Reacción a "A study analyses the relationship between quitting smoking and the risk of developing Parkinson's disease"

The study recently published in Neurology shows, based on data obtained from a large number of patients with a history of tobacco use, including people who had quit smoking, new evidence of the link between tobacco use and the incidence of Parkinson's disease. It was already known that this neurodegenerative disorder is somewhat more common among smokers than non-smokers, and this new study shows that those who quit smoking for a long time significantly reduced all-cause mortality compared to those who continued smoking, but had a slightly higher incidence of Parkinson's disease.

There is irrefutable evidence that tobacco seriously harms both human health and the planet: tobacco causes around 60,000 deaths per year in Spain and is one of the main preventable causes of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and cancer, and it also has a serious impact on the environment. In contrast to the seriousness of the damage caused by tobacco, studies have been published indicating that the incidence or clinical course of a few disorders—including Parkinson's—may be somewhat lower among smokers than among non-smokers. These potential benefits are negligible compared to the harms of tobacco and nicotine use and exposure, so rather than questioning the need to continue supporting measures to prevent smoking initiation and facilitate cessation among those who still smoke, they merely encourage further research to help develop new therapies that replicate the possible beneficial effects of tobacco on diseases such as Parkinson's.