But Suffer Less Risk of Parkinson's

Source from:  tobaccoreporter.com UK, Tuesday, July 10, 2007 07/11/2007

A pooled analysis of data from previous studies suggests that cigarette smoking is associated with a reduced risk for developing Parkinson's disease, with long-term and current smokers at the lowest risk, according to a EurekAlert report quoting the July issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Beate Ritz, M.D., Ph.D., of the UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, and colleagues, pooled data from 11,809 individuals (2,816 individuals with Parkinson's disease and 8,993 controls of the same age and sex but without Parkinson's disease) involved in 11 studies conducted between 1960 and 2004. "Our analyses confirmed prior reports of an inverse association between cigarette smoking and Parkinson's disease similar in size to those reported in a recent meta-analysis," the authors write. "We also showed that associations did not differ by sex or educational status. Although we found that current smokers and those who had continued to smoke to within five years of Parkinson's disease diagnosis exhibited the lowest risk, a decrease in risk (13 per cent to 32 per cent) was also observed in those who had quit smoking up to 25 years prior to Parkinson's disease diagnosis." Other tobacco products also appeared to be protective-men who smoked pipes or cigars had a 54 per cent lower risk. The number of chewing tobacco users was small, but there was a suggestion of reduced risk associated with this product. Enditem