Researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center are curious about how nicotine may effect patients battling sarcoidosis.
Sarcoidosis effects everyone differently. It occurs from excess granulomas, often resulting in chronic fatigue, though it can effect many different vital organs, mimicking other diseases. This makes it more difficult to diagnose, and if it goes untreated, it can ultimately result in pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic disease of the lungs. To find out about sarcoidosis, click here.
Once diagnosed, some of the treatments for sarcoidosis are so harsh that the patient experiences more severe side effects from that, than the disease itself. So, as Dr. Elliot Crouser explains, specialists need better treatment options that do not result in such severe side effects, that can often lead to other chronic conditions.
How weird is it that they’re turning to testing nicotine patches in clinical trials to see if that’s a better option for sarcoidosis treatment?! There is method to the madness though– at the beginning of the millennium, it was discovered that smokers were less likely to get sarcoidosis and that nicotine is anti-inflammatory. These properties could hold hope for a better quality of life for patients undergoing treatment.
