Study finds smoking wards off Parkinson's disease

[Placebo]

Source: Reuters

There is more evidence to back up a long-standing theory that smokers are less likely to develop Parkinson's disease than people who do not use tobacco products, researchers reported on Monday.

The apparent protective effect of tobacco against the degenerative nerve disease has been observed for years but a University of California Los Angeles School of Public Health report said a new review of existing studies seems to confirm it, with long-term and current smokers at the lowest risk.

The review also found that the effect seems to extend beyond cigarettes to pipes and cigars, and possibly to chewing tobacco, and that it persisted among those who had stopped smoking years earlier.

What would cause such a preventive effect is not well understood, said the report in the Archives of Neurology, but studies on test animals suggested two possibilities.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070709/hl_nm/smoking_parkinsons_dc

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Well this is...good news I guess. :smoke:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. but what about smoking pot?

any impact?

I've had parkinson's clients who claim it slowed their disease process and eased their symptoms. Of course Merck cannot profit from that.

[Arugula Latte]

2. Hmmm ... lung cancer/emphysema or Parkinsons?

which to choose, which to choose ...

[Auggie]

3. Beat me to it

[Warpy]

5. I watched COPD kill my mother

I'll risk the Parkinson's, thanks

[Arugula Latte]

16. Sorry about your mom.

That's a horrible way to go.

I didn't mean to be flippant ... :(

[Warpy]

22. Hey, I think I beat you in the flippant department

This research is so preliminary that it's worthless information to those of us out here in computerland.

Years down the road, they will probably isolate the compound or compounds that protect the substantia nigra and either delay or prevent Parkinson's.

Until then, smoking is a dumb thing to do. If you can quit, do.

[ProudDad]

25. And then, unless we change the Health Care system

Big Pharma will steal our research and charge us an arm and a leg for those compounds...

[pnwmom]

4. Maybe it's something simple, like the nicotine.

In which case a nicotine patch might help?

[NastyDiaper]

Maybe because you die younger, and the degenerative

illness never sets in? I'd have to assume they try to factor that out...

[NastyDiaper]

6. Maybe because you die younger, and the degenerative

illness never sets in? I'd have to assume they try to factor that out...

[NastyDiaper]

7. Maybe because you die younger, and the degenerative

illness never sets in? I'd have to assume they try to factor that out...

[Xipe Totec]

9. Did you trade Parkinson's for Alzheimer's?

:rofl:

[NastyDiaper]

27. Maybe I'm missing something?

Parkinson's disease may appear at any age, but the average age of onset is 60.

[Xipe Totec]

31. I think you did miss the joke

when you posted the same message three times, I thought you were being funny; acting as if you had short term memory loss.

[NastyDiaper]

32. Omg. I didn't notice.

I'm gonna replace my old mouse.

If it happens again, i'm going in for a check-up...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. Let's find out. How old are you?

Maybe because you die younger, and the degenerative illness never sets in? I'd have to assume they try to factor that out...

Maybe because you die younger, and the degenerative illness never sets in? I'd have to assume they try to factor that out...

Maybe because you die younger, and the degenerative illness never sets in? I'd have to assume they try to factor that out...

[Xipe Totec]

8. Is it true that stem cells may fight the aging process?

Farnsworth: Uh, ma'am, it has become too much of a chore for me to clean out my wrinkles each day. Is it true that stem cells may fight the aging process?

Geneworks Woman: Well, yes. In the same way an infant may fight Muhammad Ali. But--

Farnsworth: One pound of stem cells, please.

- Futurama, "Three Hundred Big Boys" (episode 416)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

11. Death halts the aging process. nt

[Placebo]

12. But only for so long.

[Sapere aude]

13. Take your choice, parkinson's, emphysema or cancer.

[MidwestTransplant]

14. They die before Parkinsons sets in.

[MindPilot]

15. My 96-year-old grandmother...

still all there, outlived three of her four kids, half a dozen husbands and still puts away two packs a day.

I think her cigarettes are not of this Earth...hell maybe she isn't.

[aquart]

19. Uh, what did those others die of?

[MindPilot]

36. All the men on my dad's side--including my dad & his dad

have died from complications resulting from diabetes within a year or so of 70. They were all diagnosed in their 40s; I'm just past fifty and I don't have it...yet (knocks on wood)

The husbands? Methinks they died from overwork. :evilgrin:

[ovidsen]

17. Not worth the tradeoff

Mark Twain was right. "Quitting smoking is the easiest thing in he world. I've done it a million times."

I've been smoking those damn things for almost half a century. Quit for as long as three years and somehow they end up in my fingers (and lungs) again.

I hate it. And I'd rather risk Parkison's and quit completely than all the other maladies (heh!) linked to tobacco.

Signed... a cancer survivor and admittted idiot (asshole?) who still can't completely stop.

[ohio2007]

18. Let me guess. The Tobacco indusrty secretly financed these results

LMAO
if ya got em
smoke em

[WhiteTara]

20. PIFFLE

My aunt was a dedicated smoker for most of her adult life and she had Parkinson's disease. Wonder if that study was funded by the tobacco companies.

[Beetwasher]

21. You Know, My Doc Tells Me I'm Not Getting Enough Tar In My Diet!

And now THIS!? Time to take up smoking!

[MiserableFailure]

23. plenty of higher risks for other diseases though...

yeah

[ProudDad]

24. Still not a good reason to start again...

Maybe since one of the major causes of Parkinson's appears to be head injuries and since smokers are so physically disabled and less mobile than those of us who can actually breathe, they don't bump their heads as often. :evilgrin: :silly:

[LynneSin]

26. Wait a sec - Michael J. Fox has Parkisons and btw, he was a heavy smoker

So I'm not holding a whole lot of value in this research. I'd rather not smoke and take my chances with Parkisons then to smoke and go thru the hell that killed my father when he was in his early 40s

[hughee99]

28. Only speculation at best that there's a causal relationship...

perhaps wishful thinking on the part of the tobacco companies that they might have anything "good" (and honest) to say about their product. Could it be that those smokers who are able to live longer lives have more of a resistance to both Parkinson's and lung cancer?

[Eurobabe]

29. Research brought to you by Phillip Morris (?)

:sarcasm:

[BlueIris]

30. Coffee protects you, too. 3-5 cups a day for your adult life--you'll never get Parkinson's.

My GP told me about the studies substantiating that after my grandfather was diagnosed. Apparently, researchers think it's something in the coffee, not just the caffeine, that offers you protection from Parkinson's as study subjects who drank similar amounts of caffeinated teas over a lifetime (black tea, etc.) still occasionally came down with Parkinson's. So--ditch the cigs, pick up the Starbucks' instead.

[Javaman]

33. Smokem' if you gottem'! nt

[Speaker]

34. Perhaps by increasing cerebral blood flow?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/07/010730075130.htm

Maybe nicoderm can help Parkinson's patients.

[ovidsen]

35. What about Kate?

Didn't the late Katherine Hepburn suffer from Parkinson's? And she used to smoke like a chimney, as I recall.

Exception to the "rule", I guess......