Nicotine: naughty or nice?

[rothenbj]

" + artTitle.replace("-","") + " - " + "The Diamondback" + " - " + "News" + "

"Alzheimer's treatments available to patients today focus only on reducing and slowing the disease's symptoms, which include memory loss and schizophrenic behavior.

"We could stop the disease in its tracks for no further damage to the brain," Lee said of her potential treatment combination. "If the nicotine can overcome the BACE1 knockout behavior, I'm confident it will be a successful treatment."
Senior neurobiology and psychology major Angela Lee, a co-author of the study, said time and further research will tell if this is the treatment Alzheimer's patients have been looking for.

"It's hard to imagine it translating into humans right now," she said. "I think there's a lot of potential for it, but there's a lot more that needs to be done."
Part of nicotine's strong potential comes in its existing accessibility to consumers through patches, pills, gum and even cigarettes, Lee said.
"The advantage we found in using nicotine is that it's a drug already being used by people for various reasons," she said.

Lee said that because the amount of nicotine given to mice in the experiments was much higher than the levels in a cigarette, further research needs to be done to determine if people can simply light up to help treat the disease.

This treatment does bring the potential for nicotine addiction, but Lee said its potential benefits for Alzheimer's patients outweigh the risks of addiction.

"It's not as devastating as becoming schizophrenic," Lee said, adding that nicotine isn't as bad as other addictive drugs."

 

[BobTheKlown]

HA!!
That's great!!
Thanks for posting that, great info on potential a new use for PV's....

 

[Kurt]

Back in the early 90s my brother work at a major pharm company studying the newest candidates of AD drugs on rats. Nothing worked like nicotine, but the managers wouldn't have anything to do with nic, because it was deemed "bad". Probably also it isn't a patentable compound. Silly greedy pharmers. So much of our health is controlled by shallow minds with $$ on their brains.

Excellent and important post.

 

[TWISTED VICTOR]

This treatment does bring the potential for nicotine addiction, but Lee said its potential benefits for Alzheimer's patients outweigh the risks of addiction.

"It's not as devastating as becoming schizophrenic," Lee said, adding that nicotine isn't as bad as other addictive drugs."

True of many nic attributes, but the Nazi's would rather have people believe anything but nicotine addiction is better .

Back in the early 90s my brother work at a major pharm company studying the newest candidates of AD drugs on rats. Nothing worked like nicotine, but the managers wouldn't have anything to do with nic, because it was deemed "bad". Probably also it isn't a patentable compound. Silly greedy pharmers. So much of our health is controlled by shallow minds with $$ on their brains.

Excellent and important post.

I think you hit the nail head, Kurt .

 

[TWISTED VICTOR]

Hey roth, looky what CNN says:

Smoking boosts risk for Alzheimer's – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs

Here's yet another reason to stop smoking: It elevates the risk of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, according to a new study.

Researchers say the association between smoking and various forms of dementia is strong, but they do not know exactly why. It has been shown before that people who smoke are more likely to have hypertension and cerebral vascular disease, as well as inflammation, Whitmer said. Smoking may contribute to the damage of brain blood vessels in addition to brain cells, she said.


Dang....I need a smoke.....

 

[rothenbj]

Yup TV, it looks like my change of plan from the other side of the tracks will have to be implemented. Since I smoked more than two packs a day in the past, I'm now going to have to increase my snus consumption from my normal four portion a day to five cans to protect myself.

Getting serious, this appears to be another non-scientific, non-significant study that will get spread over all the news links further damaging the relationship between smokers and non-smokers.

One of the comments on the article had a fellow stating "Next time someone smokes near me i'm gonna slap the cig out of their face." Is this where society is heading?

I responded, "Now that's the kind of attitude we're generating. The propaganda that has been spewed creates neurosis. The don'ts fear the do's and feel threatened by the sub-humans that endanger their lives. To protect themselves they first complain about the actions of the do's, then protest, then act out.

You knock that cigarette out of that smokers mouth. You may even get away with it the first or second time, but what happens when the smoker fights back? However, you feel you're superior or smarter than the smoker so you make sure that you only perform your action on people you know you can overpower. Then comes the knife or gun.

You fill in the rest of the story."

 

[Crumpet]

Hey roth, looky what CNN says:

Smoking boosts risk for Alzheimer's – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs

Here's yet another reason to stop smoking: It elevates the risk of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, according to a new study.

Researchers say the association between smoking and various forms of dementia is strong, but they do not know exactly why. It has been shown before that people who smoke are more likely to have hypertension and cerebral vascular disease, as well as inflammation, Whitmer said. Smoking may contribute to the damage of brain blood vessels in addition to brain cells, she said.


Dang....I need a smoke.....

See, that study contradicts everything I've ever heard about the smoking/dementia connection. To the contrary, I've read that there seems to be lower incidence of Alzheimer's/dementia among smokers and that there appears to be some benefit from nicotine to Parkinson's patients and possibly even to people with Schizophrenia due to the stimulant factor.

Then again, I've also heard that there is a strong connection between being born and dying, so what do I know?

 

[kristin]

Is there any scientific reason to put more danger on a drug's "addictiveness" rather than the drug's health effects? I read that all of the time in articles & comments - "Yeah, but your still addicted." Or "Yeah, but nicotine is highly addictive."

If a drug was highly addictive, yet it's only effect on the body was to cure cancer, would they still say the negative of being highly addictive outweighs the health effects?

That is one of the reasons I have a problem with that accusation that "nicotine is more addictive than her-oin." People read "more addictive" and take that to mean "more deadly." That simply isn't true with smokeless forms of nicotine.

 

[Crumpet]

Is there any scientific reason to put more danger on a drug's "addictiveness" rather than the drug's health effects? I read that all of the time in articles & comments - "Yeah, but your still addicted." Or "Yeah, but nicotine is highly addictive."

If a drug was highly addictive, yet it's only effect on the body was to cure cancer, would they still say the negative of being highly addictive outweighs the health effects?
That is one of the reasons I have a problem with that accusation that "nicotine is more addictive than her-oin." People read "more addictive" and take that to mean "more deadly." That simply isn't true with smokeless forms of nicotine.

Sadly, some would indeed. It's like the people who don't want terminal cancer patients to get addicted to morphine. You are right: more addictive doesn't mean more deadly. If someone tells me I'm addicted to nicotine I say, "So?". As long as I am tending to my addiction without digging in their pockets or polluting their precious (already contaminated) air they can all just go bite my .... Hard.

 

[rothenbj]

Well, it didn't take long for this smoking boosts Alzheimers study to hit the mainstream. The sound bit hit the 5 o'clock news in the Philadelphia area tonight. The negative sure has it's way of making it to mainstream America.

 

[CJsKee]

Sadly, some would indeed. It's like the people who don't want terminal cancer patients to get addicted to morphine. You are right: more addictive doesn't mean more deadly. If someone tells me I'm addicted to nicotine I say, "So?". As long as I am tending to my addiction without digging in their pockets or polluting their precious (already contaminated) air they can all just go bite my .... Hard.

You have such a way with words, Crumpet

 

[TWISTED VICTOR]

You knock that cigarette out of that smokers mouth. You may even get away with it the first or second time, but what happens when the smoker fights back? However, you feel you're superior or smarter than the smoker so you make sure that you only perform your action on people you know you can overpower. Then comes the knife or gun.

You fill in the rest of the story."

ECF News Flash
Updated
From affiliate WNMN (Not Mine, Nazi) Channel 69

Indiana State Police responded to a riot outside the home of a resident of this quiet farming community during a protest of the use of tobacco and electronic cigarette products. Members of ASH, American Cancer Society and American Heart Association, who were staging the demonstration to raise awareness of the dangers of nicotine addiction and flavored nicotine products, were injured during a scuffle when some of the protesters advanced on the homeowner, who appeared to be enjoying a smokeless tobacco product at the time.

Eyewitnesses say the man was sitting on his front porch to watch the demonstration and remained quiet until the end, then asked if the demonstrators would furnish some kind of scientific proof that nicotine without smoke or cancer causing TSNA's was really as bad as a cigarette. According to next door neighbor Billy Bob Friggemall "I ain't seen nobody turn that purple since Grandma caught Grandpa and that goat down at the barn. That ASH guy ran up on the porch and tried ta knock Vic's Swedish snus right outta his mouth, so Vic bit off his finger. It was a free-fer-all after that. They was takin' folks on ambolance rides fer a long time."

The official report says 7 people were transported to the local hospital, 2 with missing fingers, 1 broken nose, 2 who had been hog-tied with barbed-wire and 2 who appear to have boots wedged in their .... cavities. The homeowner was unavailable for comment. His wife says he's busy attending a large bonfire of protest signs with other community members, but will be available Nov. 2 at the local voting center.

There ya go, roth .

 

[JonnyVapΣ]

My grandfather died of alzheimers about 6-7 years ago. He was 84 I believe. Used to smoke a pipe but had quit years before the alzheimers started to become noticeable. My grandmother has just been placed in hospice about two weeks ago. She also has alzheimers. She was a smoker but had quit around the same time my grandfather did (I'm going to guess roughly 15-16 years ago). She is now 96 years old. I am extremely interested in the truth on this subject.

 

[TWISTED VICTOR]

My grandfather died of alzheimers about 6-7 years ago. He was 84 I believe. Used to smoke a pipe but had quit years before the alzheimers started to become noticeable. My grandmother has just been placed in hospice about two weeks ago. She also has alzheimers. She was a smoker but had quit around the same time my grandfather did (I'm going to guess roughly 15-16 years ago). She is now 96 years old. I am extremely interested in the truth on this subject.

You have a right to the truth, but independent peer reviewed studies are what to look for. They'll normally get buried by large, government subsidized pharmaceutical studies, so the truth can be evasive.

 

[rothenbj]

You have a right to the truth, but independent peer reviewed studies are what to look for. They'll normally get buried by large, government subsidized pharmaceutical studies, so the truth can be evasive.

Independent peer reviewed studies are much like independent thought, both pretty much a lost art in this corporate controlled world we have grown into. I had a book of poetry I had written in my late teens into my late twenties (I call it my pre-suicide thought days) that I wrote about the avarice of corporations and they were nothing like they are today. Sort of like the anti-smoking movement.

 

[TWISTED VICTOR]

Yeah, those were the good ol' days. The pre-suicide ones, I mean. So you were really as crazy as the rumors say....hmmm, I thought it was only myth......

 

[BobTheKlown]

My grandfather died of alzheimers about 6-7 years ago. He was 84 I believe. Used to smoke a pipe but had quit years before the alzheimers started to become noticeable. My grandmother has just been placed in hospice about two weeks ago. She also has alzheimers. She was a smoker but had quit around the same time my grandfather did (I'm going to guess roughly 15-16 years ago). She is now 96 years old. I am extremely interested in the truth on this subject.

Unless there's new information out that I'm not aware of, your grandfather passed away while suffering from Alzheimer's, not of it. Alzheimer's is non-fatal, though it can make other conditions or diseases hard to detect or treat because of the patients confusion and forgetfulness, and therefore may be listed as a factor contributing to the death, but not a direct cause.

I have had almost the exact opposite experiences in my life. Everyone I know who smoked for years without quitting, my father, step-father, great-aunt and great grandfather, died a smokers death (besides my father, alcohol can be directly blamed there) from either emphysema or heart attack before the age of 55. Everyone I know who suffered from Alzheimer's, never smoked in their life and lived past 75, my grandmother, two great-grandmothers, a great-uncle and another great-aunt, suffered from Alzheimer's for years before passing.

 

[JonnyVapΣ]

Unless there's new information out that I'm not aware of, your grandfather passed away while suffering from Alzheimer's, not of it.

That's more along the lines of what I meant. I posted that after 2am, in bed, on my Droid...LOL. At any rate, the brains of Alzheimer's patients are shown to have huge voids or cavities within the brain tissue (if I'm recalling this correctly). Can't imagine this would only affect cognitive thinking. The last time I saw my grandfather alive he was petting a dog he had roughly 70 years prior. It broke my heart. He was a retired Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army.

 

[BobTheKlown]

That's more along the lines of what I meant. I posted that after 2am, in bed, on my Droid...LOL. At any rate, the brains of Alzheimer's patients are shown to have huge voids or cavities within the brain tissue (if I'm recalling this correctly). Can't imagine this would only affect cognitive thinking. The last time I saw my grandfather alive he was petting a dog he had roughly 70 years prior. It broke my heart. He was a retired Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army.

I understand... I also know, first hand, how hard it is hard to watch Alzhiemer's patients suffer...
And, I in no way meant to diminish anything you said, just clarifying....