Smokers with multiple sclerosis (MS) show more brain atrophy..

September 11, 2009 - People who have multiple sclerosis (MS) that have smoked for as little as six months during their lifetime have more destroyed brain tissue and brain atrophy than those who have never smoked. Back in 2005 researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health reported that current and past smokers with multiple sclerosis were more than three times as likely as patients who had never smoked to have more rapid progression of their disease. (Smoking Tied to Multiple Sclerosis Progression Harvard Study Links Smoking With Greater Risk of More Rapid Increase in MS Symptoms by Salynn Boyles, WebMD Health News, 5/26/2005)

For the first time this new study, published in the journal Neurology, evaluated the effects of smoking on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics of patients with MS. Robert Zivadinov, the lead author of the study noted how there is a greater loss of brain volume for people who enjoy cigarettes or cigars.

PAPER: Smoking is associated with increased lesion volumes and brain atrophy in multiple sclerosis R. Zivadinov, MD, PhD, B. Weinstock-Guttman, MD, K. Hashmi, MD, N. Abdelrahman, MD, M. Stosic, MD, M. Dwyer, S. Hussein, J. Durfee and M. Ramanathan, PhD NEUROLOGY 2009;73:504-510, ABSTRACT..

368 MS patients were evaluated, average age 44, who had been diagnosed about 12 years earlier. Of the 368 patients, 240 had never smoked, 96 smoked currently and 32 had smoked in the past. All patients were evaluated clinically and had an MRI to monitor the disease process and evaluate the effects of treatments. The MRI measured the size of the MS-related brain lesions and the brain shrinkage that can occur with age and with MS. Smokers with MS had nearly 17 percent more brain lesions than nonsmokers with MS. Smokers with MS also had more brain tissue shrinkage.

Dr. John Richert, executive vice president for research and clinical programs for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society: the recent study lends weight to the conclusion, reached in some but not all previous studies, that smoking does in fact worsen MS symptoms.

References: Smokers with MS ’show more brain atrophy’ posted by Michelle Mitzvie, Ethiopian Review, 9/10/2009; Smoking Worsens Multiple Sclerosis Raised risk of brain lesions and shrinkage, researchers found, HealthDay, 8/17/2009.