“More than 50 years after the discovery of reduced mortality rates in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who smoke cigarettes, researchers may be on the cusp of opening the door to nicotine-based treatments that could help ease symptoms of the disease.”
Please share your thoughts here.
Not sure its the nicotine; i stopped smoking a year ago; within a few months;had tremor;even though i was vaping nicotene;i think maybe one of the chemicals in the cigarette may be protecting against pd?
The same story as me . Stopped smoking and started vapes and within few months my dystonia started.
Have you considered going back on cigs;read somewhere guy started smoking again and symptoms disappeared?
Overall, it looks like a very bad idea to start (or not stop) smoking to counteract PD.
A french neurologist, Gabriel Villafane, worked out a therapy based on nicotine patches. He is extremely successful, and some of his patients even claim they are cured. He has over ten years of experience.
Let me tell you this : his colleagues hated him (most of them) while his patients just love the guy. He had to leave his hospital under the pressure a few month ago, and he opened a private practice (in Paris).
But do not start just using nicotine patches. The protocol is very precise and there is a rationale behind it.
A large scale study was undertaken, but the result are not made available. I do not know why. I was expecting to read them last Fall. If anyone has an idea ? Aspergerian ?
Can one start with a small dose of nicotine patch and work his/her way up? I have been considering this for my husband. Thank you.
Hi,
I's an odd situation : the last results are negative (Nicopark 2). At the same time, a friend with PD, in real life, is very satisfied with his treatment with patches. I do not know what to think about it. He is a patient of Dr Villafane.
Here is he abstract :
Background and purpose: Studies of the effects of nicotine on motor symp- toms in Parkinson’s disease (PD) brought out discordant results. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of high doses of transdermal nicotine on motor symptoms in PD.
Methods : Forty PD patients were randomly assigned to a treated and untreated arm in an open-label study. Treated patients received increasing doses of nico- tine to reach 90 mg/day by 11 weeks. This dosage was maintained for 28 weeks (W39) and then reduced over 6 weeks. Final evaluation was performed 6 weeks after washout. The main outcome measure was the OFF-DOPA Unified Parkin- son’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) motor score measured on video recordings by raters blinded to the medication status of the patients.
Results : There was no significant difference in OFF-DOPA UPDRS motor scores between the nicotine-treated and non-treated groups, neither at W39 (19.4 ` 9.3 vs. 21.5 ` 14.2) nor considering W39 differences from baseline ( 1.5 ` 12.1 vs. +0.9 ` 12.1). The 39-item Parkinson’s disease questionnaire scores decreased in nicotine-treated patients and increased in non-treated patients, but the difference was not significant. Overall tolerability was acceptable, and 12/20 treated patients reached the maximal dosage.
Conclusions : High doses of transdermal nicotine were tolerated, but our study failed to demonstrate significant improvement in UPDRS motor scores. Improve- ment in unblinded secondary outcomes (UPDRS-II, UPDRS-IV, doses of L- DOPA equivalents) suggest a possible benefit for patients treated with nicotine, which should be confirmed in larger double blind, placebo-controlled studies.
Results are out - not good news, I’m afraid michaeljfox.org/foundation/...
I recall reading some for, some against. I would not start smoking again (I quit over 30 years ago in my twenties.) for anything. I watched my brother-in-law die from metastatic lung cancer last year.
juliegrace - like you, I would not start smoking again for anything! (I stopped some years ago). I was the primary caregiver for my best friend as he died from lung cancer a few years ago - and was alone with him when he died. I regret every cigarette I ever smoked.
My husband was diagnosed with PD 2005 - gave up smoking in 1993, after that is when the first symptoms started to appear - first was not sleeping properly, in fact he has never slept properly ever since he gave up smoking.
Neurodegeneration is a process of autoinduction. It is a chemical chain reaction that destroys the neurons, these reactions occur through binding sites like a key in a lock. Nicotine mimics ACh and competes for binding sites in the cholinergic receptors. It blocks the autoinduction process.
This post stopped me in my tracks. I quit smoking about 5 years ago and started vaping. There is a direct correlation between the time I stopped smoking, started vaping, and symptoms. I stopped vaping for a time thinking that it’s something in the vape that may be causing symptoms. Nothing changed....and after a while started vaping again because what I was reading indicated the nicotine could be good. Ugh. What a hypothesis! A chemical in the cigs helping to manage symptoms. Not the nicotine; or in conjunction with the nicotine? Wow. Love to see a study on this
Livin_My_Life
I had exactly same story as yours. 100% the same. Cigarette smoker then stopped smoking and started vaping , main symptom (dystonia)started.
So strange. I haven’t had a chance to watch the videos Gio sent as of yet, but will later. Such a crazy journey with so many twists to consider.
Side note..I’ve been taking 20 mg IM B1 for several weeks with great results. Last Thursday it seems like it just “wore off” and this week doesn’t seem to be helping at all. Feeling frustrated. I have an email out to Dr. C and waiting for his answer. My symptoms seem back to baseline, but baseline stinks. Have u experienced an increase tolerance to b1? I’m reading others having the opposite happening with the need for a decreased dose...
Regardless, I don’t want to smoke… the smell is gross now and the thought makes me kinda gag: but I tell u what, any evidence that a chemical in cigs shows protective or better qualities I’m all in. 😉
I have reduced the Thiamine intake per Dr Costantini’s advice.
Yes, he recommended skipping the next injection and reassess in a week....
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