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The EconomistA quarter of French adults smoke. Many people were surprised, therefore, when researchers reported late in April that only 5% of 482 covid-19 patients who came to the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris between February 28th and April 9th were daily smokers. The ratios of smokers to non-smokers in earlier tallies at hospitals in America, China and elsewhere in France varied. But all revealed habitual smokers to be significantly underrepresented among those requiring hospital treatment for the illness. Smokers, the authors of the report wrote, are much less likely to suffer severely from sars-cov-2, the virus that causes covid-19. Rarely, they added, is such a result seen in medicine.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)MineralMan
(146,338 posts)infect cells. It will be interesting to see if this result is duplicated elsewhere. At this point, it's just a supposition that there is a causal effect from smoking or nicotine.
Wounded Bear
(58,743 posts)MineralMan
(146,338 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Kinda weird that people - including researchers - make the jump from "smokers" to "maybe nicotine" given that nicotine is merely one of hundreds of chemicals in cigarette smoke.
Formaldehyde would be a better guess, IMHO.
But having a protective coating of tar in the lungs might present a challenge for this infection.
MineralMan
(146,338 posts)a real connection at all between smoking and less risk. I'm not sure that has been established firmly yet.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,484 posts)Or we could maybe get the Viceroys dentist to maybe shine a powerful light like through the skin or from inside the body while injecting scrapings from old ash trays and cigarette butts.
We really need this checked out on someone, I don't know, maybe orange and grotesque?
It is starting to look like this covid-19 came out of the Woody Allen "Sleeper" -- doctors are going to start recommending cigarettes again.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)PCIntern
(25,601 posts)What have you got to lose?
Baclava
(12,047 posts)MineralMan
(146,338 posts)Vaping isn't good for your lungs. Neither is smoking, of course.
In any case, there is no proof that nicotine protects anyone from COVID-19. There may be no cause and effect validity from this report. Or, there might. We will have to wait and see.
Marrah_Goodman
(1,586 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Marrah_Goodman
(1,586 posts)MineralMan
(146,338 posts)distribution through the bloodstream would probably be more effective on the cellular level.
Mossfern
(2,570 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)It could simply be that the accumulation of tar in the lungs is inhospitable to the virus.
It's weird that people assume nicotine - merely one in a long list of chemicals in cigarettes - has anything to do with it.
Could be formaldehyde too.
HarlanPepper
(2,042 posts)In any case Ive got enough in mine to build an offramp so Im good to go.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)They did not isolate nicotine as being responsible for the observed numbers.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)I truly miss it and think of starting again all the time.
I hope cannabis has the same effect.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,664 posts)uponit7771
(90,367 posts)WhiskeyWulf
(569 posts)LisaL
(44,974 posts)Zing Zing Zingbah
(6,496 posts)I think healthy diet and exercise is still the best way to go. Avoid smoking and alcohol.
LisaL
(44,974 posts)Zing Zing Zingbah
(6,496 posts)Alcohol can be fun sometimes, but I've been trying to keep it to just occasions like parties. Too many extra calories, plus hangovers make it hard to exercise the next day. I also notice it affects my mood for the next few days (depressant effect). I find that to be the worst thing about drinking alcohol for me. I am much better mentally if I stay away from it. It affects everyone differently of course.