Laura [conductor 71] sent me this email and i find its very interesting . will research it more.

This is entirely anecdotal and one person's response...have you ever tried the patch? This guy wrote a piece for MJFF in 2009:

My condition has also responded positively to Azilect, a drug that can help block the breakdown of dopamine. And when my wife read about studies suggesting that cigarette smokers were less likely to develop Parkinson's, she insisted that I try wearing a nicotine patch. Two neurologists were skeptical but said it couldn't hurt.

I now slap on a 21-milligram nicotine patch every morning. It seems to lubricate my muscles and most notably it helps my voice. Good thing. Still, I can't type with my right hand, and for the first year and a half my voice recognition software -- which demands a clear strong speaking voice -- was befuddled by my dictation.

Nicotine improved my enunciation and dictation is now a breeze. So I've become a voice for more and better research. Please hurry.


-Jerry Tully of ABCNews .com on MJFF site

Scientific evidence:

Specifically, nicotine mimics acetylcholine, the Cinderella of neurotransmitters. Largely ignored over the years, acetylcholine has been catapulted into a starring role, linking the nervous and the immune systems. Through acetylcholine the nervous system controls the inflammatory fires that constantly crop up in our bodies. Receptors for acetylcholine reside not only on nerve cell endings but also on immune cells. Nicotine binds and activates these receptors, allowing cross talk between the brain and immune system.

"This is something quite phenomenal," comments Wouter de Jonge of the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, who studies how macrophages respond to acetylcholine. "Smokers suffering from ulcerative colitis seemed to benefit from their habit, so there were hints that nicotine could ameliorate inflammatory diseases, but nobody could get a handle on it," he notes.

Now Ulloa's group may have provided an explanation for the positive effects that nicotine has on illnesses as diverse as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, Tourette's syndrome and ulcerative colitis. In laboratory experiments, Ulloa demonstrated that nicotine latches onto the nicotinic receptors on macrophages and stops them from spewing out inflammatory cytokines. This clampdown is brutally effective. The researchers also identified the specific receptor subtype, the alpha-7 acetylcholine receptor, that nicotine binds in macrophages to stop cytokine production.

But as a drug, nicotine is fraught with toxicity issues. Apart from its addictive nature, it can lead to cardiovascular problems and contribute to cancer. "No one is looking to use nicotine to treat inflammation," Ulloa says. "We want to design specific compounds that will target this receptor to take advantage of nicotine's anti-inflammatory effects whileeluding its collateral toxicity."



Scientific American 2006 (reprint)


acetycholine , cinderella-
interesting word play i must look it up.
this was years ago and he specifically asked for urgency with acetylcholine becoming a star. was it followed up? acetylchline has more receptors that the nocitinic- could this be why it has been assumed that pd benefits from acetycholine for dementia?

thanks laura!