Reply #37: The neuroprotective quality of nicotine

[jbnow]

is fascinating and increasingly studied. One thing I recall specifically about Parkinson's is that nicotine stimulates dopamine release in the substantia nigra, and that is an area progressively destroyed in Parkinson's disease.

However I've also read that nicotine more or less fine-tunes or stabilizes the neurotransmitter system since it also helps some disorders that are related to an excess of dopamine.

Here is a theory about how it helps:
http://www.biopsychiatry.com/nicotine/neuroprotective.html

Page 8 of this site lists many neurotransmitters affected by nicotine. You might be able to relate it to how it helps, I don't know enough.
http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/julkaisut/mat/farma/vk/gaddnas/longterm.pdf

I first became attentive to nicotine when working with schizophrenic patients a decade ago+ and started looking into it. Even then there was quite a bit of information and drug companies trying to find drugs that would have similar effects on the receptors.

There are many more studies now and a wide range of disorders it is found to help. Besides neuro-degenerative disorders it helps with ulcerative colitis, Tourette's Syndrome, neurogenic pain, psychiatric disorders and several issues that affect the aging brain.

They have known for a long time that there is a powerful reverse relationship between smoking and Parkinson's...the longer and more people smoked the lower the chance of Parkinson's. Something like a 70% lower chance.

Obviously smoking is bad for people and except for retrospective studies the low dose patch is always used. (It seems to require high dose intermittent, smoking, or a constant low dose, the patch) But I'll tell you this gave me pause in judging people who smoke. I mean really who knows if some people feel drawn by a "higher" part of themselves to smoke. Who knows. I don't.

But patch therapy is very promising for symptom reduction in many disorders.