Smoking


Health

Quitting Cigarettes Increases Diabetes Risk

Andy Coghlan
New Scientist
Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:18 UTC
For smokers under pressure to give up in 2010, it will seem like the ultimate excuse: quitting smoking appears to increase the risk of diabetes.

Smokers are on average 30 per cent more likely than non-smokers to develop type 2 or adult-onset diabetes. Now a study of 10,892 adults over 10 years has found that, in the first six years after giving up, former smokers are 70 per cent more likely than non-smokers to develop the disease.

Hsin-Chieh Yeh and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, found that the risk of diabetes is highest straight after quitting and gradually reduces to that of non-smokers. This is most likely because quitting makes people more likely to put on weight, which is known to increase the risk of diabetes.
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Heart

Study: Quitting smoking increases risk of developing type 2 diabetes


Press TV
Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:15 UTC
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© BackFortyTobaccoHung tobacco leaves: good for you!
Individuals who quit smoking are placed at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the first six years, a new study finds.

According to the study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, those who stop smoking are 70 percent more likely to develop diabetes. The risk is highest in the first three years and returns to normal after 10 years.

Extra weight gain occurring after an individual quits smoking is the main reason accounting for the increased diabetes risk in this population, the study finds.

Comment: We reckon it's safe to ignore the last two paragraphs of this article: they were obviously added to ensure the study passed the medical censors. And so, another good reason to smoke is added to the list:

Let's All Light Up!

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Light Saber

Artist David Hockney: 'I smoke for my mental health'


Guardian.co.uk
Tue, 15 May 2007 05:03 UTC
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© UnknownKurt Vonnegut: smoker
Following our G2 special on the smoking ban, artist David Hockney offers a personal view on why he will always be devoted to cigarettes

On July 1 2007, the most grotesque piece of social engineering will begin in England: the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces, imposed easily by a political and media elite. They think it will lead to healthier people and a cleaner atmosphere. They believe they can change people easily. The science of marketing has been absorbed by them and they think they can control everybody. I don't think they can. People will stay at home and do drugs instead - legal and illegal.

I have lived in California for a number of years. They started smoking bans, but they didn't affect smokers that much. In California you move around in your own private space. If one goes to a public space, say the opera or Disney Hall, then because the climate is ideal the smoker can just step outside, at all times of the year. Many restaurants have gardens and the bans have never really bothered me. But something else has happened in California since the bans came in, unreported by the media, and it took me a while to notice because I have spent the past seven years working in England.
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Gear

Why are anti-smokers afraid of the truth?

The Old Rambler
Stand FAST
Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:31 UTC
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© Unknown
Several tobacco companies in the US recently launched a lawsuit claiming new FDA legislation abridges their rights under the First Amendment to the US Constitution: the right to freedom of speech. The legislation, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, actually muzzles tobacco companies to the point where they are prohibited from telling the truth.

Despite the fact that the new legislation unequivocally places regulatory responsibility of tobacco and tobacco products in the hands of the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration), the tobacco companies are forbidden from clearly communicating that incontrovertible fact.

The Act authorizes the FDA to regulate tobacco products, including reducing or eliminating any constituents used in the manufacture or processing of tobacco, if they believe it is likely to protect public health. But, should the FDA take any action they believe will make cigarettes safer, the tobacco companies will be prohibited from truthfully telling consumers that the FDA has done so.
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Eye 2

Big Pharma pushing vaccine against smoking

Andrew Jack
Financial Times
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:02 UTC
Smokers may soon be able to break their habit with an injectable vaccine that prevents nicotine in tobacco entering the brain, where it creates a highly addictive sensation of pleasure.

The NicVAX vaccine moved closer to the market on Monday after a deal between GlaxoSmithKline and the US biotech company Nabi Pharmaceuticals, which developed the product.

GSK will pay $40m (£24m) up front and as much as $500m in the future to Nabi at a time of growing concern over the heavy burden of tobacco-related diseases as one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide.

The product potentially opens a new front in the tobacco wars, with most existing so-called smoking cessation products and methods failing to prevent many people from returning to their tobacco habits.
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Attention

Health fear over trendy cigarettes substitute


WalesOnline.co.uk
Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:15 UTC
They have been hailed as the future of smoking and a non-cancerous alternative to cigarettes that don't fall foul of the ban.

But serious safety concerns have been raised about electronic cigarettes as their popularity continues to grow.

And there are fears children could get hooked on nicotine by using the so-called e-cigs, electronic cigarettes are not liable to age restriction because they do not contain tobacco.

Some are being marketed as appetite suppressants while others are promoted as the choice of fashion-conscious young celebrities
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Wall Street

Food and Drug Administration Bans Electronic Flavored Cigarettes


DbTechNo.com
Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:59 UTC
Boston - It is being reported that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have banned the sale of electronic cigarettes in America.

Electronic cigarettes look similar to a regular ciggy, but actually are quite different operating with a battery and a vaporless odor, in place of a lighter and dangerous omitted toxins.

The electronic cigarettes come in an array of flavors, making them very appealing for young people and this fact was one that made it easy for the tobacco companies to target young people.
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Magnify

Nicotine Creates Stronger Memories, Cues to Drug Use

Graciela Gutierrez
Medical News Today
Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:00 UTC
Ever wonder why former smokers miss lighting up most when they are in a bar or after a meal with friends?

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine say nicotine, the addictive component in cigarettes, "tricks" the brain into creating memory associations between environmental cues and smoking behavior. The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Neuron.

"Our brains normally make these associations between things that support our existence and environmental cues so that we conduct behaviors leading to successful lives. The brain sends a reward signal when we act in a way that contributes to our well being," said Dr. John A. Dani, professor of neuroscience at BCM and co-author of the study. "However, nicotine commandeers this subconscious learning process in the brain so we begin to behave as though smoking is a positive action."
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Info

Smoking 'Can Improve Schizophrenic Minds'

Gabrielle Monaghan
Times Online
Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:49 UTC
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Smoking may cause cancer but the nicotine in cigarettes can improve the lives of schizophrenics by boosting attention and memory.

A chemical in the drug may help people with the mental illness to think more clearly and maintain their concentration, according to Ruth Barr, a psychiatrist who formerly worked at Queen's University Belfast, which has made the finding. She conducted a three-year study to find out why schizophrenia sufferers are three times more likely to smoke than the general population.
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Magnify

Molecule Plays Early Role in Nonsmoking Lung Cancer


PsysOrg
Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:00 UTC
The cause of lung cancer in never-smokers is poorly understood, but a study led by investigators at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and at the National Cancer Institute has identified a molecule believed to play an early and important role in its development.

The findings, published online recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may lead to improved therapy for lung cancer in both never-smokers and smokers, including those with tumors resistant to targeted drugs such as gefitinib.

The study examined lung tumors from people who had never smoked and found high levels of a molecule called miR-21. The levels were even higher in tumors that had mutations in a gene called EGFR, a common feature of lung cancer in never-smokers.
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