuticals which mimic or replicate some aspects of tobaco smoke...

I didn't know MJF had that surgery. The guy I was talking about mentioned the results were temporary. They were still quite amazing.

I didn't think there'd been any active smoking studies done. These people remind me of doctors who let terminally ill patients suffer by under prescribing painkillers because they don't want their patients to get addicted.

My question is: If smokers have been forced to quit the habit for the last 30 years, has this impacted the rise of these mental conditions later in life?

If we live another 10 to 30 years and spend that entire time under medication and observation during that entire period, do we really want those years? What is the eventual cost to the health care industry?

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce:
My question is: If smokers have been forced to quit the habit for the last 30 years, has this impacted the rise of these mental conditions later in life?

There is inverse, dose-response relation between smoking and Parkinson's disease (the more pack-years the lower PD risk), and quitting increases the chances for PD, the longer the quit, the more chance for the disease. Here is one prospective study on these relations:


Neurology. 1999 Sep 22;53(5):1158.
Smoking and Parkinson's disease: a dose-response relationship
Gorell JM, Rybicki BA, Johnson CC, Peterson EL

Department of Neurology, Henry Ford Health System, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center in Molecular and Cellular Toxicology with Human Applications, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether an inverse dose-response relationship exists between cigarette smoking and PD among ever-smokers and ex-smokers.

METHODS: Smoking and alcohol consumption were analyzed in 144 PD patients and 464 control subjects, who were frequency matched for sex, race, and age (+/-5 years), in a population-based case-control study of men and women > or =50 years old in the Henry Ford Health System.

RESULTS: With never-smokers as the reference category, there was an inverse association between current light smokers (>0 to 30 pack-years) and PD patients (odds ratio [OR], 0.59; 95% CI, 0.23 to 1.53), and a stronger inverse association of PD with current heavy smokers (>30 pack-years; OR, 0.08; 95% CI, 0.01 to 0.62). When former >30-pack-year smokers were stratified by the interval since quitting, there was an inverse association between those who stopped >20 years ago and PD (OR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.42 to 1.75), and a greater inverse relationship with those who stopped 1 to 20 years ago (OR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.19 to 0.72). Alcohol consumption had no independent, significant association with PD, but heavy drinking (>10 drink-years) had a greater effect than light-moderate drinking in reducing but not eliminating the inverse association between smoking and PD.

CONCLUSIONS: The inverse dose-response relationship between PD and smoking and its cessation is unlikely to be due to bias or confounding, as discussed, providing indirect evidence that smoking is biologically protective.


The most striking fact is that for smokers with 30 or more pack-years (OR=0.08), the odds for Parkinson's are reduced compared to the nonsmokers of the same age by a factor 1/0.08=12.5 i.e. more than twelve times. Note also how when the duration of the quitting increases from 'less than 20' to 'more than 20' years, the odds for PD more then double: from 0.37 to 0.86, getting closer to never smokers (OR=1.0). There are also animal experiments with similar results (and no confounding variables).

The Big Pharma is certainly making 'great' returns from their billion a year investment into antismoking "science" and propaganda, from all these extra millions of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's patients, who can go on lingering for a decade or more on expensive drugs.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: nightlight,

quote:

Originally posted by nightlight:
Note that Winston full flavor are now made from the whole additive free leaf, so one would only need to clip the filter off to get an old style smoke, the healthiest kind possible.

Nightlight, I smoke Winston Ultra Lights, also additive free. Is the tobacco different in the cigarette or is it the same tobacco with just a longer filter?

quote:

Originally posted by WinstonSmith:
Nightlight, I smoke Winston Ultra Lights, also additive free. Is the tobacco different in the cigarette or is it the same tobacco with just a longer filter?

Good for RJR (they also bought Santa Fe Tobacco which makes American Spirit). The 'lights' can be result of filter/paper (more porous, allowing more side air in and/or longer to remove more smoke particles) design and of the tobacco blend and its curing (more acid, sweater tobacco, such as Virginia and even more so Turkish are lighter and smoother than the more alkaline, less sugary ones, such as Burley). The SYO Tobacco and Tube sections will give you some info on both approaches from user reviews. I have never looked into lights (tried them few times back when I was experimenting with anything that came my way, but none did much for me), so I don't know how Winston UL, or any other, do their 'lightening'. If it is "ultra" light, though, it is plausible they would be combining the two approaches.

A cursory look at recent psychiatric and neurophysiological literature shows (once you make the necessary offsets for the obligatory anti-smoking language) that smoking constitutes effective therapy for major depression, dysthemia, and attention deficit disorder both with and w/o hyperactivity.

The language of all the articles I have read shows the investigators had a tough time admitting smoking might have any benefits. Nontheless, the data are there and impossible to counter. Of course, a cynic--and I'm sure none of us are one of those icky critters--might conclude that the theraputic effectiveness of smoking on a set of wildly profitable disorders is a good reason for pharmaceutical giants to have a vested interest in having sole access to tobacco and its components.

The relation of smoking to depression and ADD join with all the other conditions (many of which have been ably brought forward by Nightlight)to demonstrate that there is darn good reason to accept the verdict of numerous 17th century physcians: Tobacco is a sovreign remedy against many ills.

Some more PET scans of MAO B (oxidative gunk which increases with aging) in nonsmoker and smoker (ages 41)
in different organs (as discussed above and in this study):



MAO B graphs for smokers and nonsmokers (paper) show smokers
in their sixties having MAO B levels of nonsmokers in their twenties.
Bar graphs show that this MAO B inhibition is result of long term smoking (e.g.
no significant MAO change after a day of abstinence and a subsequent cigarette).
These MAO B rejuvenation effects of smoking are not the result of nicotine but
of some other presently unknown magical ingredient of tobacco smoke.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: nightlight,