Mandy,
I really like how you brought together previous studies and news articles. Helps to present "the bigger picture" when we read new stories.
I have never been a smoker. Ok, maybe that one cigarette I tried back in junior high but didn't like....
My grandmother was a smoker and I remember the grody walls which were dark from cigarette smoke. If that doesn't turn you off of smoking, just imagining the tar build-up in your own lungs, I'm not sure what will. Yuck.
Perhaps I wasn't successful in getting my point across, Lisa. Wish I'd made myself clearer.
It really wasn't about the research. What I truly meant to say is that whether or not smoking is linked in any way to getting MS, or to MS progression, it's a very bad thing for overall health.
Ill health brought about by smoking is completely preventable. Those of us who already have a chronic illness need to do everything in our power to maintain general health. Smoking and engaging in other harmful behavior works against our own best interests. And most importantly, we've got to get to the kids before they get hooked.
Oh, all right I admit it. I bought a pack or two in junior high as well -- but I didn't really inhale. I swear.
Oh Mandy, you completely made your point very clearly.
I am just tickled by the abundance of reports and differing studies which focus on something that is so destructive, regardless. I also like to see the variety referenced in one location. But perhaps, indirectly, it does help to build up the evidence against the overall health risks of smoking in teens and young adults.
I agree with you. Catch them BEFORE they begin to smoke. 
To Mandy and all Concerned:
It is a blessing to have never smoked and I sure wish I had been one of you that never started but the fact is I did and now at this time in my life to have MS is a scare I never imagined having, not getting the treatment needed for my MS is bad enough but at this time I can't see any good in quitting something that makes me feel alittle more in control of my life--I know all the bad but when you have tried all things to quit and nothing helped--whats next?
I am such a nervous wreck on an all the time basis and as I said before my doctor only wants to keep me going till I get to shands.
I did start smoking at the age of 15 and I'm now 49 and just dx in 2008-I would love to quit but have no energy or will power!
So all that have been able to quit bless you and I can only pray one day I'll be one of you.
Thanks and take care
ladygraycloud/Suzanne
Research has shown nicotine to be neuroprotective in certain situations such as strokes. Alzheimers patients don't have enough of a certain type of receptor that nicotine causes to multiply. Nicotine thus has a positive effect for them. Let's flip the logic around. They say because people with more progression tend to having a higher ratio of smokers that smoking caused the progression but this does not prove causation. For me, when I tried to quit smoking in the past I had significant problems. Later, as I became aware I had a serious medical condition I identified those problems as being the same as I get during what I now know are relapses. But back then all it took to get rid of them was to resume smoking. In other words out of a group of people the ones who tend to continue a behavior are those rewarded for it. People may simply be treating and masking their symptoms with nicotine. Granted smoking isn't the best idea just as it isn't with medical marijuana but nicotine patches, pills, and/or therapies may be in the future of ms research as it is currently with other neurological conditions.
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I smoked from when I was 16 to when I was 34. My MS started when I was 32, got diagnosed at 34 and around the same time found cigarettes suddenly started to make me feel really ill. The bottles of wine and the cans of beer helped for a couple of years but then I even had to give them up when I realised I had to face reality. When I finally did I realised that reality was incredibly ugly but it has a certain boyish charm and we get along very well now except when it keeps interrupting my life.
MS definitely has a way of interrupting life. We do the best we can with what we've got -- it's all we can do.
Thank you so much for your candor.