Does any one know of any information that wouold indicate smoking cigarettes can exascerbate emotional/cognative symptoms for us MS'ers?
I quit for six months after I was first hospitalized. Then a few weeks ago I started again (stress). I have noticed an increase in my cognative problems. Mostly I feel brain dead, like I am always in a fog.

Any one heard of this?

-J!P

J1P, my best friend has been a little slow to deal with my dx, but a week or so ago she ran into my room and said, "You have to quit smoking, you are NOT going to end up in a wheelchair!" She had been surfing the web, not sure what she found to prompt that specific statement, but if you google MS and smoking you can find stuff like this: "People with multiple sclerosis who smoke cigarettes may be doing more harm than they realize, warns a new study from Harvard University.
Funded by a grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the research suggests that cigarette smoking may contribute to the progression of MS. This implies that quitting smoking could potentially reverse or delay worsening of the disease, the researchers speculate. It's the first time that a modifiable risk factor for MS progression has been identified, they say, enabling a new strategy for people with the disease to control the neurological damage that occurs with it."

As for the cognitive impact, I remember feeling like an airhead on a prior attempt to quit. A nurse pointed out my brain didn't know what to do with all the oxygen it was getting. I was in fact, an "AIR-head". Seems you are having the opposite effect. Except that there seems to be plenty of research indicating smoking can worsen the mechanics of MS, so any/all symptoms can get worse.
So I have to quit...