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Smoking speeds MS progression

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 8:53 am
by cheerleader
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.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNe ... FP20090714

We've been discussing nitric oxide and vasoconstriction on the CCSVI thread for awhile...as well as how the added chemicals in cigarettes also disrupt nitric oxide. The good news is that is appears by stopping smoking, you can help your body immediately.
cheer

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:11 am
by robbie
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.

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:17 am
by cheerleader
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.

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:57 am
by patientx
robbie wrote:
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.
Not only that, this article is poorly written:
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.
First, what is the "worse" relapse-remitting form? Anf how do these numbers follow?

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:58 am
by patientx
cheerleader wrote: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.

Or
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.

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:29 pm
by daniel
patientx wrote:
cheerleader wrote: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.

Or
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.
To expand on that
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.
Basically they have NFI (no f'ing idea) why cigarette smoking could worsen MS. CCSVI at least provides the WHY and has been shown to be relevant in the vast majority of MS diagnosed people that have been tested thus far. Just makes me angrier that CCSVI isn't being looked at by EVERYONE in the MS research community... but I can understand and am willing to impatiently wait for more results :)

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:13 pm
by jimmylegs
among other problems, smoking drives down your zinc level, vitamin a, vitamin e, and selenium.

Re: Smoking speeds MS progression

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:44 pm
by NHE
patientx wrote:Not only that, this article is poorly written:
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.
First, what is the "worse" relapse-remitting form? Anf how do these numbers follow?
I'm not sure about their data analysis but it looks like they are comparing percentages. 13% of smokers experienced a change to progressive MS while only 6.4% of the nonsmokers did. This makes it twice as likely for a smoker to develop progressive MS in comparison to their group of nonsmokers.

NHE

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:54 pm
by cheerleader
The article I posted was badly written: here's the abstract-

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.

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 1:42 pm
by gainsbourg
I'm not anti smoker but I'm surprised this has not come up before. Nicotine is not only a drug, it is also one of the world's most powerful insecticides, even when compared to modern, chemical varieties (and is still in popular use in many third world counties). It is a nerve poison - three time more toxic than arsenic.
Incidentally, there is enough nicotine in two Marlborough cigarettes to kill a human being if injected into a vein, which is why the body excretes the drug as quickly as it can. It may also be why smokers are often tired and lethargic.

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

Cigarettes eventually damage the skin because of nicotine, carbon dioxide and free radicals so no doubt in my mind that they are damaging the nervous system. If you must smoke take vitamin C and antioxidants.

Now here's the good news for smokers... insecticides have a well established association with causing Parkinson's disease yet the only postive thing health wise about smoking seems to be that it offers a small degree of immunity to this disease. Work that one out!

and yes Cheer, smoking clogs up the vascular system like nothing else, which is one reason it causes strokes, heart disease and Buerger's disease.

For anyone who doesn't know what Buerger's disease is...it's that one when smokers often end up having to have legs amputated due to blocked arteries at the top of the legs (it is unknown amongst non smokers)



gainsbourg

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 2:04 pm
by LR1234
nicotine apparantly is also good for staving off Alzheimers

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 2:13 pm
by SarahLonglands
Just a thought...MS was unknown before the advent of insecticides.
Not true. (From a non-smoker)

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 2:37 pm
by patientx
Well, I smoked maybe half a cigarette throughout my entire life, and now I'm diagnosed with MS. We all have family members or know people who are heavy smokers and don't have MS (and many of them, or than a gross cough are pretty healthy.

So, for me, this study is meaningless. I don't think it's even worth the paper on which it was printed.

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 2:56 pm
by foreignlesion
For people like me, who have PPMS and still smoke, it's a bit of a wake up call to quit. (not like I didn't already know I should) I really don't think any further studies need to be done on smoking and anything, it is a waste of money. Anyone who doesn't know by now the harmful effects of smoking is either an idiot or lives in a cave.

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:21 pm
by dictatedbydance
Of course smoking effects the nervous system. But there are a a lot of chemicals in cigarettes, which makes this a ridiculous study. Flouride, for one, has recently been proven to lower IQ, by Chinese sciencist which in has made them push for deflouridation of water. Arsenic obviously effects the brain, causing loss of peripheral sensory function and loss of central nervous function after chronic exposure. These are only two chemicals. There are over 4000 chemicals in cigarettes, including 43 known cancer-causing (carcinogenic) compounds and 400 other toxins. So yeah... not surprising it has negetive effects. Why even study this, indeed. It proves nothing other than the obvious.