Finally.

After decades of continuous onslaught and negative media attention on the tobacco industry, smoking gets some good publicity at last! Its about time really; and no, I am not a smoker. I get worried whenever hearing too much exclusively positive or exclusively bad press about any given topic. It feels like an autocratic informational waterhole, blindly propagating the provincialisms of the status-quo. Besides, everyone has that innate desire to cheer for the underdog sometimes… in this case its the tobacco industry.

Apparently researcher’s have found that smoking, even years after you quit, will decrease the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.¹ Smoking pipes and cigars will lower risk by 54%, having smoked at some point in your life will lower risk between 13-32%, and the more you smoke the lower your risk. Think you might be at risk? Why not light up every now and then with a friend?

All in all though, its probably not such a good idea to just pick up and start smoking. Considering, of the typical drugs, tobacco has the highest rate of addiction (higher than cocaine or heroine)² , has probably the 2nd most severe withdrawal (just behind alcohol), and is responsible for 20% of all deaths in western countries³ . Parkinson’s disease will only affect 0.5% of the general population⁴

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1. Ritz, B., et al. (July 2007), “Pooled analysis of tobacco use and risk of Parkinson’s disease.” Archives of Neurology. 64: 990-997. [↩]
2. Schelling, T.C. (1992), “Addictive drugs: The cigarette experience“. Science. 255: 430-433. [↩]
3. Laviolette, S.R., & Van der Kooy, D. (2004), “The neurobiology of nicotine addiction: Bridging the gap from molecules to behaviour“. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5: 55-65. [↩]
4. Sawada, H., & Shimohama, S. (2000), “Neuroprotective effects of estradiol in mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons“. Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews. 24: 143-147. [↩]