Cigarette Smoking May Reduce Parkinson's Risk

Complementing today's Wired story on the pharmaceutical benefits of nicotine, a study published in July's Archives of Neurology reports that smoking may reduce the risk of developing, or delay the onset of, Parkinson's disease. Smaller benefits were detected in former smokers.

The authors found that smokers were less likely to get Parkinson’s, and those who smoked more seemed to have greater protection. These findings indicate that smoking may delay rather than prevent the onset of
Parkinson’s, but that would have to be confirmed by a larger study.

"Current smokers and those who had continued to smoke to within five years of Parkinson’s disease diagnosis exhibited the lowest risk, [but] a decrease in risk [of] 13 to 32 per cent was also observed in those who had quit smoking up to 25 years prior,” said Dr Beate Ritz, of the UCLA School of Public Health in Los Angeles, and her co-authors.

Reductions were not seen in Hispanic or African-American patients, but this didn't discourage the researchers. They suggest that a substance in cigarette smoke may protect dopaminergic neurons, whose loss causes the tremors associated with Parkinson's disease.

The logical extension of the cigarette smoke assumption is that non-smokers who regularly interact or live with smokers may also show a reduced risk of developing Parkinson's disease as they would be exposed to cigarette smoke as well.

Of course, smoking cigarettes carries risks, so taking it up to protect against Parkinson's may not be a good idea.

Smoking may reduce risk of Parkinson’s disease [Times Online]