Smoking lowers Parkinson's disease risk

Scientific American ^ | March 20, 2007 | Megan Rauscher

[jim35]

I haven't noticed anyone pimping smoking to others. In fact, quite the opposite. What I've seen that is favorable to smoking, is a simple defense of the right to do so, never an encouragement for others to take it up.

On the other side, I see both mindless and thoughtful criticisms of cigarettes, but mostly mindless screes and rants about smokers themselves.

Oh, and smugness. Lots and lots of smugness from the non-smokers, and the former smokers.

The truth is enough to convince rational people that smoking is an unhealthy pursuit.

The lies are legion, and are properly criticized on this site for the propaganda that they are.
If it takes lies to stop people from smoking, then according to liberal thought, lies must be told. And along with half-truths and exagerations, these are used to convince people to stop doing what they enjoy doing, by both scaring them, and making them feel guilty.

It's wrong.

And a person dying of cancer is not going to convince me that it's ok to lie about smoking.

[jim35]

"...there is a protective effect even after a person quits."

Sure, but it drops dramatically.

[Moonman62]

Where do you see that? The article mentions a significant effect up to 15 to 24 years after someone quits.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

What a tragic story. I will show this warning Bryon wanted to share to the children I know. Also, just ignore the imbecilic and hateful addicts on this tread. They quite literally can't control their behavior.

[Tinman]

Good! Smoking has also been linked to reducing the effects of, Inflammatory Bowel Disease , (one type is "Crohns"). Got that from two different doctors, BTW.

Wonder how many other illnesses my vile and disgusting habit may be helping me avoid?

Regards

[jim35]

"Where do you see that? The article mentions a significant effect up to 15 to 24 years after someone quits."

It's right in the middle of the article:

["...former smokers had a 22-percent lower risk of Parkinson's disease and current smokers had a 73-percent lower risk."]

[GOPJ]

This is old news.

Just in time for Obama...

[elkfersupper]

Also, just ignore the imbecilic and hateful addicts on this tread. They quite literally can't control their behavior.

You must be referring to the government control, intervention and revenue addicts.

[NCLaw441]

Sounds kind of obvious. If you had parkinson's, how could you hold the cigarette steady to light it and put it in your mouth?

[TAdams8591]

Interesting. I missed it the first time.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Alright, now that it is late and nobody is paying attention to this dead thread anymore, Dr. Feel can spend some time helping you to understand a few things and work through your issues. Time for some group therapy.

I'll say this for the 86th time here on FR, but the first time to you 3. Tobacco is not health food, tofu or vegetables. That's why we already have laws that say you have to be an adult to purchase it. It's not good for you (it says so right on the pack).

The left believes that in order to stop it they need to use lies, propaganda, misinformation and social engineering. The right believes that people are responsible for their own behavior and risks.

1993 ASSIST Study (American Stop Smoking Intervention Study) : Let's start from the beginning. If you need proof that high tobacco excise taxes, smoking bans, and systematic state sponsored discrimination are designed to COERCE smokers into quitting and nothing else, just read the anti-tobacco playbook.

"Over a decade of research by the National Cancer Institute has shown that the most effective way to reduce smoking rates is to decrease public tolerance of tobacco use through changes in policy, accompanied by media and educational programs."

"Changing the public acceptance of tobacco use will require policy change, a critical ingredient of societal change."

"The recent release of the EPA report on ETS provides the necessary justification to potential opposition, i.e. restaurant owners, small business owners, and smokers for requiring workplaces to eliminate the health hazard of ETS in the workplace." .

Mayor Bloomberg Exaggerates Secondhand Smoke Risk Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.; Amercian Council on Science and Health

"Who exactly are these 1,000 New Yorkers whose deaths Mayor Bloomberg claims will be prevented by his legislation? If, as we suspect, he is referring to deaths caused by exposure to secondhand smoke in restaurants and bars, the estimate of 1,000 deaths prevented is patently absurd. Our best estimate of the number of deaths prevented is somewhere between zero and a hypothetical ten to fifteen. There is no evidence that any New Yorker — patron or employee — has ever died as a result of exposure to smoke in a bar or restaurant."

The Surgeon General's Report Blows Smoke Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.; Amercian Council on Science and Health

Bridging the Ideological Divide: An Analysis of Views on Tobacco Policy By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H., Gilbert Ross, M.D., Clifford E. Douglas, Esq., Alicia M. Lukachko, M.P.H.: In the interest of expediency, before anyone wastes our time with the inevitable "What does tobacco control have to do with left wing or right wing political ideology?", read this. The American Council on Science and Health, a group of Republican physicians featured in the Wall Street Journal recommended sites, conducted the most thorough study of political ideology as it relates to "tobacco control". The results were obvious to anyone paying attention. Don't misunderstand. They are vehemently opposed to smoking and encourage people to quit. But they disagree with the lies, hyperbole, scare tactics and social engineering that are typical of the the left's "ends justify the means" philosophy.

The Bogus 'Science' of Secondhand Smoke:It has been fashionable to ignore the weakness of "the science" on secondhand smoke, perhaps in the belief that claiming "the science is settled" will lead to policies and public attitudes that will reduce the prevalence of smoking. But such a Faustian bargain is an ominous precedent in public health and political ethics. Consider how minimally such policies as smoking bans in bars and restaurants really reduce the prevalence of smoking, and yet how odious and socially unfair such prohibitions are.

A Collection of Conservative Thought on Smoke Nazi and Health Eugenics : From Conservative writers at Tech Central, Townhall, National Review and the Wall Street Journal

They Got Smokers, Why Not the Ugly?: The man, the myth, the legend...Rush Limbaugh weighs in on the nanny state.

Them: The one group for whom liberals have no tolerance at all. : Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal.

I think it is an insufficiently commented-upon irony that cigarette prohibition and the public shaming it entails is the work of modern liberals. They're supposed to be the ones who are nonjudgmental, who live and let live, but they approach smoking like Carry Nation with her ax. Conservatives on the other hand let you smoke. They acknowledge sin and accept imperfection. Also most of them are culturally inclined toward courtesy of the old-fashioned sort.

[Wheee The People]

cigarette prohibition and the public shaming it entails is the work of modern liberals.

You would of course be wrong (once again). Conservatives in droves have voted to restrict your addiction. The following is the percentage of people who favor some bans on smoking in recent elections:

Ohio 58%
Washington 63%
Arizona 54%
Nevada 53%
Florida 71%

So feel free to stick your head in the sand, but you DON'T represent all the conservative ideology. Certainly the libertarian side is attracted to your view, but smoking is anathema to most social conservatives and religious right folk.

[wideminded]

It's possible that people who are more likely to become addicted to nicotine already have some immunity to Parkinson's. Parkinson's is caused by the decline of certain brain cells which produce dopamine. Dopamine is also involved in the reward mechanisms that cause addiction. Thus people who already tend to produce less dopamine might be more likely to get Parkinson's and less likely to become addicted to smoking.

Therefore the smoking itself may not be the source of protection from Parkinson's.

[Eric Blair 2084]

You would of course be wrong (once again)... So feel free to stick your head in the sand, but you DON'T represent all the conservative ideology.

God bless you Whee the Sheeple for being either brave or stupid enough to debate me. I was getting bored. You will have my eternal respect if you can go at least 8 posts with me without cutting and running like a WWII French soldier fleeing a Nazi Germany Panzer tank division.

At this point, I'm convinced that you are not very bright based on 5 glaring mistakes in your argument. I'll name them in future posts. If you stick around long enough for me to humiliate you on a public forum.

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!" (Ezekiel 25:17)

[Eric Blair 2084]

WAYR.

What are you, retarded?

I'll make it a fair fight, you and WeeWee on the People can be humiliated by me for public amusement.

PS: I'm not prone to hyperbole, but if that is not the stupidest thing I have ever seen written on FR or any forum of intelligent adults than it has to be tied for second place.

[wideminded]

I'm not prone to hyperbole, but if that is not the stupidest thing I have ever seen written on FR or any forum of intelligent adults than it has to be tied for second place.

I don't think #53 is stupid. It is a reasonable scientific hypothesis for the link between smoking and Parkinson's Disease.

If you had any logical reasons for your disagreement, you would be able to state them. The fact that you resort to an ad hominem attack means that either you don't understand what I wrote or have nothing to say that would contradict it.

BTW my post was not attacking you or your lovely smoking habit. I was only pointing out that the link between smoking and Parkinson's is not necessarily a cause-and-effect link.

[Eric Blair 2084]

The problem with this line of reasoning is that everyone in the world has SOMETHING that produces the natural brain chemical dopamine. Based on your logic, there should be no such thing as Parkinsons. You could just have easily have stated:

It's possible that people who are more likely to become addicted to nicotine Fantasy Football, porn, soap operas, 24, chocolate, sex, beer, rock n roll, FR, knitting, baseball, chess, video games, the lottery, slot machines, cheeseburgers, or any pleasurable activity already have some immunity to Parkinson's.

[Eric Blair 2084]

My dopamine tank is running low right now. I'm going to go to bed before I get Parkinsons. Maybe we can pick this up tomorrow.

[Wheee The People]

I don't think our friend understands the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy or the irony of mocking you post.

[Joined2Justify]

Nicotine! oh that horrible chemical that it is. Sorry to say that there never has been any in tobbaco smoke, nor could there ever be. Sure, it's highly addictive, highly poisonous, also has a flash point of 202°F (95°C). Below boiling water you might note! The temperature of that flame from the Bic lighter is over 1200°F. Someone here not understand what flash point means?

Something interesting to consider, is that we, all of us on the planet, would be DEAD, if it did not exist. You see it's a key component in some little mystery called photosynthisis. All living plants, with green leaves, depend on nicotine for their growth. (boy so much for the stunt your growth line) Yes, your favorite vegetable would not be. You could stop complaining about mowing the lawn, no lawn. No complaning about chopping the firewood for that stove, no trees. We'd be alive on the planet with no green vegetation for how long you say?

You've actually had more nicotine in that salad with the dark green romaine tonite, or the corn or tomatoes you ate, then any smoker ever got from smoke.

Don't believe me, I didn't, so I checked with a graduate of chemistry, someone with a doctorate in chemistry from Dartmouth actually. Nicotine citrate, malate, suflate ect etc, are small salts of nicotine, not pure nicotine, yes you had them for dinner. You might also like to enquire where vitamin B3 comes from and don't forget to ask about niacin. Anyway the small salts of nicotine found of course in tobbaco, it was a green plant at one time, do not make it past combustion. Sorry that hot little coal at the end, did them in. You are seeing numbers refering to an anagram called Cotinine. What this number says is that there Were .9 etc mg. of nicotine in that cigarette, before it burned up. They did not read .9 nicotine in the tobacco smoke, they can't, unless you want to defy the laws of physics. What they read is called cotinine, and it is not a poison, not addictive either.

In other words, to get nicotine from tobacco, you would have to soak your dried tobacco leaves in water to produce an "aqueous extract". Then, mix that aqueous extract with slaked lime (calcium hydroxide). Then, mix the distillate with oxalic acid. Then concentrate it into a syrup. Then mix that syrup with some potash (potassium hydroxide). Then distill it again in an atmosphere of flowing ether and hydrogen. Do you take the time to do all this when you smoke a cigarette?

But lets stop and think about this, say you are a carrot farming distribution network. First off you better get on some campaign to inform the public about how many mgs. of nicotine are in each ounce of carrots. Then let people be happy with their excuse as to why they can't stop eating carrots.
Oh, I'll give up carrots one of these days, I know I should, but you know, it's the nicotine, it's easier to get off heroin they say. I've heard the carrot farmers are even adding nicotine to their carrots. Isn't it awful.

Works to your best sales bottom line doesn't it!

For detailed informaton on nicotine see
http://www.inchem.org/documents/icsc/icsc/eics0519.htm