Helping a friend with Parkinsons

[OverMountain]

I’ve read some of the studies online that show nicotine may reduce the likelihood of Parkinson’s disease mortality.

My dear friend has recently been diagnosed at a young age and I wanted to see if anyone had experience with pipe smoking and beneficial effects in symptom management.

If you have personal experience or observation that this could help my friend manage symptoms feel free to reply here or PM.

Thanks.
OM

 

[Big John Shea]

If he has not already started a dopaminergic (dopamine agonists) course of treatment, that is the best approach. I think you will be hard pressed to find any peer reviewed clinical evidence that nicotine use helps with symptoms. If he's looking to try that anyhow, getting some nicotine patches may be the best approach, but he will eventually grow tolerant.

Wish him the best. My Grandfather died of Parkinson's related complications. It's a rough disease.

John A. Shea, MD

 

[warren]

The immediate above appears well founded.

Only an opinion but depriving the brain of required oxygen seems counter productive to me. But, if science supports, not public pipe smoking boards opinions, well . . . find a practitioner who supports the idea and go with it would be my advice.

 

[canucklehead]

Nicotine: the good the bad and the ugly

Nicotine is bad for you, and yet it might protect against Parkinson's.

www.parkinsons.org.uk

 

[Hillcrest]

Some of the Parkinson's medications can cause bad medication related constipation in older people. Regular use of Kiwi fruit extract from New Zealand helps counteract this. Your friend can get it at a health food store or walmart etc. Also he can add ground chicory root to his coffee blend which has some rapid diuretic benefits as well. The fiber products don't work as well and cause pain.

 

[huntertrw]

Here's a link (Tobacco smoking and the risk of Parkinson disease) to an article that appeared in the May 19, 2020 on-line edition of Neurology that may prove interesting to you and your friend.

Additionally, a gentleman with whom I am acquainted has Parkinson's, but has managed, to a significant degree, to stem its advance through both running and Rock Steady Boxing, especially the latter. Here is a link (Boxing for Parkinson’s Disease) to an on-line article from the Website of the American Parkinson Disease Association that discusses the benefits of Rock Steady Boxing.

I hope that your friend finds this information to be helpful!

 

[jguss]

I think any potential therapeutic benefits of nicotine are very poorly understood. Sophisticated research is pretty rare, largely I suspect because of its association with tobacco. This is a subject Fred Hanna has had much to say about over the years.

 

[mso489]

I'd look to fairly conventional research hospitals and institutes for potential treatments and information on potential treatments from current research. These would be places like The National Institutes of Health, Mayo Clinics, and other major research hospitals and universities.

Intractable conditions attract a lot of independent claims and remedies, but I think few of these pan out for patients.

 

[huntertrw]

One more, if you please. Here's a link (Meet Fred Hanna, Doctor of Pipes) to an on-line article from the October 23, 2020 edition of the Smokingpipes Daily Reader that may also prove interesting.

 

[anotherbob]

I’ve read some of the studies online that show nicotine may reduce the likelihood of Parkinson’s disease mortality.

My dear friend has recently been diagnosed at a young age and I wanted to see if anyone had experience with pipe smoking and beneficial effects in symptom management.

If you have personal experience or observation that this could help my friend manage symptoms feel free to reply here or PM.

Thanks.
OM

nicotine is good for the brain and nervous system. Though it doesn't actually treat symptoms but does help the nervous system counter act many of the effects.

 

[FurCoat]

If he has not already started a dopaminergic (dopamine agonists) course of treatment, that is the best approach. I think you will be hard pressed to find any peer reviewed clinical evidence that nicotine use helps with symptoms. If he's looking to try that anyhow, getting some nicotine patches may be the best approach, but he will eventually grow tolerant.

Wish him the best. My Grandfather died of Parkinson's related complications. It's a rough disease.

John A. Shea, MD

My grandfather was 93 when he passed and he had Parkinsons. He had a great neurologist that controlled his symptoms with mostly diet.

 

[warren]

nicotine is good for the brain and nervous system.

Would you mind offering some citations. I just have a hard understanding how depriving the brain of oxygen can be good for the brain. It simply makes no sense. I know the brain likes the drug but, I bet fully oxygenated blood is what it needs though not necessarily craves.

 

[anotherbob]

Would you mind offering some citations. I just have a hard understanding how depriving the brain of oxygen can be good for the brain. It simply makes no sense. I know the brain likes the drug but, I bet fully oxygenated blood is what it needs though not necessarily craves.

smokes certainly not good for it. Especially carbon monoxide. But nicotine is. It makes it easier for the brain to release neurotransmitters and regulate them as well. Which is why it helps with lots of different mental issues. Like depression, why it helps you sleep but also helps you wake up, why so many students smoke or dip during finals but not other times, why it goes really well with drinking.... But it's not fixing anything just oiling up the functions (metaphorically). Which is why with Parkinson's or Alzihmers it can help a lot and then seem to do nothing and the patient can seem to go down hill really fast. As far as oxygen everything the blood cells carry is something that prevents that cell from carrying oxygen. Nicotine doesn't take up much room or stay in the blood that long. Carbon Monoxide does stay on the cell for a long time and take up a lot of room. It also leaves a corpse with rosey checks too.

 

[warren]

As far as oxygen everything the blood cells carry is something that prevents that cell from carrying oxygen

Obviously!

Thanks but, I'd still enjoy seeing a citation of a reputable study I could read. I'm simply not equating "feeling good" with anything particularly efficacious. I suppose making a patient feel good is better than nothing.

 

[anotherbob]

Obviously!

Thanks but, I'd still enjoy seeing a citation of a reputable study I could read. I'm simply not equating "feeling good" with anything particularly efficacious. I suppose making a patient feel good is better than nothing.

sometimes that's the best you can do. But if something improves quality of life that's important.

 

[canucklehead]

Obviously!

Thanks but, I'd still enjoy seeing a citation of a reputable study I could read. I'm simply not equating "feeling good" with anything particularly efficacious. I suppose making a patient feel good is better than nothing.

Nicotine Prevents Oxidative Stress-Induced Hippocampal Neuronal Injury Through α7-nAChR/Erk1/2 Signaling Pathway

Oxidative stress-induced neuronal damage has been implicated to play a dominant role in neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Nicotine, a principal additive compound for tobacco users, is thought as a candidate to attenuate amyloid-β-mediated neurotoxicity and...

www.frontiersin.org

 

[orvet]

Very interesting topic! I appreciate the links to articles, though I must admit I didn't understand the language in a couple of them, having no education in medical research.

As someone who has struggled with chronic pain since being Medevac home from Southeast Asia, I am of the opinion that nicotine is helpful with chronic pain. I also found that when prescribed pain medications, nicotine does help those medications work better.
I realize this is only anecdotal information based on my experience. YMMV

 

[anotherbob]

My grandfather was 93 when he passed and he had Parkinsons. He had a great neurologist that controlled his symptoms with mostly diet.

that's the main thing. Is finding an expert who knows as much as possible and just as importantly has access to the tests that can tell more about how the patient is doing.

Very interesting topic! I appreciate the links to articles, though I must admit I didn't understand the language in a couple of them, having no education in medical research.

As someone who has struggled with chronic pain since being Medevac home from Southeast Asia, I am of the opinion that nicotine is helpful with chronic pain. I also found that when prescribed pain medications, nicotine does help those medications work better.
I realize this is only anecdotal information based on my experience. YMMV

No it certainly does. In fact there are times where doctors semi encourage nicotine use. Another anecdotal one I saw I have a friend with chronic pain issues that have o.k. days and really bad days. They never touch nicotine unless they need their pain meds. They report the same thing.

 

[canucklehead]

In fact there are times where doctors semi encourage nicotine use.

A friend of mine that has epilepsy had his pipe smoking semi-encouraged by his neurologist.

Anecdotally, most schizophrenic people I've met heavily self-medicate with nicotine and say it helps with "symptom management" which actually has scientific backing.

The relationship between nicotine and psychosis - PMC

Cigarette smoking is strongly associated with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. For several decades it was assumed that the relationship could be explained by reverse causation; that smoking was secondary to the illness itself, either ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[anotherbob]

A friend of mine that has epilepsy had his pipe smoking semi-encouraged by his neurologist.

Anecdotally, most schizophrenic people I've met heavily self-medicate with nicotine and say it helps with "symptom management" which actually has scientific backing.

The relationship between nicotine and psychosis - PMC

Cigarette smoking is strongly associated with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. For several decades it was assumed that the relationship could be explained by reverse causation; that smoking was secondary to the illness itself, either ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

I think a lot of nicotine use is self medicating. It helps with lots of issues. With schizophrenics one of my favorites symptoms it helps them with is gateing. Which is the way you go into a room with a loud fan and after a while you stop noticing and reacting so much to that sound, many schizophrenics will hear that sound non stop as if it's their first time hearing it. Nicotine helps them react like most other people do to that kind of stimulation. I know I am scatter brained man and if I quit nicotine I'd probably be a month late to work and forget to put on pants when I did go.