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There is half a ton of retrospective epidemiological material on that; the
discussion took off after the first reports that old smokers of long
standing are less likely to get AD (and PD) than those who never smoked. The
problem here is the bias introduced by the classical survival confounder
effect in such statistics -- unless you fully correct for smoking-related
mortality and only scrutinize those who have survived the detrimental
effects of smoking long enough to reach an age where AD becomes a problem,
you are going to see a limited protective effect from smoking.
The bottom line is, smoking stimulates nicotinic receptors on presynaptic
terminals of cholinergic and dopaminergic neurons, which facilitates the
discharge of these neurotransmitters and can counteract the respective
deficits in AD and PD. (Pure nicotinic receptor modulator drugs have been
investigated for AD and PD but were not very successful.) Smoking also has
detrimental effects which have been documented in the myriad of studies that
have appeared on that subject, raising morbidity and mortality which
statistically more than offsets any potential benefit.
Take care and stop smoking (at least try to keep to 5-10 cigs a day if you
can't help it)
- --HM
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"MEShinder" <meshinder at aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010510114719.00947.00001067 at nso-fs.aol.com...
> I had heard a report suggesting that smoking impacts Parkinsons - is there
any
> information as to its effects on Alzheimers?
>