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Does anyone here smoke?

Prefect

Senior Member
Messages
307
Location
Canada
The week I came down with this thing (whatever it is), 20 year ago, I was so sick I quit smoking cold turkey that week.

That says a lot about the severity with which this thing hit me, because I was a pack a day guy who sat up in bed in the morning and lit a cigarette, otherwise it took me a lot to get out of bed. I'm convinced I was self-medicating against dormant mental illness, because it kicked in hard with my ME.

I had tried to quit unsuccessfully. But that week I got SO SICK with whatever this is I just couldn't even smoke.

But over the years I keep reading about neuroprotective / anti inflammatory properties of nicotine, and its impact on gut-brain mechanisms/transit time, not to mentioned tobacco is an MAO inhibitor, I've always wondered what would have happened to my disease if I had kept smoking.

I should also say, it's now one of my last resort options. I'm so fed up with this thing lately I've decided to start trying things, and TAKING CHANCES. If I'm at the end of my rope, and if nicotine gum has no effect, I'm going to start smoking and see what happens.

I am very curious about who here smokes, and what their level of illness is at. I remember reading Jay Goldstein experimented with nicotine patches on CFS patients with some success.
 

erin

Senior Member
Messages
885
I never smoke. I never did, never felt the need ever. Last summer, I had some bad news that stressed me badly. That day I went to the nearest shop bought a pack of cigarettes and smoked 6 of them one after another non-stop. It was really strange. I never did anything like this in my life. I felt relieved while I was smoking them. I didn't smoke and I haven't smoked since that day. -One off, weird incidence.

I had very stressful, bad situations in my life, they were way before I got ME and never smoked or thought of smoking then.
 
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lansbergen

Senior Member
Messages
2,512
I smoke like a.chimney. It does not prevent my improvement.

After I got what seemed to be the worst flu ever I went in ten years from mild to moderstre to severe to very severe and after starting taking the immune modulator I slowly improved.
 

Prefect

Senior Member
Messages
307
Location
Canada
Personally, @Prefect , I think going back to smoking cigarettes sounds like a really bad idea. :eek:

Oh no worries! I don't intend to become a smoker. If smoking causes a remission (and I mean FULL remission) it would tell me what drugs I need to focus on, or what supplements I need to take to get the same benefit. Unfortunately you have to use nicotine for a couple of weeks to get the full anti inflammatory impacts.

after starting taking the immune modulator I slowly improved.

What immune modulator?

I smoke like a.chimney. It does not prevent my improvement.

You mean smoking doesn't make you worse. Did you smoke during the entire time you've had ME and even before?
 

Prefect

Senior Member
Messages
307
Location
Canada
levamisole

Wow. This thing is a de-wormer?!

It says it reduces white blood cells. Maybe it's basically an agent against an overt eosinophilic response.

I wondering if it would reduce my nasal inflammation lol. Nasal steroid sprays send my anxiety through the roof for some reason.
 

lansbergen

Senior Member
Messages
2,512
Wow. This thing is a de-wormer?!

I used in animals as a dewormer and when the infection was brought in the popilation I noticed it helped for the infection. When I was dying anyway I sterted to take it myselve and it helped me too.
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
Here is a clue:
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, or nAChRs, are neuron receptor proteins that respond to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Nicotinic receptors also respond to drugs, including the nicotinic receptor agonist nicotine. They are found in the central nervous system of humans, and also play two important roles in the peripheral nervous system: (1) they transmit outgoing signals from the presynaptic to the postsynaptic cells within the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, and (2) they are the receptors found on skeletal muscle that receive acetylcholine released to signal for muscular contraction.
 

Prefect

Senior Member
Messages
307
Location
Canada
When I was dying anyway I sterted to take it myselve and it helped me too.

You're a farmer or a vet I guess? Is it possible you were also suffering from a parasitic infection and that's why this thing helped? But I guess if that was the case the cure effect would have been dramatic and you would have been all good and well in a couple of weeks.
 

lansbergen

Senior Member
Messages
2,512
You're a farmer or a vet I guess? Is it possible you were also suffering from a parasitic infection and that's why this thing helped? But I guess if that was the case the cure effect would have been dramatic and you would have been all good and well in a couple of weeks.

The dosis I take is to low for worm treatment.
 

Prefect

Senior Member
Messages
307
Location
Canada
Here is a clue:

See I've always been a fan of Jay Goldstein. So many people want to get rich selling diet books and supplements to people with mystery illnesses, but he was a true and respectable geek in his interest in this disease and if he was still practicing and I lived in California I'd be at his doorstep tomorrow.

He experimented with people with CFS using nicotine patches, etc. I see a nicotine gum as a much more benign option than a receptor agonist drug. If nicotine helps, I'd rather go on the patch or find a supplement that would semi do the same thing.
 

frederic83

Senior Member
Messages
296
Location
France
Smoking helps me a little, maybe because of the nAChR antibodies which I don't know if I have. I stopped smoking for several years, it helps some symptoms of my CFS but other are worse. I'm definitely going to try nicotine gum.
 

hmnr asg

Senior Member
Messages
558
I have found that chewing nicotine gums gives me some mental boost (like a 10% improvement for my brain fog). It tastes like crap and I am not a smoker but when I need to focus in spite of my terrible brain fog i pop in a nicotine gum. You get the positive effects (if there are any) without the negative ones.
I guess a vape pen would be the same thing? not sure.

H
 

Murph

:)
Messages
1,799
There's plenty of evidence that smoking is good for schizophrenia. (This is not to say the evidence is all on one side, mind you. There's plenty of evidence on both sides.)

Nicotine gum is a much better idea than actually getting back on the darts. As far as alternative medicines go, that would be seriously alternative!
 

Prefect

Senior Member
Messages
307
Location
Canada
I have found that chewing nicotine gums gives me some mental boost (like a 10% improvement for my brain fog). It tastes like crap and I am not a smoker but when I need to focus in spite of my terrible brain fog i pop in a nicotine gum. You get the positive effects (if there are any) without the negative ones.

Good to know. My brain fog is usually in the morning (especially when I've had a good night's sleep, which is tragic).

And I know this is a weird thing to say, but my brain fog, or cerebral fatigue, is more in my forehead and around my eyes. It's like the back of my head is awake but the front isn't. And my ears feel stuffed.

And when I have a strong cup of coffee, it's like my body wakes up, heart rate goes up, I get a bit of ringing in my ears, but I don't get any more awake. I've tried 1 gram of Tyrosine a couple of times, made no difference. I wonder if nicotine will be like this, or hopefully different.

Mental exercise and physical movement (like getting right to work and starting work, interacting with people, etc) seems to help the most. By lunch time I'm better.