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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who smoke have a speedier progression of the disease, a new study in the Archives of Neurology suggests.

Dr. Alberto Ascherio of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and his colleagues also found that smokers with MS were more likely to have the progressive form of the disease, in which symptoms steadily get worse, rather than the relapsing-remitting form, in which a person has MS symptoms intermittently.

"Most of the adverse effects were seen for current smokers, which in some way is good news because it suggests that stopping smoking can help," Ascherio told Reuters Health.

72 saw their MS progress to the worse relapsing-remitting form:

I thought that most started out with R&R and progressed to SPMS or PPMS ??? do you think their was any money spent on this next to useless study, I wish any money available was put towards finding a cure and not crap like this.

Of the 891 patients the team followed for that period to determine the rate of progression from one form of disease to the other, 72 saw their MS progress to the worse relapsing-remitting form: 20 of 154 smokers, 20 of 237 ex-smokers, and 32 of 500 never-smokers.

That meant that the smokers were 2.4 times as likely as non-smokers to have primary progressive MS, and those who had relapsing-remitting disease were 2.5 times more likely than never-smokers to develop secondary progressive MS during the follow-up period.

Think you misunderstood, Robbie. The study found that smokers had more progressive disease than non-smokers. To me, it's just more proof that CCSVI and the vascular system is related to MS...and that's important information.

so the habit's effects on the immune system could be a factor; another possibility would be that cigarette smoke is toxic to the nervous system.

Or

The mechanism through which cigarette smoking could worsen MS isn't clear, Ascherio said. Smoking has been linked to some other autoimmune conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, he noted, but not others, so the habit's effects on the immune system could be a factor; another possibility would be that cigarette smoke is toxic to the nervous system.

Not only that, this article is poorly written:


First, what is the "worse" relapse-remitting form? Anf how do these numbers follow?

Smoking and Disease Progression in Multiple Sclerosis
Brian C. Healy, PhD; Eman N. Ali, MD; Charles R. G. Guttmann, MD; Tanuja Chitnis, MD; Bonnie I. Glanz, PhD; Guy Buckle, MD; Maria Houtchens, MD; Lynn Stazzone, MSN, NP; Jennifer Moodie, MD; Annika M. Berger, MD; Yang Duan, MD; Rohit Bakshi, MD; Samia Khoury, MD; Howard Weiner, MD; Alberto Ascherio, MD
Arch Neurol. 2009;66(7):858-864.

Background Although cigarette smokers are at increased risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), the effect of smoking on the progression of MS remains uncertain.

Objective To establish the relationship between cigarette smoking and progression of MS using clinical and magnetic resonance imaging outcomes

Design Cross-sectional survey and longitudinal follow-up for a mean of 3.29 years, ending January 15, 2008.

Setting Partners MS Center (Boston, Massachusetts), a referral center for patients with MS.

Patients Study participants included 1465 patients with clinically definite MS (25.1% men), with mean (range) age at baseline of 42.0 (16-75) years and disease duration of 9.4 (0-50.4) years. Seven hundred eighty patients (53.2%) were never-smokers, 428 (29.2%) were ex-smokers, and 257 (17.5%) were current smokers.

Main Outcome Measures Smoking groups were compared for baseline clinical and magnetic resonance imaging characteristics as well as progression and sustained progression on the Expanded Disability Status Scale at 2 and 5 years and time to disease conversion to secondary progressive MS. In addition, the rate of on-study change in the brain parenchymal fraction and T2 hyperintense lesion volume were compared.

Results Current smokers had significantly worse disease at baseline than never-smokers in terms of Expanded Disability Status Scale score (adjusted P < .001), Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score (adjusted P < .001), and brain parenchymal fraction (adjusted P = .004). In addition, current smokers were significantly more likely to have primary progressive MS (adjusted odds ratio, 2.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-5.34). At longitudinal analyses, MS in smokers progressed from relapsing-remitting to secondary progressive disease faster than in never-smokers (hazard ratio for current smokers vs never-smokers, 2.50; 95% confidence interval, 1.42-4.41). In addition, in smokers, the T2-weighted lesion volume increased faster (P = .02), and brain parenchymal fraction decreased faster (P = .02).

Conclusion Our data suggest that cigarette smoke has an adverse influence on the progression of MS and accelerates conversion from a relapsing-remitting to a progressive course.

Just a thought...MS was unknown before the advent of insecticides.