Smoking and MS
Today (April 10, 2010) I came across MS related news, published April 8, 2010. Being actively involved in everything MS-related, I started reading at once.
As an example, www.sciencedaily. com in article Does Smoking Compound Other Multiple Sclerosis Risk Factors? presented results of newest investigations:
"...study shows that smoking may increase the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) in people who also have specific established risk factors for MS. The research is found in the April 7, 2010, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology..."
Later some details are presented: number of participants - MS sufferers and in control group, etc. Finally researchers explain influence of a specific gene... Leader of research group explains:
"The consistency of an association between MS, smoking and the body's immune response... suggests this finding is not due to chance", said study author Claire Simon, ScD, with Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. "This relationship may provide clues as to why certain individuals develop MS while others do not."
Some more specifically scientific information has been included...
* * *
Earlier scientific discoveries are rather controversial:
- Smoking Has No Effect On Progression Of Multiple Sclerosis, Study Suggests (October 2007)
- Young Smokers Increase Risk For Multiple Sclerosis (March 2009)
- Smoking Associated With More Rapid Progression Of Multiple Sclerosis (July 2009)
So perhaps humanity arrived at a threshold of a giant discovery?
Or maybe not?
What's in cigarette smoke?
Being neither a smoker, nor cigarette smoke researcher I had no idea, what makes this smoke so poisonous. Consequently I went to Google and typed a phrase: " cigarette smoke pollutant " - and I was provided with over 300,000 articles.
Immediately I entered an article Have You Ever Wondered What's In a Cigarette? It provides plenty of required information.
Just look:
- Nicotine is highly addictive. Smoke containing nicotine is inhaled into the lungs, and the nicotine reaches brain in as little as 6 seconds
- Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known carcinogenic (cancer-causing) compounds and 400 other toxins -nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, DDT etc
- Nicotine in small doses acts as a stimulant to the brain. In large doses, it's a depressant, inhibiting the flow of signals between nerve cells. In even larger doses, it's a lethal poison, affecting the heart, blood vessels, and hormones
- Most of the chemicals inhaled in cigarette smoke stay in the lungs. The more you inhale, the better it feels—and the greater the damage to lungs . . .
Cigarette Maker Now Lists Ingredients
For the first time, an American tobacco company has begun listing long-secret ingredients contained in its cigarettes directly on the label... List includes:
"...high fructose corn syrup, sugar, natural and artificial licorice flavor, menthol, artificial milk chocolate and natural chocolate flavor, valerian root extract, molasses and vanilla extracts, and cedarwood oil. Less familiar additives include glycerol, propylene glycol, isovaleric acid, hexanoic acid and 3-methylpentanoic acid..."
What researchers say
"...not all of the chemicals in your cigarettes are there for taste enhancement. For example, a chemical very similar to rocket fuel helps keep the tip of the cigarette burning at an extremely hot temperature. This allows the nicotine in tobacco to turn into a vapor so your lungs can absorb it more easily."
"Toilet Bowl Cleaner? Most people prefer to use ammonia for things such as cleaning windows and toilet bowls. You may be surprised to learn that the tobacco industry has found some additional uses for this household product. By adding ammonia to your cigarettes, nicotine in its vapor form can be absorbed through your lungs more quickly. This, in turn, means your brain can get a higher dose of nicotine with each puff."
The complete list of chemicals added to your cigarettes is too long to list here. Here are some examples that will surprise you:
- Fungicides and pesticides -- Cause many types of cancers and birth defects
- Cadmium -- Linked to lung and prostate cancer
- Benzene -- Linked to leukemia
- Formaldehyde -- Linked to lung cancer
- Nickel -- Causes increased susceptibility to lung infections
If you are angry that so many things have been added to the cigarettes you enjoy so much, you should be. Many of these chemicals were added to make you better able to tolerate toxic amounts of cigarette smoke. They were added without regard to your health and with the intent to keep you addicted.
As the tobacco industry saying goes:
An addicted customer is a customer for life,
no matter how short that life is
More information - in article.
Smoking and MS - conclusions
I have started analysing possible triggers of MS in 2006 - just when I've started my website Beyond MS.
Key idea beyond all listed triggers is rather simple:
There are so many ways to worsen one's health
and to deregulate immune system...
Just look at all these triggers - you'll see regularities.
But why some so-called MS researchers refuse to see results of other researchers?
Why they exclude a common sense?
Or is it political correctness?
Comments
hello i was diagnosed with reamiting ms in 07 . and i take avonex and they also give me stupid pain meds . well i stopd taking the pain meds , and being a pot smoker for years have noticed that the pot smoking helps tremensly with my ms . i highly recommend whoever has ms to please try marijuana . iv been writing to my state offices in ma to please pass the medical marijuana act , and they dont want to pass it . this is a very tough road for someone with ms . the pain 24.7 . the fatige the meds the testing , its all hard to deal with . we just have to keep pushing our selfs forword .
This comment arrived to my email address, but I've decided to make it public: - - - I think all of these studies are a load of crap!!! I have never smoked a day in my life, and yet I was diagnosed with MS in 2002. And in my opinion all of these scientific studies and medical doctors pushing poisonous drugs therapies off on us are all bogus. They all say that there is NO cure for this disease and the truth is there are ways to reverse, improve and in many cases cure MS naturally. As well as a lot of other diseases. Healing starts from within. You have to first believe that u can, will be and are healed. Then make some lifestyle changes such as diet, products you use on your body and in your home. And be proactive in your health. Doctors don't know everything. I'm finding that they don't know much at all. Aria
Having seen an good mate going trough a tough moment due to a illness caused from smoking I made it my personal mission to spare as much other folks as is possible from the same fate, however soon I realized that regardless of how great your arguments are it is extremely difficult to have a smoker stop smoking, not because the arguments aren't sufficiently good and not necessarily because the smoker just isn't happy to quit but simply because smoking is a more addicting drug than heroin and cocaine (scientifically proven). I Then realised that there's in reality a method to stop smoking without quitting smoking, thus leave a smoker his / her pleasure and habit but preserve him or her from the dangerous effects of cigarette smoking. What I am referring to are electric cigarettes. You can read about most of the side effects connected with smoking and how a electronic cigarette can help you quite smoking cigarettes or just permit you to follow your current habit and obtain the kick without the harmful side effects associated with smoking cigarettes on my web-site http://electroniccigarette0.com P.S. I am hoping this will not get removed because of having a link to my web site as I only attempt to inform and help. All the best Chrissy M.
The consistency of an association between MS, smoking and the body's immune response... suggests this finding is not due to chance
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