Dick, I'm not going to say that smokers are not in their right minds (or left for that matter either) , but as a biochem type, I cannot see where smoking could be anything but harmful .... 1. it limits the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. 2. It destroys vitamins 3. Nicotine is a poison that we have used on crops for years to kill bugs. And the list goes on and on. If you can't leave it alone, think of the poor helpless mitochondria who are trying to keep things going with in your cells ! We need all of them and need them functioning properly inorder to keep ahead of PD as much as we can. Rob ----- Original Message ----- From: dick pearce <chris&[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 12:15 PM Subject: Smoking > Iinclude a 1997 short absract . This very much applies to myself and was ,on > reflection, my earliest "warning" when my right leg started to drag after > the occasional cigarette. How common, or otherwise, is this? > > > Transient worsening of Parkinson's disease after cigarette smoking. > Nishimura H, Tachibana H, Okuda B, Sugita M > Intern Med 1997 Sep 36:651-3 > [Related MEDLINE Records] > > Abstract > We report a patient with probable Parkinson's disease who experienced a > temporary worsening of his symptoms and signs after cigarette smoking. > Deterioration of tremor, rigidity, and writing disturbance began soon after > the inhalation of cigarette smoke and persisted for 15 minutes. Chewing > nicotine gum also induced a brief worsening of the patient's symptoms. > Aggravation of parkinsonian symptoms after cigarette smoking appeared to be > caused by nicotine alone, although the mechanism for this effect remains > unclear. > > Dick Pearce > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn