I have been trying to research some issues without alot of luck. Can anyone help me I feel like I know the answer but need confirmation. If you carry the gene for HD however are still in your mid 30's and have not yet started showing signs would it be benifical to stop or minimize the the amount that you do smoke/drink to help slow the onset of symptoms. It is my understanding that the better your health/mind are the slower the onset. Are there any other connections I should know about? Am I over thinking this or is this a valid issue? Any help or input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Bob

Smoking; Free Radicals; HD

"Accordingly, the neurodegeneration initially caused by gene mutation in Huntington's disease may be further worsened by free radical damage underlied by oxidative stress"

Hello! It is my understanding that stopping smoking, at any stage, is beneficial. Although, It must stand to reason the earlier the better. Smoking introduces in high doses, aside from man-made toxins, free radicals into your body and these free radicals help accelerate many disease and/or conditions. The above article is a little technical, but beneficial.

Also, if you are looking for reading material try Bob Greene's "Twenty Years Younger" Very informative on healthy living: applies to all illnesses (though it doesn't mention any specifically). This life style change plus supplement/vitamin for HD; must help....

Haven't researched much on the drinking part. I hope the occasional social drink is okay

Either smoking or drinking both bring in to addcition stage. So away from this habit of using this drugs. However for drug adict, I wish to say take treatments from initial stage itself. Otherwise it brings to very dangerous and hazardous condition. So be caoutious. Drug addicion is complete curable. There are various drug addiction treatment is being given in government hospital itself. Duration of treatment may be longer like six months or one year like this. So take treatment and get good health.

`I am 75 - have a CAG of 40 and am in mid trending toward latter stage of HD; pehaps accelerated by the death of my daughter.I have had a wonderful life; beer, seems to help with my walking (cuts down on my floppy gait) and general mood elevation. (Marsha could speak to the interaction in the brain). bob



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2012 11:34AM by bob netx.

wow Bob beer helps with the gait,makes sense. how about wine which I prefer. I always thought it was better to avoid alcohol with diminishing brain diseases. I cant drink beer I look pregnant in 2 beers. Also I went to wine tasting and hammered after the second wine before they even got to the wines i like,so I would say getting hammered cheaply is another early HD sign. is the beer filliing in tyhe spaces in movement?

those who have hd have with each little thing and do the best with out much help

i have been using a cheap irish creme for mouth pain during this horrible time of having teeth out . the dentist says use oralgel but it numbs my throat and affects swallowing.

Tobacco is a miracle for me, every moring I cannot swalllow until 1 cigarrette and cannot speak until 2 cigarette. This are always with coffee. WHen I had my teeth out I took a nircorette inhaler with me and a bottle of moistur both clutched in big hands because my tongue kept getting stuck on on the roof of my mouth. the nurse said i had the dryest mouth she had ever seen and the pre operative fasting made it worsre. in my opinion, they should have people with HD etc on iv fluids overnight before surgery. I think the nicorette is foul awful taste and very expensive and you end up with more waste plastic.

tobacco calms people i think the world would better if peopled smoked again.

Dusty,
You are amazing!
love,
paula

Dusty, I don't state things well.
I recognize the benefits of tobacco for an HD person; both my HD daughters smoked, and I made sure the one now deceased always had cigs.
. bob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2012 11:36AM by bob netx.

i'm not being sarcastic or something. I feel 200% of my life is spent doing the wrong things. Your life is awful and you do what you can to cope and you have done a great job.

My scientific research is that peroxide provides the idea oxidation because of having no half life, rather than chlorine. We didn't even have free radicals when I went to school although Ross had a few in his class, and they are stilll fighting to make pot legal.

first of all there are no chemicfal addititves to Canadian tobacco only sugar compared american which have a pletheria of chemicals. My FIL was VP of research for a large tobacco company. I have his hydrometer which he used on all the tobacco plants.

it is not a good time to be a smoker. I have watched the HSC social worker inform families that people HD must quit smoking on the explanation thatt it makes nursing home candidatcy better. All my friends that quit had much more movement, then they got more meds and sunk in obivion and in a very expensive nursing home or dead.

HD used to be called the old mans smoking disease because tobacco was known to calm the movement. Because they were dying anyway, future health was not a great concern, in those days most doctors smoked.

my neuro at mcmaster was very interested in the fact that I smoke because I stayed at his concept of early HD for much longer than most of his patients.I also drink a lot of coffee with the cigies. SO he looked up and found research on tobacco's benefits almost anywhere but North America. It is easy to fund non smoking research, not so easy to fund benefits of smoking resesrch. Public health dollars are washed out in millions for non smoking projects, so people can talk about free radicals, but they dont have the same talk about ectasy a totally marketed illegal drug.

I think all the starving children would eat if they got all the money that is spent on not smoking.

those who have hd have with each little thing and do the best with out much help

that was for you bob

Ah. Smoking and drinking. Something I know about. In fact, in the military I would be called an SME (Subject Matter Expert). For those who don't know me, I'm gene positive with a low CAG of 40. I'm asymptomatic at age 66. I've been a lifetime runner, which I believe is helping keep me symptom free, along with a supplement regimen I started when I tested positive in 2003.

I smoked a half to a full pack a day all my adult life until I switched to e-cigarettes 3 years ago. More on those later. Being somewhat of a contrarian, I looked forward to those occasions when a Health Nazi would ask me (usually with a superior sneer) how I could smoke and run. The answer I developed was, "Well, I don't smoke while I run. It would hurt my race times. My best marathon time is 3 hours 14 minutes and I've done over 50 marathons and ultramarathons. What's your best marathon time?"

That would shut them up. I don't think smoking affected my lack of HD symptoms either way. I've also been a moderate drinker all my adult life - a beer or two after a mid-day run, a cocktail before dinner and a glass of wine or two with dinner. Without a controlled experiment, I can't say if this affected my HD either way.

I went through several brands and types of e-cigarettes. The first ones had a separate battery, atomizer and nicotine cartridge. Those were a pain in the neck. The atomizers had to be clean to work properly and the cartridges had to be filled reguarly with juice to work properly. When they all worked, the sensation was as good as real smoking, if not better. The vapor has a faint odor, but it doesn't stay in your mouth or get on your clothes. The vapor doesn't hang in the air or stay in the house like cigarette smoke.

About a year ago I switched to the White Cloud brand. It's by far the most expensive, but still significantly cheaper than cigarettes. It has a battery that has to be charged daily and a single cartridge that lasts me about a day. The quality and consistency of both is the best in the industry. It took me a while to find the right flavor (vanilla, of all things), but 9 or 10 inhales give a throat hit and head buzz that to me is better than a high octane Marlboro.

Best of all, my Physicians Assistant (who is my regular doc) says my lungs sound like someone who has never smoked. I have no financial interest in White Cloud - just a satisfied customer. Their customer service is also probably the best in the business. Google them to find their web site.

Will

Ray smoked right up until he passed away. In the nursing home, he couldn't smoke, but my mom and I would take him outside a couple times a day and each time he'd have a couple smokes. He loved it! The last couple years, we even held the cigarettes for him, and I actually think it was some real bonding time (lol) . . . it didn't matter if it was ten below zero, we were out there with blankets, hats, gloves and we'd get laughing trying to light those darn things out there. My mother never even smoked, but she'd light them up for him and Ray got a real kick out of that, because she's in her 60s and never smoked a day in her life, but here she is lighting up for Raymond (he was spoiled). A couple times, the nurses tried to give us a hard time about taking him outside to smoke, and I basically told them in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to smoke, I was going let him smoke, probably one of the only things he could really enjoy in the end (besides us, of course).

mjdelcon
Until recently both my hd daughters went with me several times a month with a special singing group to various nursing homes to sing southern gospel songs. Several with obvious HD - some would sit outside and smoke. No doubt they were bonding. My special daughter and I had an agreement we would never go to a nursing home and she would pull the plug on me.Little did I know I would be the one to pull her plug after A wreck- instant death but was kept on life support for fout days. bob

Oh, Bob, I'm so sorry about your daughter!! That sounds so very sad and heartwrenching for a parent. I guess we never really know what we're going to face in life . . . it's definitely never easy, though . . . thinking of you.

This topic was unexpecte,,, my hubby who has HD has been a BIG smoker almost all his life and now that he is dangerous with his cigs I was ready to make him stop. He loves his smokes but I find burn holes in and on everything, even in his bathroom 2 feet from his 02 canisters. He has been clean and sober almost 30 years now so to do any drinking is out of the question, I use e smokes and thought of getting him one but now that I read this I am not sure what to do?

So sorry Bob for your loss. Can't imagine. Hang in there.

Until reading these post I have wondered about smoking and drinking. I like my beer and thought it may be in my head that I had better walking ability after a few. Maybe it's not in my head.

Quit smoking 10 years, picked up cigars about 4 years ago. I like a few of the ones I smoke during the day but mostly another nicotene habit for me.

Mike