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De Positieve effecten van roken en nicotine

De verborgen voordelen van roken

De Anti-Rook organisaties weten dat roken en nicotine ook positieve effecten hebben:

"Recenter verschenen er berichten over het gunstige effect van roken op enkele specifieke ouderdomsziekten zoals de ziekte van Alzheimer en de ziekte van Parkinson. Waarschijnlijk heeft de nicotine inderdaad een gunstige invloed op het op het uitstel van deze ouderdomsziekten. Maar één zo'n positief effect in een verhaal isoleren en uitvergroten, gaat voorbij aan alle negatieve gevolgen die nicotine en andere stoffen uit tabaksrook op het lichmaam hebben."
(Bron: Rokersmoes 2)

Waarom is het wel redelijk om te zeggen dat rokers meer kans op rokersziekten hebben, maar onredelijk om te zeggen dat niet-rokers tot vijf maal zoveel kans op Alzheimer's en twee keer zoveel kans op Parkinson hebben dan rokers?

En vervolgens probeert Stivoro de boodschapper de schuld te geven:

"Berichten die het gezondheidsrisico ontkennen of positief over roken zijn, komen vrijwel altijd uit de hoek van de tabaksindustrie. En soms lukt het journalisten of artsen op een verkeerd been te zetten"
(Bron: Rokersmoes 2)

Onderstaande berichten en citaten komen duidelijk niet van de tabaksindustrie, tenzij natuurlijk elke wetenschapper of epidemioloog die positieve berichten over roken publiceert een onderdeel van de tabaksindustrie vormt :-).

Om te beginnen enkele citaten uit The Times van 19 juli 1994. Ik ben van plan aan de hand hiervan nog verder te zoeken.
(de ziekten zijn door mij vet gemaakt)

"In February, the Australian Bureau of Statistics published national health survey taken in 1989-90. To much surprise, it revealed that, generally, the health of smokers is better than that of many former or non-smokers. Unsurprisingly, the worst sufferers from hypertension caused by stress were the ex-smokers (16.1 per cent) and the "never smoked" (13.4 per cent); the steady smokers registered 7.4 per cent.

It is well known that smoking, particularly at work, relieves stress, and to outlaw it increases demands on hospital beds. Even the US Surgeon General, in 1964, recognised that Parkinson's disease (a degenerative disorder ofthe nervous system) occurred at around half the rate among smokers. In the International Journal of Epidemiology, in 1991, a review of 11 studies showed that non-smokers suffered 50 per cent more Alzheimer's disease than smokers. And researchers at Erasmus University Medical School, Rotterdam, found that more non-smokers had early-onset dementia than smokers.

In The Times last September, Dr. James Le Fanu wrote: "Smokers have a 50 per cent reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's and the more smoked, the greater the protection." The New England Journal of Medicine.in 1985, reported that endometrial cancer of the womb occurs at around 50 per cent the rate among smokers as non-smokers. Colon cancer and ulcerative colitis also seem to be about 30 and 50 per cent respectively less frequent among smokers according to articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association and in the New England Journal of Medicine, in 1981 and 1983. The American government's first Health and Nutrition Examination Survey has found that osteoarthntis is five times less likely to occur among heavy smokers than non-smokers."

Alzheimer's

"A statistically significant inverse relation between smoking and Alzheimer's disease was observed at all levels of analysis, with a trend towards decreasing risk with increasing consumption (p=0.0003). A propensity towards a stronger inverse relation was observed among patients with a positive family history of dementia."

Graves AB, van Duijn CM et al., for the EURODEM Risk Factors Research Group. "Alcohol and tobacco consumption as risk factors for Alzheimer's disease: A collaborative reanalysis of case-control studies." International Journal of Epidemiology 1991;20(2 Suppl 2):S48-S57.

"A negative trend for smoking was observed when comparing patients with Alzheimer's disease and controls: the risk of Alzheimer's disease decreased as the number of cigarettes smoked daily increased. After exclusion of patients and controls with a history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, the relative risks of Alzheimer's disease for smoking 1-10, 11-20, and more than 20 cigarettes daily were 0.81 (0.44 to 1.49), 0.67 (0.34 to 1.32), and 0.26 (0.11 to 0.61), respectively. A similar trend was observed when comparing patients and controls for the number of pack years they had smoked. The relative risk of Alzheimer's disease was 0.38 (0.13 to 1.10) for those who had smoked for 1-10 pack years, 0.29 (0.08 to 0.98) for 11-30 pack years, and 0.22 (0.06 to 0.77) for more than 30 pack years.

Cornelia M van Duijn, Albert Hofman, "Relation between nicotine intake and Alzheimer's disease", British Medical Journal, June 1991, Volume 302:1491-4.

Ulceratieve colitis

"Twelve of 31 patients treated and 3 of the 33 patients given placebo showed improvement ( in stool frequency, rectal bleeding, etc.) which indicates that smoking does appear to help reduce symptoms in some of the patients with ulcerative Colitis."

Annals Of Internal Medicine, March 1, 1997

The relative risk of ulcerative colitis among current cigarette smokers as compared with nonsmokers was 0.6 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.4 to 1.0); however, among former cigarette smokers it was 2.0 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.1 to 3.7). These values remained after adjustment for socioeconomic factors and for coffee and alcohol consumption.

New England Journal of Medicine. 1987 Mar 19. 316(12). P 707-10.

Informatieverwerking

• Smoking improves human information precessing.
• Higher nicotine cigarettes produce greater improvements [in information processing] than low-nicotine cigarettes.
• Nicotine tablets produce similar effects.
• Nicotine can reverse the detrimental effects of scopolamine on performance
• Smoking effects are accompanied by increases in EEG arousal and decreases in the latency of the late positive component of the evoked potential."

University of Reading, Department of Psychology (England). Warburton., D.M.; Wesnes, K. "The Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Human Information Processing and the role of Nicotine in These Effects"

Motoriek

"In general, motor performance in all groups improved after smoking."

London University, Institute of Psychiatry. O'Connor, K.P "Individual Differences in Psychophysiology of Smoking and Smoking Behaviour"

Lichaamsgewicht

"Smokers in general are thinner than nonsmokers, even when they ingest more calories."

Kentucky State University. Lee. C.J.: Panemangalore. M. "Obesity Among Selected Elderly Females In Central Kentucky." FUNDING: USDA 0942. University of Louisville. Belknap Campus School of Medicine. Satmford, B.A.;
Matter, S.; Fell, R.D., et al. "Cigarette Smoking, Exercise and High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol" FUNDING: American Heart Association.

Tandheelkunde

"...all smokers had less plaque, gingival inflammation and tooth mobility than nonsmokers and similar periodontal pocket depth."

Veterans Administration, Outpatient Clinic (Boston). Chauncey. H.H,; Kapur, K.K.; Feldmar, R S. "The Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Study of Oral Health: in Healthy Veterans (Dental Longitudinal Study)

Post-operatieve aderthrombose

"Smokers have lower incidence of postoperative deep vein thrombosis than nonsmokers."

Guy's Hospital Medical School (England). Jones, R.M. "Influence of Smoking on Peri-Operative Morbidity."

Hoge bloeddruk

Hypertension (High blood pressure) is less common among smokers. "Hypertension prevalence rate among smokers was 3.94 percent; among nonsmokers the rate was 4.90 percent."

Shanghai Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases. Chen, H.Z.; Pan, X.W.; Guo, G. et al. "Relation Between Cigarette Smoking and Epidemiology of Hypertension.

Zwangerschap

"Hypertension and postpartum hemorrhage were lower in smokers."

University of Tasmania (Australia). Correy, J.; Newman, N. Curran, J. "An Assessment of Smoking in Pregnancy."