Can cigarette smoke help allergies?

To even suggest that cigarette smoke may help those with allergies
(such as myself) is shamefully preposterous! I had a relative who
smoked on a regular basis who has now passed from cancer, and
literally coughed herself to death....Even if rats seemed a tad better
with ihaling smoke, the adverse side effects totally outweigh the
benefit...How about not cutting down the many trees that absorb carbon monoxide and other air-stealers so that we can breathe cleaner naturally filtered air. It would seem like an everlasting nightmare to me to lend a hand to those who experiment with this new
study, therefore I strongly stand on the side of those who protest against using smoke as additive to help people with any allergies.

How long do you think it will take to find a cure for swine flu?

Yeah, that's too much...but on the other hand, maybe I should start smoking, LOL!! Na'h, I'm playing, numbers don't lie...

While I admit it sounds a bit complicated and the first thing came to my mind is, win lose situation or vice versa, slow down buddy. I like the fact that they are researching but let's get the facts right, let's get em right...

Anyone who really has allergies, knows that cigarette smoke does help. Wonder why the scientists are just starting to admit it?

For people with psyco issues that manifest as sneezing, are not helped by cigarette smoke, because its all in their head.

I STRONGLY DISAGREE THAT CIGARETTE SMOKE IS HELPFUL TO ALLERGIES. IN MANY CASES, CIGARETTE SMOKE IS AN ALLERGEN! I PERSONALLY, HAVE SUFFERED FROM UPPER RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS AS A DIRECT RESULT OF SECONDHAND CIGARETTE SMOKE, BECAUSE I AM ALLERGIC TO THE SMOKE.

LET'S ERR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION. JUST DON'T SMOKE!

Remember that these cells were treated outside of the body. Please don't use your body as a petrie dish. Wait until the mechanism od action is known and in vivo clinical trials are perfomed.

One possiblity – nicotine or another chemical in the smoke binds to mast cells and activates an intracellular inhibitory pathway, but the net effect of the many substances in cigarette smoke activate respiratory allergies.

To Jack – the nicotine in cigarettes may mask some allergic symptoms via nicotinic receptors, making you feel better temporarily, especially if the symptoms are psychogenic. But smoke niether neutralizes the allergies nor confers respiratory system health!

Obviously this article isn't meant to convey the suggestion that you should smoke to help your allergies, but stumbling across this article confirmed something that I had suspected myself. I am a smoker, and have been for a few years now, recently I started severely cutting back on my smoking habits, and found that I have allergies. I wondered if there was any sort of correlation between curbing my cigarette smoking and the onset of my allergies, so I did a little testing: I measured how much I was smoking each day and recorded how bad my allergies were as well, I found that there was definitely a correlation indicating that the smoking was preventing allergies.

In any case, to reiterate, I don't think that smoking is a good way to stop allergies but I do think that it can have that effect.