My husband has been in hospital for 8 weeks suffering from Low Blood Pressure which means that he cannot stand upright for more than 2 minutes approx without fainting so I am taking the liberty to send out verbatim from Dr Le Fanu from the Daily Telegraph .
"Further to the health benefits of smoking mentioned in this column in December, a reader writes to tell how it inspired her mother to purchase a pack of nicotine patches for her father, whose Parkinson’s has markedly deteriorated over the past year- falling over more frequently & difficulties with his speech. “What a transformation” she writes. “Within a couple of weeks his balance & mobility improved. He is now chatting, and joining in conversations, and racing through piles of books he has not had the energy to read for a long time”
Has anyone on the forum had any experience of this? If so I would love to know.
Mrs CHRISH.
Smoking tobacco is known to decrease the chances of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (good research evidence) so I have sometimes wondered if nicotine patches might help. Interesting. My husband has never smoked & has PD as did his mother. Our son has recently started smoking again & I am less inclined to try to persuade him to stop now.
The same thoughts about nicotine have occurred to me. I was a light smoker for thirty years, but gave up twenty years ago when I was 47.
I considered taking up vaping. That would have the advantage over patches of getting the nicotine into the same places it gets if you smoke a cigarette. That might be important. But, I decided against it because of the inconvenience.
So I tried patches instead. I used the weakest patch I could buy. I think it was 10mg. I kept it up for about 8 months. I never noticed any effect on my symptoms. I stopped because I became concerned about the risk of skin cancer from wearing a patch every day.
I know that Researchers are looking into nicotine in relation to Parkinsons. I can’t remember their names but I contributed to their research.I wonder if there is any data on whether those with Parkinsons had smoked or not. Just a thought.
I’ve read about studies connecting nicotine with Parkinson’s research before, but it’s definitely a bit controversial. My uncle had Parkinson’s and he never smoked a day in his life, but I also know some people who did and still developed it. So I guess the connection is still not totally clear, and there’s probably a lot more data needed.
Welcome to the group firstly, eltidoyarola!
You’re right - while some studies have suggested a connection between nicotine and Parkinson’s, the relationship is still not fully understood and is definitely complex. It’s interesting to see the ongoing research, but as you mentioned, there’s still a lot more to learn, and many factors can influence whether someone develops Parkinson’s.
It’s always great to have these conversations, as research and awareness continue to grow!
Parkinson’s UK Moderation Team
There is neuro chemistry Dr Clarke on YouTube explaing how he uses nicotine patches 7mg two alternate days along with melatonin and some hormonal treatments to stop and reverse PD progression.
He explains the science and backs up his hypothesis with EEGs and you can see the new neorlogical connections being made after a month . The rehabilitation of the brain continues with physio training where the body has to learn again the ability to function again .
If you search YouTube PAM Parkinson’s you will see the video the broken brain ep PD by Dr Clarke
Hope this helps
On a side note, when I switched to vaping, I started using a shortfill liquid because I could adjust the nicotine amount more easily. I’m pretty sure people interested in nicotine alternatives use those for similar reasons.