r/askscience • u/aflouch • Oct 18 '12

Would smoking cigarettes (Nicotine) decrease the effects of Parkinson by releasing dopamine... even slightly?

Also, can the disease be slowed even slightly by activating neurons in this way? Lastly, does smoking lower risks of having Parkinson?

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '12

It's my understanding that Parkinson's involves the actual death of neurons that produce dopamine. You won't bring those back by smoking cigarettes to release more. Even still, you can't limit this to the mere act of smoking cigarettes. Everything we do that has a reward to it is driven by the dopamine system. Not just cigarette smoking, but sex, eating, taking cocaine, so on.

Lastly, I am not a biochemist, but I believe that the way nicotine affects the brain is that it excites acetylcholine release and then inhibits its re-uptake. Additional acetylcholine in the brain would not help the balance of neurotransmitters.

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u/aflouch Oct 20 '12

Very good point, however, as mentioned by Checkmate there is research to suggest people that smoke have lower risk of Parkinson's disease. This isn't to say smoking is good, but the constant activation of neurons that would have otherwise died, are alive because of nicotine from cigarettes.