After 5 seconds of searching, first article on pubmed I came to says nicotine improves cognitive and motor functioning in PD.
The effects of nicotine on Parkinson's di... [Brain Cogn. 2000 Jun-Aug] - PubMed - NCBI
There's plenty of other studies on pubmed suggesting similar findings. Sounds like a little more than just correlation if you ask me.
That one seems to be looking at something else, but I would suggest there is still more of correlation there. I wish I were more eloquent but I will attempt to explain my thoughts to the best of my abilities. They indicated that post mortem studies indicate substantial loss of nicotine receptors in pd patients. The question there is why? If there are fewer receptors then stimulating them more would make
sense. The flip side to that for nicotine addicts is maybe we have more receptors, or are less prone to loss of these receptors. If the lack of loss is responsible for decreased risk of parkinson, is this because we are smokers, or are we smokers because of this. And are pd patients primarily non smokers or shorter term smokers because of the loss of these receptors, or does the not smoking facility the loss of these receptors. I am not saying it isn't compelling, or important, because it certainly is and is worthy of research, but I feel that knowing something works isn't always as important as knowing the reason why it works or doesn't work. It is like how cigarettes helped keep my rls in check even though nicotine is a supposed known trigger. But
vaping doesn't help really.The why could be very important. And I think that is the case here. Causation to my mind answers the why. I hope I am making
sense, I am really not the most coherent of writers. I should probably go back and spend more time on technical writing.
