Oral tobacco can help slow down multiple sclerosis.
A recent study reveals that the use of oral tobacco, also known as moist snuff, is linked to a slower progression of multiple sclerosis (MS).
The researchers, led by Jing Wu, a PhD candidate at the Aging Research Center, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, suggest that nicotine replacement therapy could be a viable option for individuals diagnosed with MS who want to quit smoking, based on the finding that snuff use is not associated with worse disease progression.
The study's findings were published in the August edition of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
In order to investigate this association, the researchers analyzed data from 9,089 MS patients who participated in two case-control studies conducted by the Swedish MS registry. The participants had an average age of 37.6 years, with 72% of them being female. At the beginning of the study, current smokers had significantly higher scores on the expanded disability status scale (EDSS) compared to non-smokers.
The researchers estimated the rate of change in MS progression scores over a period of 15 years. The reference groups for the analysis were individuals who had never smoked and those who had never been exposed to passive smoking.
All the analyses performed were adjusted for variables such as age at diagnosis, sex, disease phenotype, disease duration, baseline EDSS, and use of disease-modifying therapy.