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by Workaccount2 1141 days ago
Pick up a nicotine addiction.

Seriously, it has long been understood that people who smoke have dramatically lower levels of parkinsons. It comes from the neuroprotective properties of nicotine. You don't have to become a smoker, you could theoretically use any of the other forms (vape, gum, patch)

2 comments

https://www.apdaparkinson.org/article/smoking-and-parkinsons...

Smoking and Nicotine addiction are still bad.

Nicotine is wonderful. 2mg and 4mg lozenges are readily available, you don't have to take up smoking to get it. It's excellent for many, many things: cognition, focus, appetite control, positive habit formation, etc.

Addiction is literally its only downside.

You don't have to smoke cigarettes to get nicotine. Using a patch just gives you nicotine in a very safe way, and nicotine itself isn't particularly harmful.
Curious if you have any links to support lower incidence of Parkinsons for smokers. I found this, which states that nicotine does not slow the disease once started: https://www.michaeljfox.org/news/nicotine-patch-not-benefici...
I'd encourage you to just search google scholar for "nicotine and parkinsons" there are dozens and dozens of studies. It's been well established for decades now, as it stood out, especially in the past, that cigarette smokers weren't developing parkinsons as expected. Here is a recent meta study though:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01674...

There have also been numerous studies that have found that starting nicotine once symptoms begin is too late, with little or no effect. It is hypothesized that there is some critical point that once crossed, nicotine no longer has an effect. Parkinsons is believed to slowly develop over years or decades, and nicotine stunts this early progression.