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>He said that it seems that people who smoke are less apt >to end up with PD. He strongly emphasized that no one should smoke for this >reason. Smoking will kill you. Statistically, people who have smoked in their life are represented in low numbers amongst PD sufferers. This doesn't mean that smoking will/could protect you against PD, nor does it mean that if you have PD, you should smoke. In fact, you stand a statistically better chance of dying from lung cancer or cardio-vascular disease, instead of PD. This *may* be the reason for the low incidence of smokers among PD sufferers, but it may well be that the smokers did not live long enough to get PD. If there is any validity in the figures, it appears to be the nicotine content of the smoking that might have some influence on PD, and, as has been mentioned here by others, there are less harmful ways of ingesting nicotine, such as nicotine chewing gum and dermal patches. However, insufficient research has been done regarding the connection, and there is a danger, as with other theories, that inept researchers may "prove" a connection that is really only bad statistics. The only way one could be fairly positive that there was a connection, would be a study using Parkies and age/sex matched control subjects in a broad-based survey. Numbers would have to be about 200 parkies and 400 controls to be statistically meaningful. The results would have to show, for example, that say 50% of the controls had smoked regularly, but that only say 20% of Parkies had smoked, and/or that of the Parkies, those who smoked after diagnosis were measurably less effected by PD symptoms than those who didn't. So far as I am aware, no such vetted research has been done. But even if such a connection were shown to exist, one would still need laboratory-based "double-blind" research to finally answer the question. Nicotine is a drug and a poison in sufficient quantities (it is used as an insecticide!( and I would urge Parkies not to rush into experimenting with dermal patches et al. One result of frequent intake of nicotine can be tardive dyskinesia, a condition characterised by loss of muscle control leading to involuntary facial and head movements and excessive salivating. And that is something Parkies *don't* need! In small doses, nicotine is a stimulant acting on the autonomic nervous system, and promoting the production of adrenaline (epinephrine) amongst other substances, and I think Parkies are only too aware of the unfortunate effects that adrenaline can have of their condition. In larger doses, it can paralyse the autonomic nervous system by preventing the transmission of nerve impulses across the spaces between nerve cells. So, in Parky terms, a small amount of nicotine can cause dyskinesia, and a larger amount can cause "freezing"! BUT, nicotine is used commercially by chemists as one source of nicotinic acid (niacin, or vitamin B3) which is made by oxidation of Nicotine. B3 is a necessary ingredient in human nutrition, and can be obtained naturally from, for example, grains, nuts, meat and fish. Two of the symptoms caused by a deficiency of vitamin B3 are clinical depression and mental disturbances. The body can also make niacin from tryptophane, an essential human amino-acid, the building blocks of proteins, hormones, and the genes. So it is possible, and I reiterate only possible, that nicotine could be implicated in an intricate chemical dance in that most complex of chemical factories, the brain. It probably needed the huge commitment of the Udall Bill to spur researchers into undertaking the great adventure of explaining the place of that 'factory' in both the contraction and treatment of PD. For myself, I feel instinctively that there will be a relatively simple answer to an enormously complex question, and that that answer will also lead to insights into Alzheimers, motor-neurone disease, multiple-system atrophy, and related conditions. Here's looking to the future! Jim [59/13 Sinemet, Eldepryl] -------------------------------------- Jim Slattery - [log in to unmask] CW PD Web - [log in to unmask] http://www.bec.net.au/~cwpdg/ --------------------------------------