Smoking Diseases

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• Did you know that many different diseases occur because of tobacco use, including cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco? In fact, smoking is the most preventable cause of death and disease in the developed world.

• Smoking tobacco is known to suppress the immune system. This may leave the smoker open to a wide variety of aliments, sicknesses and problems.

• Each cigarette smoked is estimated to rob smokers of 5 minutes and 30 seconds of life.

• Experts on smoking have long maintained that nicotine is at least as addictive as heroin.

• Death from lung cancer clocks in at more than 23 times higher for men who smoke vs. nonsmokers, according to the Tobacco Atlas.
  * Women smokers face a death rate 13 times higher.

• Cigarette design may be resposible for up to one half of current lung cancer victims, according to according to a study presentation by David Burns and Christy Anderson of the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine at the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco meeting in Dublin, Ireland.

• Nicotine gum, nicotine lozenge and nicotine inhaler use may worsen a genetic mutation common in mouth cancer, according to research by Muy-Teck Teh, of Queen Mary, University of London, and team published in the journal Public Library of Science One.

• Congress revives US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) effort to regulate cigarettes as a drug.

• One-third of all cancers are caused by tobacco use. But did you know that obesity and inactivity cause another one-third of all cancers? This according to a review of several reports by the President's Cancer Panel.

• Women may have a greater chance of getting lung cancer. Among lung cancer patients studied by Swiss researchers, the women tended to be younger and smoke fewer cigarettes than men. The findings are to be presented at the European Multidisciplinary Conference in Thoracic Oncology, in Lugano, Switzerland.

• Smoking causes 80 percent of all deaths due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

• Start smoking before age 17 and face increased chances of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), according to the 2002 National Health Interview Survey.

• The progress of multiple sclerosis (MS) may speed up for smokers, according to a study by Dr. Alberto Ascherio of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and colleagues (Archives of Neurology).

• Smokers with MS may have increased risk of disease-related brain shrinkage and increased brain lesions, according to a study published in Neurologya that was sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

• Acute and chronic pancreatitis risks are higher for smokers, according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

• High blood pressure more difficult to detect in smokers and smokers seem to be less aware that they have high blood than nonsmokers, according to statistics from the 2003 and 2006 Health Survey for England (European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation).

• Cigarette smoke causes the same cellular defect as Werner's syndrome (premature aging disease) according to a study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

  
  

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  Breath of Life

• Did you know that second hand smoke causes or contributes to:

  - cancer (lung, mouth, esophagus, pharynx, larynx, bladder, pancreas, kidney, colorectal)
  - heart disease
  - heart attacks
  - congenital heart defects (CHD)
  - lung disease
  - emphysema
  - stroke
  - diabetes
  - respiratory symptoms (COPD, more severe asthma, wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness at night)
  - sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
  - metabolic syndrome
  - memory loss
  - premature death?
  

  Imagine what smokers face. . .

• Unexplained sore throats, runny noses, coughing and ear problems may be a sign of smoke-related complications.

• Does supervised exercise, added to standard smoking cessation support, help pregnant smokers to quit smoking? The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme in the UK aims to find out.

• Moms (dads too): Did you know that smoking causes low birth weight babies?

• Smokers who quit smoking before having surgery have fewer postop complications, around 20 percent less, than smokers, according to a study by Dr. David Lindstrom from the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm) and colleagues (Annals of Surgery).

• Pain from lung cancer increases with continued smoking, according to research revealed in The Journal of Pain.

• Smokers are twice as likely to develop active tuberculosis (TB) as compared to never smokers, according to a study of nearly 18,000 people in Taiwan (American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine).

• Smoking can affect the musculoskeletal system (bones: bone density; blood supply to bones, bone cells & calcium absorption; estrogen therapy effectiveness; hip fracture risks; rotator cuff injury risks. Also low back pain; rheumatoid arthritis; healing time for bone fractures (American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons).

• Smoking cigarettes may alter the body's immune responses to bacteria that commonly cause incite COPD, according to a study of mice published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

• People with high concentrations of a nicotine byproduct called NNAL in their urine faced double the risk of developing lung cancer vs. smokers with lower NNAL concentrations in their urine, according to researchers at the National University of Singapore and the Shanghai Cancer Institute (Reuters).

• Smoking reduces quality-of-life in twlight years, according to a study by University of Helsinki researchers (who followed a 1658 men for 26 years) published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

  * People who smoked 20+ cigarettes a day (heavy smokers) had physical functioning of someone 10 years older, as well as reduced energy/vitality, social functioning and emotional well-being.

  * People who never smoked lived 10 years longer and enjoyed it more, healthwise.

  The Effect of Smoking in Midlife on Health-Related Quality of Life in Old Age: A 26-Year Prospective Study

• Smoking 6 or more cigarettes trigger headaches, especically migraines, according to a study of 361 medical students at University of Salamanca/Spain (Journal of Headache and Pain).

• Inflammation is reduced quickly when smokers quit (journal Chest).
  More On Smoking Diseases

• Many tobacco users that quit experience withdrawl sysptoms.

• Health scares force many smokers to quit smoking. Smokers were 3 times more likely to quit if they suffered a heart attack or stroke or were diagnosed with lung disease or cancer, according to a study published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine (New York Times).

• Crohn's disease, chronic inflammation of the intestines, is worsened by smoking, Professor Axel Dignass from Goethe University in Frankfurt revealed at a conference in Hamburg, Germany.

• Say What? Smokers who eat fruit and vegetables may raise the odds of getting colon cancer, according to datat gather by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) published in the American Journal for Clinical Nutrition.

• Quit smoking and in less than 20 minutes your blood pressure drops and blood starts returning to your hands and feet.

• Secondhand smoke exposure linked to cognitive (brain) impairment, according to a study published in BMJ (formerly called the British Medical Journal).

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© Copyright by Arthur A. Hawkins II. All rights reserved.