Nicotine and Speech Issue

[Kenny H]

This will probably sound nuts...so here goes. One of my sons told me of an acquaintence whose father has similar symptoms like I have [PLS for about 4 years now]. He knows that the movement issues are annoying to me, but within the last year, my speech has suffered. He said that this woman told him that her father used to smoke a pipe and that when he casually tried it recently, his fluidity of speech improved dramatically after smoking a bowl of tobacco.

As coincidence would have it, I, too, used to smoke a pipe. Not all the time, but probably about 3-4 times a week. That was at least 20 years ago and since then it is probably once a year. So I figured, what the hell. I found one of my pipes and filled it up and started puffing away. I must say it was quite relaxing. After I did, I called my son who had given me the idea and we had a conversation for about 10 minutes. I asked him...how did I sound? He said my speech was much faster than usual and without as many pauses. I felt it as well but am not sure if it was a placebo effect or the real deal.

Anyone else out in PLS land hear or try this? I may experiment with a nicotine patch and/or Nicorette gum. Anxious to hear from anyone else about this matter.

Kenny

 

[sral]

I wonder if the relaxation effect rather than the nicotine was the cause of the improvement.

 

[Al]

I'm a great believer in " if it feels good do it " What's the worst it can do, kill you" ? I'd tend to agree with the being relaxed scenario though but will admit I smoked a Cuban cigar back in March and it felt good at the time but 3-4 days later my breathing was crappy but that could have been that Cleveland Ohio air too. Don't think the researchers will be lining up to test this theory though.
AL.