It Ain't Necessarily So

If you are looking for someone to tout the benefits of smoking, I am not your woman.  I've seen tobacco strike down multiple friends and family members.  I've seen people's lives affected adversely, through lung disease and heart issues.  If you want your skin to age more rapidly:  smoke.

I appeal to everyone to not smoke, or give it up if they are a smoker.  Nevertheless, when you learn more about something, you cannot deny its validity.  Nicotine does, despite its drawbacks, have its positive side.  A girlfriend of mine recently shared that smoking a few puffs when necessary helps to control her battle with ulcerative colitis.

In an article in The Times of London (9/7/93), Dr. James Le Fanu provided an examination of the research on smoking and its apparent protective effect for certain diseases. Dr. Le Fanu stated unequivocally: "Smokers have a 50 per cent reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's--and the more smoked the greater the protection." He also noted that emerging research points to a similar effect of smoking on Parkinson's disease.

So striking was the apparent protective effect of smoking on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's that increasingly biomedical researchers are experimenting with nicotine to treat the symptoms of these dread disease in-patients who have been diagnosed as having them. Results from these experiments have all showed promise in alleviating the symptoms of these diseases with the administration of nicotine.

The mechanism by which the nicotine in tobacco works to protect smokers is that it increases the number of so-called "nicotinic" receptors in the brain, which in turn influence the production and release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Those who come down with Alzheimer's show a marked loss of "nicotinic" receptors in their brains and thus have reduced levels of acetylcholine, which is necessary for memory and other brain functions.

Smoking?  One more example of something that should be a choice left up to individuals. 

Comments

[teqjack]

Another example of "the dose is the poison." Some months back, I was issued a prescription for Coumadin® - better known as Warfarin®, or rat poison, which is the generic I got at the pharmacy.

[beer kevin pong]

I haven't gotten much done. Basically nothing noteworthy going on right now, but shrug. I can't be bothered with anything recently. I guess it doesn't bother me. Maybe tomorrow. I feel like a bunch of nothing.

[riverside community college book store]

The quality of education is, is not lower than 15 years ago

[paper]

More or less not much exciting happening today. I just don't have anything to say. More or less nothing seems worth bothering with.

[museum]

Today was a loss. I just don't have anything to say. Not that it matters.

[adder]

College education is a basic need today

[kate]

I haven't been up to much these days. Such is life. I've just been letting everything happen without me these days, but I don't care.