Smoking and MS

Today (April 10, 2010) I came across MS related news, published April 8, 2010. Being actively involved in everything MS-related, I started reading at once.

As an example, www.sciencedaily. com in article Does Smoking Compound Other Multiple Sclerosis Risk Factors? presented results of newest investigations:

“…study shows that smoking may increase the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) in people who also have specific established risk factors for MS. The research is found in the April 7, 2010, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of  Neurology…”

Later some details are presented: number of participants – MS sufferers and in control group, etc. Finally researchers explain influence of a specific gene… Leader of research group explains:

“The consistency of an association between MS, smoking and the body’s immune response… suggests this finding is not due to chance”, said study author Claire Simon, ScD, with Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. “This relationship may provide clues as to why certain individuals develop MS while others do not.”

Some more specifically scientific information has been included…

* * *

Earlier scientific discoveries are rather controversial:

• Smoking Has No Effect On Progression Of Multiple Sclerosis, Study Suggests (October 2007)
• Young Smokers Increase Risk For Multiple Sclerosis (March 2009)
• Smoking Associated With More Rapid Progression Of Multiple Sclerosis (July 2009)

So perhaps humanity arrived at a threshold of a giant discovery?

Or maybe not?

What’s in cigarette smoke?

Being neither a smoker, nor cigarette smoke researcher I had no idea, what makes this smoke so poisonous. Consequently I went to Google and typed a phrase: ” cigarette smoke pollutant ” – and I was provided with over 300,000 articles.

Immediately I entered an article Have You Ever Wondered What’s In a Cigarette? It provides plenty of required information.

Just look:

• Nicotine is highly addictive. Smoke containing nicotine is inhaled into the lungs, and the nicotine reaches brain in as little as 6 seconds
• Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known carcinogenic (cancer-causing) compounds and 400 other toxins -nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, DDT etc
• Nicotine in small doses acts as a stimulant to the brain. In large doses, it’s a depressant, inhibiting the flow of signals between nerve cells. In even larger doses, it’s a lethal poison, affecting the heart, blood vessels, and hormones
• Most of the chemicals inhaled in cigarette smoke stay in the lungs. The more you inhale, the better it feels—and the greater the damage to lungs . . .

Cigarette Maker Now Lists Ingredients

For the first time, an American tobacco company has begun listing long-secret ingredients contained in its cigarettes directly on the label… List includes:

“…high fructose corn syrup, sugar, natural and artificial licorice flavor, menthol, artificial milk chocolate and natural chocolate flavor, valerian root extract, molasses and vanilla extracts, and cedarwood oil. Less familiar additives include glycerol, propylene glycol, isovaleric acid, hexanoic acid and 3-methylpentanoic acid…”

What researchers say

“…not all of the chemicals in your cigarettes are there for taste enhancement. For example, a chemical very similar to rocket fuel helps keep the tip of the cigarette burning at an extremely hot temperature. This allows the nicotine in tobacco to turn into a vapor so your lungs can absorb it more easily.”

“Toilet Bowl Cleaner? Most people prefer to use ammonia for things such as cleaning windows and toilet bowls. You may be surprised to learn that the tobacco industry has found some additional uses for this household product. By adding ammonia to your cigarettes, nicotine in its vapor form can be absorbed through your lungs more quickly. This, in turn, means your brain can get a higher dose of nicotine with each puff.”

The complete list of chemicals added to your cigarettes is too long to list here. Here are some examples that will surprise you:

• Fungicides and pesticides — Cause many types of cancers and birth defects
• Cadmium — Linked to lung and prostate cancer
• Benzene — Linked to leukemia
• Formaldehyde — Linked to lung cancer
• Nickel — Causes increased susceptibility to lung infections

If you are angry that so many things have been added to the cigarettes you enjoy so much, you should be. Many of these chemicals were added to make you better able to tolerate toxic amounts of cigarette smoke. They were added without regard to your health and with the intent to keep you addicted.

As the tobacco industry saying goes:

An addicted customer is a customer for life,
no matter how short that life is

More information – in article.

Smoking and MS – conclusions

I have started analysing possible triggers of MS in 2006 – just when I’ve started my website Beyond MS.

Key idea beyond all listed triggers is rather simple:

There are so many ways to worsen one’s health

and to deregulate immune system…

Just look at all these triggers – you’ll see regularities.

But why some so-called MS researchers refuse to see results of other researchers?

Why they exclude a common sense?

Or is it political correctness?