Tobacco plays preventive role even with passive smoking - but researchers warn dangers of habit massively outweigh any benefit
Researchers have found that smokers and those exposed to “second-hand” smoke are at up to 50 per cent lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. The precise chemical responsible remains unknown. (Photo: Getty)
Smokers and those who breathe in “second-hand” tobacco smoke are at significantly lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than non-smokers, according to a new study. Researchers led by a team at Queen Mary University of London found that existing smokers are up to 50 per cent less likely to develop the degenerative illness, which now affects some 145,000 people in the United Kingdom – around one in every 350 adults.
Passive smoking
The study, the biggest of its kind and based on data from more than 220,000 medical cases across eight countries, also found for the first time a relationship between passive smoking and a lower incidence of Parkinson’s. Those exposed to the cigarette smoke of others were found 30 per cent less likely to develop the disease.
But while the research also found that the more an individual smoked the lower their risk of Parkinson’s became, the authors of the study – published in the International Journal of Epidemiology – warned that the “disastrous” harms caused by tobacco continue to vastly outweigh any benefit related to the neurological disease.
The scientists told i that instead their research, which received no external funding, should spur on efforts to identify and isolate what it is within cigarette smoke that is having the effect against Parkinson’s with a view to developing a future preventive therapy.
‘More research needed’
Dr Valentina Gallo, of Queen Mary University of London, said: “Our discovery is incredibly important from a scientific point of view and should prompt basic science research aimed at identifying the agent responsible for this effect found in tobacco. Hopefully this will give insight for preventive treatment options.
“However, no-one would ever be advised to use smoking as a preventive treatment for Parkinson’s based on this research because of the disastrous effects we know smoking has on people’s general health.”
The statistical study looked at more than 700 comprehensive case histories of Parkinson’s disease found among a European database of 220,000 patients, including 200 individuals who developed the condition in the UK.
No gender difference
It found that even those who had once smoked but given up the habit were at lower risk from the illness with a 20 per cent reduction in cases compared to those who had never smoked. The study, which was also conducted by researchers from Imperial College London and Italy’s University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, established that the reductions in risk were broadly the same regardless of gender or the socio-economic background of the individual.
The research provides the strongest evidence yet for the long-suspected protective effects of tobacco against Parkinson’s but the precise relationship between this effect and the chemicals in smoke remains unknown.
Many scientists believe the most likely chemical preventing or slowing the onset of the condition is nicotine, which stimulates production of dopamine, responsible for the brain’s pleasure response. Parkinson’s disease attacks the dopamine-producing neurons in the brain, so it is possible that exposure to nicotine allows those neurons to survive in great number.
Vegetables
Parkinson’s UK, Britain’s largest charity funder of research into the disease, underlined the dangers of smoking and pointed out that a separate study of nicotine-containing vegetables related to tobacco had also shown a reduced risk of the condition.
Dr Beckie Port, research manager, said: “While this and many previous studies have presented evidence pointing towards smoking decreasing the risk of Parkinson’s, this does not outweigh the fact that smoking increases the risk of other conditions, such as lung and mouth cancer, by a far greater extent. “It is still unclear what chemical may be responsible, but it is interesting to note that nicotine-containing vegetables from the same botanical family as tobacco may also have protective effects.”
https://inews.co.uk/news/health/smoking-halves-risk-of-parkinsons-disease-study/
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