Re: Coffee, smoking

["Jorge A Romero, MD" <romeroja@xxxxxxx>]

One of the problems with this literature is the way it is reported and
interpreted.

The studies with smoking and coffee drinking and Parkinsonism are very
interesting, but they do not prove that smoking or coffee drinking prevent
Parkinsonism, or that failure to drink coffee and smoke are causes of
Parkinsonism.  Even more important, they do not even prove that changing
your habits towards smoking and coffee drinking would have any effect.  All
they prove is that for some unexplained reason, there are proportionately
fewer PWP in the smoker and coffee drinker populations than in the
non-smokers non coffee drinkers.

Important to keep in mind is that there are PWP in BOTH groups.   The
reduction in the proportion in the smokers and coffee drinkers is small.  It
is an observation that is more scientifically interesting than practical, at
least for the moment, until we can understand the reason.

As an analogy think of age and automobile accidents.  It is very clear that
the young and the elderly are more likely to get into traffic accidents,
proportionately speaking.  The reasons are different - the young are more
likely to be reckless, more likely to be drinking, less experienced;  the
elderly may have slower reflexes, or impaired vision and motor coordination.
In these cases, age is not itself the cause of the problem, but a correlated
measurement.

That may be the case with smoking and coffee drinking and the risk of
Parkinsonism - they may be merely correlated measurements without any
causative implication.    The underlying reason may have nothing to do with
the disease itself.  Research aimed at understanding why that correlation
exists may be helpful in the long run in the treatment or prevention of the
disease, or may turn out to be irrelevant and just a coincidence.


Jorge Romero




----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Lauer" <PHL1037@xxxxxxx>
To: <PARKINSN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, May 28, 2000 10:00 AM
Subject: Coffee, smoking


> I am somewhat bemused by the posts on these subjects. I smoked 4 packs/day
> for thirty years and quit about 12 years ago when spots were discovered on
my
> lungs. I drank 6-8 cups of caffeinated coffee until I developed PD 1 1/2
> years ago and read somewhere that caffeine was a no-no for pwp. So I
switched
> to decaf coffee in greatly reduced amounts and switched to green tea for
> those rare occasions when I drank tea. Now I don't plan to start smoking
> again even if it were proven to be neuroprotective, but I sure could
revert
> to my old coffee drinking style in a heartbeat. Is anyone saying with
> authority caffeine or no caffeine?
>
> Paul H. Lauer
>