SmokingFools: Cigarettes Cut About 10 Years Off Life

SmokingFools: Cigarettes Cut About 10 Years Off Life

The Influence Of Gender On Smoking Cessation....

A must read article from MEDICAL NEWS TODAY....

New research has looked into the enduring assumption that women are less successful than men in quitting smoking. The study, published in Tobacco Control, found convincing proof that across all age groups "there is relatively little difference in cessation between the sexes."

Data was examined from major national surveys in Canada, the United States, and England in order to approximate the rates of smoking cessation by age in men and women. All of the countries surveyed had a consistency in the pattern of sex differences in smoking cessation.

The authors revealed, "below age 50, women were more likely to have given up smoking completely compared to men, while among older age groups, men were more likely to have quit than women." There were sex differences in different age groups, but the researchers are not positive as to what accounted for this finding.


This is the most recent and largest epidemiological study to date, and the researchers found no convincing evidence to support the longstanding claims that smoking cessation is harder for females. The authors wrote, "The myth of female disadvantage at quitting smoking is bad, first and foremost, for women," because it could discourage them quickly and stop trying to quit, before they find out for themselves if they really can.

The researchers also pointed out that this claim could be harmful for men as well who may think they are at an advantage and then not put forth any effort to quit their bad habit. "It is time to put aside the idea that women are less successful than met at giving up smoking," they said.

The difficulty of smoking cessation based on sex should not be ignored, even though this new study did not reveal such findings. Several studies have shown that women experience more severe withdrawal symptoms than men, which makes quitting much harder and more uncomfortable for these women. Women are also less likely than men to have a beneficial experience from nicotine replacement therapy, which adds to the difficulty some women face when trying to quit.

Smoking is a terrible habit and difficult to quit, because smoking can lead to nicotine dependence and serious health problems. Smoking cessation can dramatically decrease the risk of health issues caused by tobacco use. There are beneficial treatments available for people struggling with chronic tobacco use. Multiple intervention methods will also help with dependence from the drug. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta revealed, "there are more former smokers than current smokers," today in our country.

In order to improve the length and quality of a smoker's life, the smoker must put an end to their nicotine addiction. If men and women cannot quit smoking on their own, there are many options available that will help fight their nicotine addictions.

The authors also pointed out that women who stop smoking relapse for different reasons than men. Stress, weight control, and negative emotions are all reasons women gave who have relapsed. Cessation programs need to look into this information in order to be successful.

While the majority of smokers are able to stop tobacco use on their own, some people may need help to quit. The CDC has made a list of effective methods to help them do so:

• Brief clinical interventions, such as a 10 minute meeting with a doctor where he offers advice and assistance
• Behavioral cessation therapies
• Counseling - individual, group, or online/phone
• Medication, such as nicotine replacement products, prescription and non-prescription medication including certain SSRI's

While women smokers try to quit smoking, they should also apply proper weight management, emotional and psychological support, which will help them have a smoke-free lifestyle long-term. Smoking cessation is not an easy challenge, whether male or female, but one that can be overcome and will provide great changes in a person's quality of life and overall health.

Written by Sarah Glynn
Copyright: Medical News Today

Electronic Cigarettes

Despite all the alarming health problems associated with smoking tobacco cigarettes, many people today are addicted and cannot find a way to give up permanently. The E-cigarette, or electronic cigarette, is a healthier alternative that many heavily addicted smokers have switched over to, says the E-cigarette industry. However, the industry has yet to produce results of large-scale randomized human studies to back their claims.

E-cigarettes, or vapor cigarettes, work by superheating a cartridge that gives the smoker a dose of nicotine in the form of water vapor. This vapor can be flavored with cherry, chocolate, vanilla, tobacco, and menthol. The body absorbs the nicotine and then exhales this water vapor, which the industry claims leaves no harm to the person or its surroundings. Sellers of E-cigarettes say the water vapor has no chemicals or carcinogens (cancer causing substances) - it cannot cause second-hand harm to others or the environment - i.e. there is no second hand smoke (passive smoking).


The industry adds that by switching to e-cigarettes, smokers will be able to use their new smoke-free device in restricted areas where tobacco smoking is forbidden, such as bars, hotel rooms, airports, and restaurants.

The Electronic Cigarette Hub claims that with these devices the user's teeth will not turn yellow and lungs will not be damaged, because they contain no tar or other harmful toxins.

Links Between Cigarette Smoking And IQ...

Researches has determined that young men who smoke are likely to have lower IQs than their non-smoking peers. Tracking 18- to 21-year-old men enlisted in the Israeli army in the largest ever study of its kind, he has been able to demonstrate an important connection between the number of cigarettes young males smoke and their IQ. 

 

The average IQ for a non-smoker was about 101, while the smokers' average was more than seven IQ points lower at about 94, the study determined. The IQs of young men who smoked more than a pack a day were lower still, at about 90. An IQ score in a healthy population of such young men, with no mental disorders, falls within the range of 84 to 116.

Making the results more significant, the study also measured effects in siblings. In the case where one brother smoked, the non-smoking brother registered a higher IQ on average.

Although a lower IQ may suggest a greater risk for smoking addiction, the cross-sectional data on IQ and smoking found that most of the smokers investigated in the study had IQs within the average range nevertheless. 

WHO CLAIMS...A article...

Smoking hookah is becoming all the rage among the younger generation in Western culture today, and has long been a popular social pastime in many Middle Eastern cultures. But the World Health Organization (WHO) now claims that smoking hookah, also known as shisha, for one hour is the equivalent of smoking 100 cigarettes, a claim that has no real basis in science.

 

Though it might not be beneficial per se, the health effects of smoking hookah have never really been studied in an objective, unbiased way. And since types of hookah tobacco vary in quality and content, as do the coals used to create smoke from this tobacco, it is difficult to truly ascertain how this popular new fad is affecting the lungs of the millions that now smoke it.

Even so, WHO has determined that hookah in general can be more dangerous than smoking cigarettes, despite the fact that hookah smoke passes through water where it is cooled and filtered prior to filling the lungs of smokers. The smoke from tobacco itself, regardless of whether it comes from a cigarette or from hookah, can cause DNA damage, which in turn can lead to cancer.But is smoking hookah really the same as smoking cigarettes, and is a single hookah smoking session really responsible for causing as much lung damage as 100 cigarettes? The evidence is truly inconclusive on this matter, as the two are very different things altogether. Cigarettes involve the literal burning of tobacco, as well as paper and various added chemicals, while hookah involves merely heating flavored tobacco, which evaporates the sugars and flavors and creates a different type of smoke.

Hardly an endorsement of smoking hookah, or cigarettes for that matter, the purpose of trying to clarify this issue is a matter of parsing fact from fiction in a world that often jumps on the bandwagon of whatever the health authorities declare to be true about the subject. And in the case of hookah, it appears as though health authorities are greatly overblowing its dangers, while remaining hypocritically silent about serious killers like artificial sweeteners, pharmaceutical drugs, processed foods, genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), low-fat diets, and toxic chemicals and pesticides.

 

Why does smoking raise cancer risk??

A must read article-

Scientists say there are over 4,000 compounds in cigarette smoke. A sizeable number of them are toxic - they are bad for us and damage our cells. Some of them cause cancer - they are carcinogenic. Mainly of them are-

1) Nicotine - this is not carcinogenic. However, it is highly addictive. Smokers find it very hard to quit because they are hooked on the nicotine. Nicotine is an extremely fast-acting drug. It reaches the brain within 15 seconds of being inhaled. If cigarettes and other tobacco products had no nicotine, the number of people who smoke every day would drop drastically. Without nicotine, the tobacco industry would collapse.

Nicotine is used as a highly controlled insecticide. Exposure to sufficient amounts can lead to vomiting, seizures, depression of the CNS (central nervous system), and growth retardation. It can also undermine a fetus' proper development.

2) Carbon Monoxide - this is a poisonous gas. It has no smell or taste. The body finds it hard to differentiate carbon monoxide from oxygen and absorbs it into the bloodstream. Faulty boilers emit dangerous carbon monoxide, as do car exhausts.

If there is enough carbon monoxide around you and you inhale it, you can go into a coma and die. Carbon monoxide decreases muscle and heart function, it causes fatigue, weakness, and dizziness. It is especially toxic for babies still in the womb, infants and indifividuals with heart or lung disease.

3) Tar - consists of several cancer-causing chemicals. When a smoker inhales cigarette smoke, 70% of the tar remains in the lungs. Try the handkerchief test. Fill the mouth with smoke, don't inhale, and blow the smoke through the handkerchief. There will be a sticky, brown stain on the cloth. Do this again, but this time inhale and the blow the smoke through the cloth, there will only be a very faint light brown stain.

Tobacco May Lower Immune System Response In Liver Transplant Recipients

 

According to the MNT... Lever Transplant recipients who smoke or have smoked increase their risk of viral hepatitis reinfection following liver transplantation according to new research available in Liver Transplantation, Findings suggest that tobacco in cigarettes may adversely affect immune system response in patients transplanted for viral hepatitis. 

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tobacco use causes more than five million deaths per year worldwide, with estimates suggesting that annual mortality rates could climb to more than eight million by 2030. Previous research reports that nearly 34% of liver transplant recipients are active or former tobacco users. Moreover, medical evidence has shown that smoking increased biliary and vascular complications in the short-term, and elevated risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and sepsis-related mortality in the long-term among those receiving livers. 

   

"Organs available for transplantation are scarce, with livers particularly in short supply," explains Dr. Mamatha Bhat from McGill University in Canada. "Transplant centers need to take an active role in identifying and minimizing risks to the success of liver transplantation." In the present study, researchers assessed the impact of smoking on incidence of complications, such as recurrent viral hepatitis, following liver transplantation.

 

Analysis of demographic characteristics and post-transplantation complications was performed on data from primary liver transplant recipients over a 14-year period. Using data from the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Liver Transplant database, the team identified 444 patients who received liver transplants between 1990 and 2004, of which 63 were repeat transplants. The mean age of liver recipients was 55 years and 66% were male with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 27.

Results show that 23% of transplant recipients were active or ex-smokers and 78% were non-smokers. Of those who ever smoked, 78% were male and 88% were Caucasian. The cause of liver disease was likely to be alcohol related in 29% of smokers or ex-smokers compared to 16% non-smokers. Researchers estimated the median survival time for smokers following transplantation was just over 13 years. 

 

Further analysis shows that the recurrent viral hepatitis-free survival time was less than one year for smokers and close to five years for non-smokers. The team found that patient survival, and time to biliary complications, first rejection and depression post-transplantation was not linked to smoking status. However, recurrent viral hepatitis-free survival was strongly associated with smoking.

"Our findings suggest that recurrence of viral hepatitis may be more frequent among liver transplant recipients who are active or former smokers," concludes Dr. Bhat. "Encouraging preoperative smoking cessation may be beneficial in improving patient outcomes following transplantation." The authors stress that their findings do not suggest the denial of liver transplantation, but that transplant specialists be more vigilant in monitoring for complications in those candidates who continue to smoke. They call for validation of their results in larger studies that examine the effects of smoking and other potential modifiable risks.

 

Cigarettes Cut About 10 Years Off Life

A MUST READ ARTICLE FROM THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY.

According to the British Survey of Smoking Doctors Cigarettes Cut About 10 Years Off Life.

Fifty years after British researchers published the first study firmly linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer, the same scientist following the same group of British doctors has reported the most detailed and long-term results ever of the health effects of smoking.A life of cigarette smoking will be, on average, 10 years shorter than a life without it.

While the lethal effects of cigarette smoking have long been known, the new study, published yesterday in the British Medical Journal, is the first to quantify the damage over the lifetime of a generation. The effects, the researchers reported, were "much larger than had previously been suspected."

In the 50-year study of a group of almost 35,000 British doctors, the pioneering epidemiologist Richard Doll, who is now 91, and his colleagues found that almost half of all persistent cigarette smokers were killed by their habit, and a quarter died before age 70.

The study also found, however, that kicking the cigarette habit had equally dramatic effects. He found, for instance, that someone who stops smoking by age 30 has the same average life expectancy as a nonsmoker, and someone who stops at 50 will lose four, rather than 10, years of life.

The consequence of the tobacco "epidemic" has been to undercut great strides in public health that would otherwise have kept millions more people alive, the researchers said.

Doll began studying smoking among British doctors in 1951, and the research has continued every decade since, with the final study begun in 2001. At that time, almost 6,000 of the doctors first studied in 1951 were still alive.

The effects of smoking show up especially starkly after age 60. At 70, the study found, 88 percent of nonsmokers were still alive, compared with 71 percent of smokers. And at age 80, 65 percent of nonsmokers were alive but only 32 percent of smokers were.

To look at the data another way, a 70-year-old who never smoked has a 33 percent probability of living to 90. For a 70-year old smoker, the probability of living 20 more years is only 7 percent.

The researchers also found that a subset of British doctors, born around 1920, died of tobacco-related illnesses at a much higher rate than others -- accounting for almost two-thirds of all deaths. The researchers report that the men, who were young soldiers during World War II, smoked more because they could buy low-cost cigarettes from the government during the war and became more addicted to tobacco.

Doll and Peto said that while the harm of smoking is dramatic, so is the benefit from quitting. According to their findings, a person who stops smoking at 60 will have a life expectancy three years longer than someone who continues; a 40-year-old will have a life expectancy nine years longer; and a 30-year-old will have a life expectancy no different from that of a nonsmoker.

The researchers found that cigarette smoking changes the pattern of genes expressed in lung cells, and that the changes return to normal in some people who stop smoking, but not in others.

Avrum Spira and colleagues found that 97 bronchial cell genes were expressed differently in smokers than in people who had never smoked. Some of those changes increased the expression of genes that can lead to cancer growth, and other changes decreased the expression of suppressor genes that keep cancers at bay.

Former smokers who had stopped at least two years before the study generally had gene patterns similar to those seen in nonsmokers, while those who quit more recently had gene patterns that resembled those of current smokers.

Dental problems caused by Tobbaco use

Most of us know that smoking is bad for our health, but did you know that smoking is also a major contributor to many dental problems? Cigarettes aren't the only products only to blame. All forms of tobacco, including cigars, smokeless tobacco and hookah water pipes, pose dental health concerns.

Dental Problems Associated with Tobacco Use...

1) Greatly increases the risk for oral cancer, a disease that progresses rapidly and can be deadly if not diagnosed and treated early.

2) Increases the risk of gum disease, which is one of the leading causes of tooth loss in adults.

3) (Smoking in particular) can slow down healing after oral surgery procedures, such as having a tooth pulled.

4) Can damage gum tissue and cause receding gums, leaving the roots of the teeth exposed. This could increase the risk of tooth decay and cause hot/cold sensitivity.

5) Can cause bad breath. 

6) Causes stains on teeth that can't be removed with regular brushing.

 7) Can cause a build up of tartar, which could require you to get more frequent dental cleanings.