Smoking


Smoking

Study supports new theory for nicotine's protective effect against neurodegenerative disorders


University of South Florida Health
Mon, 15 Mar 2004 07:23 UTC
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© Unknown
While the health risks of tobacco are well known, several studies have shown that people with a history of cigarette smoking have lower rates of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. However, the explanations for nicotine's neuroprotective effects continue to be debated.

Now a team of neuroscientists at the University of South Florida College of Medicine presents new evidence of an anti-inflammatory mechanism in the brain by which nicotine may protect against nerve cell death. Their study was published today in the Journal of Neurochemistry.

In laboratory experiments, the researchers demonstrated that nicotine inhibits activation of brain immune cells known as microglia. Chronic microglial activation is a sign of brain inflammation that is a key step in nerve cell death. The researchers also identified the specific site, the alpha-7 acetylcholine receptor subtype, to which nicotine binds to block microglial activation.

"We propose that nicotine's ability to prevent overactivation of microglia may be additional mechanism underlying nicotine's neuroprotective properties in the brain," said USF neuroscientist R. Douglas Shytle, PhD, lead author of the study.

"This finding lets us explore a new way of looking at neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's," said Jun Tan, PhD, MD, principal investigator for the study. "A better understanding of the therapeutic aspects of nicotine may also help us develop drugs that mimic the beneficial action of nicotine without its unwanted side effects."
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Magnify

The Right to Discriminate Against Smokers

Jacob Sullum
Reason.org
Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:32 UTC
Uncle Sam says dont smoke
© Unknown
The New York Times reports that "more hospitals and medical businesses in many states are adopting strict policies that make smoking a reason to turn away job applicants." The Times concedes there are "no reliable data on how many businesses have adopted such policies," so the evidence of a trend is thin. But the shift from smoke-free to smoker-free workplaces (assuming it is in fact occurring) is interesting because it provokes objections not only from cigarette manufacturers (who years ago lobbied for bans on employment discrimination against smokers, which most states have adopted) but also from civil libertarians and even some anti-smoking activists. Michael Siegel, the Boston University public health professor who regularly criticizes anti-smoking groupthink, pseudoscience, and extremism, says:
If enough of these companies adopt these policies and it really becomes difficult for smokers to find jobs, there are going to be consequences. Unemployment is also bad for health.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Workrights Institute likewise want to protect smokers from employment discrimination. Lewis Maltby, president of the latter group, says:
There is nothing unique about smoking. The number of things that we all do privately that have negative impact on our health is endless. If it's not smoking, it's beer. If it's not beer, it's cheeseburgers. And what about your sex life?
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Smoking

Lung Cancer Epidemic 'May Have Peaked' in Women

Jeremy Laurance
The Independent
Wed, 09 Feb 2011 18:16 UTC
The fifty-year epidemic of lung cancer which has claimed at least one million lives in Britain may have peaked among women, figures show.

Female deaths from lung cancer in the UK are the highest in Europe, reflecting high rates of smoking 30 years ago. But the UK is the only country where the death rate is stable or falling - in all other countries it is still rising, European scientists say.
Related articles

Death rates among UK men from lung cancer peaked more than 20 years ago, in the mid 1980s. Men took up smoking earlier than women and in the 1940s around 80 per cent of adult men smoked.

Women did not take up smoking until later, with the numbers peaking in the mid 1960s at around 45 per cent. Growing evidence of the link between smoking and lung cancer from the 1960s onwards, accompanied by advertising bans and tighter restrictions on smoking, gradually persuaded smokers of both sexes to give up the habit. Today, around 20 per cent of men and 24 per cent of women smoke.

Because women took up smoking later, the rise in lung cancer death rates lagged behind that of men and has only begun to level off in the last decade. There is a gap of 30 to 40 years between the date of starting smoking and the onset of cancer.
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Pills

Anti-smoking drug Champix is linked to 37 suicides

Jo MacFarlane
UK Daily Mail
Sun, 10 Feb 2008 07:23 UTC
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© PfizerChampix by Pfizer: "Because we care"
Fears are growing over the safety of an anti-smoking "wonder drug", taken by nearly a quarter of a million Britons, after officials in America linked it to 37 suicides.

The Food and Drug Administration said it looks "increasingly likely" that there is a connection between the drug Champix and serious psychiatric problems.

The Mail on Sunday revealed in December that there were concerns over the drug after it emerged that seven deaths in Britain were thought to be linked to the pill.

But updated figures now suggest that 11 people taking Champix in the UK have died.

And reports of suspected adverse reactions to the drug to the Government's medicines watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, have risen by 35 per cent to 1,811 in just the past seven weeks.

The FDA began investigating Champix in November after a number of patients reported possible side-effects ranging from depression and agitation to headaches and nausea.

On top of the 37 suicides, it has recorded more than 400 cases of suicidal behaviour.

Comment: But smokers are NOT patients. They CHOOSE to supplement their diets via the inhalation of tobacco smoke in order to increase their numbers of acetylcholine receptors and enhance their body's anti-inflammatory responses to psychological and environmental stress.

Let's All Light Up!

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Heart

The five most powerful heart disease prevention strategies

Dr. William Davis
The Heart Scan Blog
Sun, 23 Jan 2011 05:17 UTC
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You've seen such lists before: 5 steps to prevent heart disease or some such thing. These lists usually say things like "cut your saturated fat," eat a "balanced diet" (whatever the heck that means), exercise, and don't smoke.

I would offer a different list. You already know that smoking is a supremely idiotic habit, so I won't repeat that. Here are the 5 most important strategies I know of that help you prevent heart disease and heart attack:


Comment: Regarding the smoking tip, see Let's All Light Up!


1) Eliminate wheat from the diet--Provided you don't do something stupid, like allow M&M's, Coca Cola, and corn chips to dominate your diet, elimination of wheat is an enormously effective means to reduce small LDL particles, reduce triglycerides, increase HDL, reduce inflammatory measures like c-reactive protein, lose weight (inflammation-driving visceral fat), reduce blood sugar, and reduce blood pressure. I know of no other single dietary strategy that packs as much punch. This has become even more true over the past 20 years, ever since the dwarf variant of modern wheat has come to dominate.

2) Achieve a desirable 25-hydroxy vitamin D level--Contrary to the inane comments of the Institute of Medicine, vitamin D supplementation increases HDL, reduces small LDL, normalizes insulin and reduces blood sugar, reduces blood pressure, and exerts potent anti-inflammatory effects on c-reactive protein, matrix metalloproteinase, and other inflammatory mediators. While we also have drugs that mimic some of these effects, vitamin D does so without side-effects.
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Smoking

Health Benefits of Smoking Tobacco

Juniper Russo
WARISCRIME
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:00 UTC
native tobacco

Thanks to Surgeon General's Warning labels, public smoking bans, strict regulation of advertising, excise taxes, and public service messages, nearly everyone in America is fully aware of the many health risks associated with cigarette smoking. Ongoing research has continuously proven that smoking causes lung dysfunction, cancer, SIDS, heart disease, birth defects, preterm birth, and other serious health problems. Knowing this, the idea that cigarette smoking may offer health benefits may seem utterly absurd.

However, cigarette smoking has been confirmed to provide numerous benefits to the health of smokers. Surprisingly, the tobacco plant appears to have more to offer our bodies than a guarantee of certain death. Although the health benefits of smoking are far outweighed by the many very dire risks, tobacco may provide alternative relief or prevention for some diseases in certain individuals.

The most fascinating and widely recognized health benefit of smoking is its ability to seemingly alleviate symptoms of mental illnesses, including anxiety and schizophrenia. According to an article published in 1995 in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, schizophrenics have much higher smoking rates than people with other mental illnesses, and appear to use it as a method of self-medicating. The article postulates that nicotine found in cigarettes reduces psychiatric, cognitive, sensory, and physical effects of schizophrenia, and also provides relief of common side effects from antipsychotic drugs.
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Smoking

Smoking rate in Ireland soars up to 33 percent despite anti-smoking laws

Allison Bray
Irish Independent
Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:56 UTC
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© UnknownBrainfood!
A third of the Irish population now smokes, a new survey reveals.

A survey of 4,082 people this summer revealed that 33pc of the Irish population had taken up or continued to smoke.

It is the highest smoking rate recorded here in the past 11 years, according to the EU's 'HELP -- For A Life Without Tobacco' campaign.

Despite hikes in tobacco tax, the smoking ban and a new law against the public display of cigarettes for sale, the number of smokers has steadily risen since 2007 when 29pc of the population smoked.

The survey, which was conducted between March and September, revealed the largest group of smokers -- 45pc -- is aged between 16 and 30.

Men form the majority of smokers at 38pc, compared with women at 28pc.

Prof Luke Clancy, a respiratory consultant and director general of the Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society last night described the statistics as very disappointing.

"There is no evidence of any decline in smoking in this survey, indicating a clear need for higher prices of cigarettes and better treatment of tobacco-dependence," he said.

Comment: What is curious is that the article abruptly ends there, as if the text after the subheading "Cigarette maker doubles profits" was simply removed, deleted, omitted, censored.

Sott.net understands their predicament though; sometimes the truth just hurts too much. All their efforts to "make a better world" will come to naught.

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Attention

UK: Air Pollution 'Shortens Lives of 200,000 People'

Stephen Adams
Telegraph.co.uk
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:01 UTC
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© topnews.com.sg
Air pollution in Britain takes almost two years off the lives of some 200,000 people, an official report into the problem has found.

The study, by the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP), is the first to try to estimate the health burden of air pollution from human sources like traffic, power generation and manufacturing industry.

It concluded that such pollution resulted in the loss of 340,000 years of life in 2008, when the data were collected.

However, rather than being spread across the population as a whole, the committee gauged that this health burden was mostly borne by just 200,000 people, or 0.3 per cent of the population.
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Eye 2

Philip Morris Inc. Sent Marlboro Cigarettes Tainted with Pigs Blood and Nuclear Matter To Iran


Salem-News.com
Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:43 UTC
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The Iranian Tobacco Company is being urged to adopt better supervisory measures regarding the distribution of cigarettes in the country.

An Iranian official says some of the most popular cigarette brands are contaminated with nuclear substances when smuggled into the country.

"Some of the most famous cigarette brands worldwide including Marlboro, which accounts for the bulk of smuggled cigarettes [into the Islamic Republic] are tainted with [hazardous] nuclear materials," Mehr News Agency quoted Mohammad-Reza Madani from the Society for Fighting Smoking as saying on Friday.

"The largest tobacco companies in the world use various tricks in order to keep their markets and increase their sales," Madani added.

He went on to add that the company responsible for the production of the tainted cigarettes is the "Philip Morris International, which is led by Zionists (Israelis)," and sells Marlboro outside the US.
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Red Flag

Study Finds: Tailpipe fumes are five times worse for bikers than for drivers

Jonathan Hiskes
Grist
Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:28 UTC
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© Joel Mann via Flickr.Parked cars separate this Montreal cycle track from cars - and, researchers hope, from their tailpipe fumes.
Well this is a bummer: A Belgian study finds that bicyclists on urban streets inhale tens of millions of toxic nanoparticles with each breath, taking in five times as much as drivers and pedestrians on the same streets.

The U.K. Times reports on the new research:
Because they are exerting themselves, cyclists breathe harder and faster than other road users. The study found that they suck in about 1,000 cubic cm with each breath, meaning they may inhale tens of millions of the particles each time they fill their lungs, and billions during a whole journey.

"This is the first time anyone has counted the particles while also measuring people's breathing during city commuting. It showed that cyclists can inhale an astonishing number of pollutant particles in one journey," said Luc Int Panis of the transport research institute at Hasselt University in Belgium, who led the study.
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