Smoking cigarettes keeps Parkinson's disease awat

Parkinson's is caused by the death of brain cells involved in movement. As the disease progresses, patients lose the ability to move with ease, developing tremors and muscle rigidity.

It seems to fly in the face of every public health warning, but a new study provides convincing evidence that smoking can actually reduce the risk of developing Parkinson's disease.

The analysis, published this week in Archives of Neurology, confirms that smoking cigarettes, cigars or pipes lessens the chances of Parkinson's disease.

The reesearchers pooled the results from 11 earlier trials - involving almost 12,000 volunteers - to get enough data to see whether the surprising effect is indeed real.