The dangers of smoking are well known, but there are several types of “Smoker’s Paradoxes” or cases where the effects of smoking appear to be beneficial. These paradoxes are over shadowed by the negative health effects of smoking that little is known about them.
One example can be seen when looking at ulcerative colitis (UC). Research shows that smoking may be beneficial in regards to UC and that individuals who smoke are at the least risk of developing it. This is because the nicotine in tobacco cigarettes has been found to have a positive influence on symptoms of UC. It is believed that nicotine affects the smooth muscle found on the inside of the colon which alters the rate at which food moves through the GI tract.
Another example is how research has shown that smoking helps lower the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. It is believed to be a temporal relationship that may be due to nicotine having effects on dopamine. Smoking has also been found to reduce rates of uterine fibroids.
I looked up the study that reported nicotine's benefits in UC. Here's the link: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199403243301202
ReplyDeleteI see some huge limitations to the study, however. Improvement based on histology was minimal after nicotine treatment, and evidence of placebo effect was pretty significant! Also, throughout the study many patients were still receiving anti-inflammatory treatment. These treatments alone could have attributed to the "beneficial" response that the researchers attributed to the nicotine.
Finally, some patients also withdrew from the study. Although this is common in all research conducted on human subjects, patients withdrawing from the study due to worsening of symptoms at the onset of nicotine treatment means that nicotine could actually exacerbate UC.
This is really interesting, Emily! I saw something on the smoker's paradox recently in regards to heart disease. While smoking doesn't prevent MI (as we all know), those who had an MI who were smokers were less likely to die of a recurrent attack later in life. While minimal research has been performed on the topic, it seems as though there was less inflammation in smokers than nonsmokers following an MI, which may be why they didn't have a recurrent event. Who knows, but interesting nonetheless.
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