Best Blender ? Smoking Accelerates Progression of Multiple Sclerosis

Smoking cigarettes not only increases the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), it also might contribute to more rapid disease progression, new research suggests.

However, quitting smoking might at least partly reverse the adverse effects that this addictive habit has on MS.

"This study found that current smokers had significantly more severe disease at baseline and also that they progressed at a faster rate," said study author, Alberto Ascherio, MD, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Massachusetts. "So if smokers had relapsing-remitting MS, they converted to a progressive course sooner than those who had never smoked."

The study, published in the July issue of?Archives of Neurology, examined 1465 patients diagnosed with MS who completed a self-administered smoking questionnaire while being treated at the Partners Multiple Sclerosis Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston between February 13, 2006 and August 29, 2007.

However, the study does have some limitations. For one thing, there is the possibility that some genetic mutation predisposes people to develop MS and to become addicted to cigarettes, he said.

"Smoking Nazi"

When asked for a comment, Lily Jung, MD, a neurologist at Swedish Neuroscience Institute, in Seattle, Washington, and member of the American Academy of Neurology, said that she is already a "smoking Nazi" with her patients. "This is just more ammunition for telling them that to stop smoking is the easiest thing they can do to treat their MS."

The issue of smoking should be raised "before you even go into the whole discussion about disease-modifying therapies and their costs, fears of injections, and side effects," she said.

Quitting the habit, she added, gives patients "a better fighting chance" to cope with MS.

READ ON:?http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/706194

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