The Food and Drug Administration announced today that it is requiring the smoking-cessation drugs Chantix and Zyban to carry the strongest type of safety warning possible to alert patients that the medications can cause serious mental health problems, including depression and suicide.
The agency said it took the action requiring "boxed warnings" after finding a surprisingly high number of reports of problems involving changes in behavior among people taking the medications, including depression, hostility, suicidal thoughts and attempted and successful suicides. The agency had received 98 reports of suicide among patients taking Chantix and 188 reports of attempted suicide, and 14 suicides and 17 suicide attempts among patients taking Zyban, officials said.
Smoking
Everyone knows that smoking can kill you, but new research suggests that it may help with your allergies. A study of mouse mast cells shows that cigarette smoke can prevent allergies by decreasing the reaction of immune cells to allergens.
Smoking can cause lung cancer, pulmonary disease, and can even affect how the body fights infections. Along with many harmful effects, smoking cigarettes has a surprising benefit: cigarettes can protect smokers from certain types of allergies. Now, a study recommended by Neil Thomson, a member of Faculty of 1000 Biology and leading expert in the field of respiratory medicine, demonstrates that cigarette smoke decreases the allergic response by inhibiting the activity of mast cells, the major players in the immune system's response to allergens.
Smoking can cause lung cancer, pulmonary disease, and can even affect how the body fights infections. Along with many harmful effects, smoking cigarettes has a surprising benefit: cigarettes can protect smokers from certain types of allergies. Now, a study recommended by Neil Thomson, a member of Faculty of 1000 Biology and leading expert in the field of respiratory medicine, demonstrates that cigarette smoke decreases the allergic response by inhibiting the activity of mast cells, the major players in the immune system's response to allergens.
© Unknown
A study shows that the threat of smelling bad may be a motivator to quit smoking.
A study shows that the threat of smelling bad may be a motivator to quit smoking.
A new Australian study suggests this embarrassing fact could be used as a potent motivator to quit, even more powerful than gruesome images of tobacco-related disease.
University of Sydney Department of Psychology PhD candidate Emily Kothe brought together 28 current and former smokers to test the effectiveness of the latest anti-smoking advertisements.
While the television ads were shown to reduce cravings and inspire a sense of "disgust" and "worry" in current smokers, worryingly they also reported feeling the images did not relate to them.
"Many smokers did not feel the advertisements were enough to make them quit," Ms Kothe said.
© Unknown
A high intake of fruit and vegetables appeared to reduce the risk among non-smokers but seemed to have the reverse effect on smokers, findings by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) showed on Wednesday.
"People who eat 600 grams or more vegetables and fruit a day appear to have a 20 to 25 per cent lower chance of developing colon cancer than people who eat 220 grams or less," said the statement.
"For smokers, the consumption of vegetables and fruit appears, on the contrary, to increase the chances of colon cancer. Protection against colon cancer through the consumption of vegetables and fruit therefore appears to depend on smoking habits."
Comment: Considering this was supposedly a large study taken over many years, the authors are surprisingly uncertain about their results, casting aspersions on the effects of fruit and vegetables for smokers without actually making any definite claims. Note the use of "appears" and "may".
We also wonder if this fruit problem described in relation to smokers might have anything to do with this other fruit problem?
Rising number of children allergic to fruits and vegetables
A new undercover investigation has found traces of toxic chemicals on board the planes of several popular commercial airlines, bolstering claims from pilots and others that contamination of the air in jet cabins is widespread.
A Swiss and German television network collaborated to secretly swab the cabins of 31 airplanes from several popular airliners. The swabs were then sent off to the University of British Columbia for analysis. Twenty-eight of them tested positive for high levels of a jet oil ingredient called tricresyl phosphate (TCP).
TCP is used to prevent wear inside jet engines, but is also known to cause respiratory distress, drowsiness, headaches or other neurological problems in humans.
This cluster of symptoms is known as Aerotoxic Syndrome. Former British Airways pilot Tristan Loraine has conducted research into the condition for seven years, leading eventually to a documentary about his findings. Loraine claims that it was contaminated cabin air that made him unable to work after 19 years as a pilot.
A Swiss and German television network collaborated to secretly swab the cabins of 31 airplanes from several popular airliners. The swabs were then sent off to the University of British Columbia for analysis. Twenty-eight of them tested positive for high levels of a jet oil ingredient called tricresyl phosphate (TCP).
TCP is used to prevent wear inside jet engines, but is also known to cause respiratory distress, drowsiness, headaches or other neurological problems in humans.
This cluster of symptoms is known as Aerotoxic Syndrome. Former British Airways pilot Tristan Loraine has conducted research into the condition for seven years, leading eventually to a documentary about his findings. Loraine claims that it was contaminated cabin air that made him unable to work after 19 years as a pilot.
Comment:
"One curious and unintended consequence of the aeroplane ban [on smoking] was that airlines began to save money by changing the air in the cabin less frequently. Traditionally, this was done every two minutes and old air was never recirculated, but with no tobacco smoke to draw attention to the quality of air, the carriers reduced air changes to once every twenty minutes. This led to a musty aroma on board and, according to a report in The Lancet, contributed to the appearance of Deep Vein Thrombosis, a disease unknown in airline passengers until the 1990s."Christopher Snowdon - Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: A History of Anti-Smoking
© Hawrot Lab/Brown University
Researchers have found that the alpha-7 receptor, a site known to bind with nicotine, interacts with 55 different proteins. Nicotine may affect bodily processes -- and perhaps the actions of other commonly used drugs -- more broadly than was previously thought.
Researchers have found that the alpha-7 receptor, a site known to bind with nicotine, interacts with 55 different proteins. Nicotine may affect bodily processes -- and perhaps the actions of other commonly used drugs -- more broadly than was previously thought.
Conversely, the data could also help scientists develop better treatments for various diseases. Pharmaceutical companies rely on basic research to identify new cellular interactions that can, in turn, serve as targets for potential new drugs.
"It opens several new lines of investigation," said lead author Edward Hawrot, professor of molecular science, molecular pharmacology, physiology and biotechnology at Brown University.
Hawrot's research is highlighted in a paper published April 3 in the Journal of Proteome Research. He and a team that included graduate students William Brucker and Joao Paulo set out to provide a more basic understanding of how nicotine affects the process of cell communication through the mammalian nervous system.
Comment: Notice that the article makes no mention of whether the interaction of nicotine with the alpha-7 receptor is negative or not. And that it shows promising research possibiities with respect to treating schizophrenia. Yet this substance, which has been in use for thousands years by indigenous peoples is still demonized. Why?
Nicotine Activates More than Just the Brain's Pleasure Pathways
Nicotine and Autism: Another study demonstrates nicotine's neurological benefits
Nicotine Found To Protect Against Parkinson's-like Brain Damage
Researchers Light Up for Nicotine, the Wonder Drug
Let's All Light Up!
Owensboro, Kentucky-- A gel derived from a close relative to the tobacco plant is being tested as an affordable preventative measure for HIV, U.S. researchers said.
Kenneth Palmer, a senior scientist in the University of Louisville's Owensboro Cancer Research Program, has published research that suggests growing large quantities of the protein griffithsin found in the transgenic plant Nicotiana benthamiana can prevent human immunodeficiency virus from infecting cells of the immune system, the university's James Graham Brown Cancer Center said in a release.
Kenneth Palmer, a senior scientist in the University of Louisville's Owensboro Cancer Research Program, has published research that suggests growing large quantities of the protein griffithsin found in the transgenic plant Nicotiana benthamiana can prevent human immunodeficiency virus from infecting cells of the immune system, the university's James Graham Brown Cancer Center said in a release.
© Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
A cloud of plume escapes into the air as Dr. John Semple, Chief of Surgery at the Women's College Hospital, demonstrates a common surgical procedure during a press conference in Toronto on Wednesday, March 18, 2009. Using lasers or cauterizing tools during surgery creates a noxious smoke that can affect the health of doctors, nurses and patients. New voluntary standards were unveiled Wednesday to minimize the number of pathogens that enter health workers' lungs.
A cloud of plume escapes into the air as Dr. John Semple, Chief of Surgery at the Women's College Hospital, demonstrates a common surgical procedure during a press conference in Toronto on Wednesday, March 18, 2009. Using lasers or cauterizing tools during surgery creates a noxious smoke that can affect the health of doctors, nurses and patients. New voluntary standards were unveiled Wednesday to minimize the number of pathogens that enter health workers' lungs.
The surgeon touches an area of exposed flesh with a cauterizing tool for less than a minute, sending up a cloud of noxious smoke that quickly wafts across the room and catches at the eyes and throat.
It is only a demonstration - the flesh is actually raw turkey - but the result illustrates the hazard that doctors, nurses and even patients can be exposed to during operations that employ lasers and other tissue-burning tools.
Known as "plume," the smoke is laden with all manner of potentially toxic substances and disease-causing microbes that can make their way past surgical masks and into the lungs.
"According to one study, exposure to (vapours from) one gram of laser-cut tissue is like smoking three unfiltered cigarettes," said Suzanne Kiraly, president of the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), which on Wednesday released new guidelines for capturing and disposing surgical plume.
"Thus far, researchers have identified more than 600 organic compounds in plume generated by vaporized tissue," Kiraly told a news conference at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, where the demonstration took place.
Comment: While reporting on a legitimate problem, mainstream medicine can't resist getting a dig in at smoking. What cigarette or pipe tobacco will ever contain "aerosolized blood and blood-borne pathogens"? The two are hardly equatable.
Long-term exposure to concentrated smog significantly raises the risk of dying from lung disease, a new study shows.
The study, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the risk of dying from respiratory disease is more than three times higher in metropolitan areas with the most concentrated ozone -- a precursor of smog -- than in those with the lowest ozone concentrations.
The study, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the risk of dying from respiratory disease is more than three times higher in metropolitan areas with the most concentrated ozone -- a precursor of smog -- than in those with the lowest ozone concentrations.
Study Links Secondhand Smoke Exposure to Cognitive Impairment
People who are exposed to secondhand smoke may be more likely than their peers to have cognitive impairment, a new study shows.
The study, published in the advance online edition of BMJ (formerly called the British Medical Journal), doesn't prove that secondhand smoke exposure causes cognitive impairment. But it does show that cognitive impairment was more common among nonsmokers and former smokers with high levels of cotinine, a nicotine-related chemical, in their saliva samples.
People who are exposed to secondhand smoke may be more likely than their peers to have cognitive impairment, a new study shows.
The study, published in the advance online edition of BMJ (formerly called the British Medical Journal), doesn't prove that secondhand smoke exposure causes cognitive impairment. But it does show that cognitive impairment was more common among nonsmokers and former smokers with high levels of cotinine, a nicotine-related chemical, in their saliva samples.
Comment: Sounds like junk science!
Comment: For a more information on cigarettes and smoking, read:
Let's All Light Up!