Beneficial effects of
smoking
Tobacco has sometimes been reported to have some positive health
effects, presumably due to the effects of nicotine on the nervous
system.
Most notably, some studies have found that patients with
Alzheimer's Disease are more likely not to have smoked than the
general population, which has been interpreted to suggest that
smoking offers some protection against Alzheimer's.
However, the research in this area is limited and the results are
mixed. Some studies show that smoking increases the risk of
Alzheimer's Disease.
A recent review of the available scientific literature concluded
that the apparent decrease in Alzheimer risk may be simply due to
the fact that smokers tend to die before reaching the age at which
Alzheimer normally occurs.
"Differential mortality is always likely to be a problem where
there is a need to investigate the effects of smoking in a disorder
with very low incidence rates before age 75 years, which is the
case of Alzheimer's disease", it stated, noting that smokers are
only half as likely as non-smokers to survive to the age of
80.
Some studies have found that smoking is associated with:
A protective effect of current smoking in Parkinson's disease,
although the authors stated that it was more likely that the
movement disorders which are part of Parkinson's disease prevented
people from being able to smoke than that smoking itself was
protective.
A protective effect in ulcerative colitis, although it increases
the risk of Crohn's disease, the other form of inflammatory bowel
disease.
There is some evidence for decreased rates of endometriosis in
infertile women, although other studies have found that smoking
increases the risk in infertile women.
There is little or no evidence of a protective effect in fertile
women.
Some preliminary data from 1996 suggested a reduced incidence of
fibroids but overall the evidence is unconvincing.
There is limited evidence that it reduces the incidence of
hypertension during pregnancy, but not when the pregnancy is with
more than one baby (i.e. it has no effect on twins etc.).
Smoking does, however, increase the likelihood of almost every
other pregnancy-related health risk to both mother and child, and
is the single most preventable cause of illness and death among
mothers and infants.
A very large percentage of schizophrenics smoke tobacco as a form
of self medication.
