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Let's Get Down & Dirty / Re: The last of us
« Last post by Firefly369 on Today at 10:41:45 AM »
I'm sorry, FireFly. I just now saw this post. I honestly don't know the answer to this question. However, I can tell you from direct observation in a hospital setting that current smokers, to my surprise, did not catch Covid all too often. If they did, their recovery was pretty prompt and mostly asymptomatic compared to that of non-smokers. I'm not advocating for anyone to go out and smoke. I'm just telling you what I saw from first-hand accounts and observable patterns.
Now if I were to speculate with my medical knowledge, I would say it probably had less to do with the nicotine and more to do with the underlying sequela of the effects of smoking. Meaning the person's lungs have slowly acclimated and got used to living in a state of constant inflammation and imbalance within their lungs slowly over time. Hence, it wasn't a big shock to their systems because they had become so used to living in a state of chronic inflammation to the point that their body, immune system, and inflammatory reactions were compensated.
I draw this conclusion because, through observation, I noticed the same thing with asthmatics (who were theorized) at high risk for mortality, intubation, and ventilation and ended up being mostly asymptomatic with some of the quickest recovery times more than likely because their lungs are typically always in an inflammatory state as well.
The people with the worst outcomes were those whose bodies and lungs had the worst systemic inflammatory and immunological response to Covid. They ultimately all developed cytokine storms that led to ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome). If they were lucky enough to have survived, they would have severe fibrotic lung tissue damage from the scaring and tissue remodeling from ARDS- which some people are terming "Long Covid."
So in a sense, the person's immune system was so shocked and highly reactive that it behaved similarly to that of an autoimmune disease. And anyone who's had any experience with Autoimmune disease knows that not only are they deadly and devastating it's also the body's ultimate betrayal as your immune system is supposed to help you but ends up hurting you instead. Look at anyone with Systemic Lupus or any of the myriad autoimmune diseases.
I hope that sheds some light on it. Again, these are just my personal views from my direct observations of dealing with these patients.
I think many of the nicotine/ covid studies focus on the enzyme 2 (ACE 2) or the nicotinic cholinergic system and how nicotine affects those items. Unfortunately, many of the studies seem to be from 2020 (and published in 2021). Although this is a great historical record since they reflect the behavior of the population’s bodies to the original Covid “virus”, it’s not possible to assume this information would be exactly the same in the most recent covid “strains.” It’s probable that the results would be the same, but not guaranteed.
Here are a couple which (I don’t believe) are government funded. This is also an issue in sorting nicotine/covid studies.
From nicotine to the cholinergic anti-inflammatory reflex – Can nicotine alleviate the dysregulated inflammation in COVID-19?
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Quote
Early epidemiologic studies documented lower rates of active smokers compared to former or non-smokers in symptomatic patients affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It was hypothesized that nicotine may interact with SARS-CoV-2 entry in human cells by downregulating the expression of angiotensin converting enzyme 2, and might mitigate the inflammatory response induced by the virus through activation of the nicotinic cholinergic system. This multicentre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial aimed to determine the efficacy and safety of nicotine administered by a transdermal patch in critically ill patients with COVID-19 pneumonia who were receiving invasive mechanical ventilation. The results show that transdermal nicotine did not significantly reduce day-28 mortality. 60-Day mortality, time to successful extubation, days alive and free from mechanical ventilation, renal replacement therapy, vasopressor support or organ failure were also not modified by nicotine.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
I know as an asthmatic myself, when I got what was probably covid (didn’t test myself, but it was very prevalent in the area at the time, and a housemate tested positive), having asthma did not help me fight covid in any way at all. Of course, I do not have severe asthma, and can go years without using an inhaler. The initial response of my body was probably 5-7 days of sore throat and body aches, but the bronchitis and sinus infection took a few more weeks to get rid of. I didn’t get an inhaler until about 12 days in.
My sister, who has fibromyalgia as well as other AI disorders, tests positive for covid every 90-100 days. The J&J shot (don’t think she had a booster, but maybe) did not help at all. Of course, she assures me she would be much worse off without the magic shot. In her case, having an auto immune disorder doesn’t help with covid either.
I think there are so many personal factors that these studies cannot take into affect. Mental health and Spiritual health play a huge role in our physical health. However, you can’t easily find a group of people with the same physical, mental and spiritual characteristics. Scientists must match characteristics that can be physically measured. Although mental health screenings can help get an insight into one’s mental health, the screenings are subjective and responses can change daily. It would be interesting though to see if the physical factors (like smoking) connect to the mental factors (ex: are smokers more anxious? Does that hyper state of your nerves help fight off covid?).
Thank you for your thorough response You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login. I appreciate it greatly.