According to researchers, the number of cancer deaths among Europeans has decreased by 8% since the beginning of the decade. This is attributed largely to the fact that smoking rates have drastically decreased.
This drop in deaths applies to all of Europe, with those who are middle-aged seeing the greatest drop. Deaths from lung and other cancers related to smoking saw the greatest drop, researchers said.
Cancer deaths were at their highest in 1988 in the European Union and there has been a steady decrease since that time. Carlo La Vecchia, head of epidemiology at Mario Negri Institute and associate professor at the University of Milan in Italy led the research team. For every 100,000 men, there were 168 deaths, and 96.9 deaths per 100,000 women. Between 2000 and 2004, this was a drop from 185.2 per 100,000 for men and 104.8 per 100,000 for women.
Cristina Bosetti, head of cancer epidemiology at the Mario Negri Department of Epidemiology said, "The favorable trends in cancer mortality in Europe have continued over the most recent years. This is due mainly to the falls in lung and other tobacco-related cancers in men, the persistent decline in gastric cancer, but also appreciable falls in colorectal cancer."
Though new smoking laws may be tough on smokers, it seems there is some positive side to these changes of events…
[Via: Bloomberg]
Virginia bars and restaurants are soon to be affected by a new smoking ban. This state has been hooked on tobacco since the first settlers established Jamestown, about 400 years ago.
As of December 1st, this state becomes one among many states to ban smoking in bars and restaurants. Though this is not to be the strictest of bans as smoking will be permitted in separate rooms with proper ventilation systems.
Going back as far as the colonial times, Virginia's prime crop and source of money has been tobacco.
Things started to shift in the state once lawmakers began to cut out smoking in places like Richmond and Raleigh, North Carolina. These two cities house the largest tobacco companies in the country - Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds. If they weren't getting their way, then who's to say Marlboro producing Virginia would stay clear of these changes.
If a state with such an extensive history in tobacco production is slowly cutting tobacco out, this is a sure sign that this trend is only going to spread, which is sad and kills our freedom…
[Via: Washington Post]
One of the major reasons for not quitting smoking is the fear of gaining weight. Nicotine certainly has the effect of suppressing appetite, but quitting smoking and dieting at the same seems like impossibility. Most doctors would not recommend doing both at the same time. New research on the subject is suggesting something different. It seems that the combination of smoking cessation programs with weight-control programs might be a recipe for success.
At Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Bonnie Spring and her team of researchers did a pool on 10 random clinical trials, where 2,233 smokers (154 of them men) were divided in two groups. Some were enrolled only in smoking cessation programs, while others took part in both smoking cessation and weight control programs. Those who took part in combined programs had a 29% higher likeliness to stop smoking than those who were only in the smoking cessation program. In the period after the program ended, six to 14 months later, the statistical difference between the two groups was not all that different.
In short term, those in the combined program gained less weight, gaining 2.1 pounds less after three months than those taking part in only the smoking cessation program. Once again there was not much of a statistical difference after six months had passed.
The conclusion to this research is that enrolling in a weight-control program while attempting to quit smoking will mean that you will put on fewer pounds, and possibly have a greater chance of staying off cigarettes after three months. Quitting smoking is all a question of self-control, and both smoking cessation and weight-loss require a great amount of this.
[Via: boston.com]
According to one study, smoking in the teenage years can do the most damage to lung DNA. Young smokers could be putting themselves at the risk of developing cancer permanently, even if they do manage to quit later on in life. It is of vital importance to prevent teenagers from smoking, or to help them quit if they do start.
Smoking does damage to the body right from the start, the younger a person is when they start to smoke the more the damage to their DNA, according to researchers. Chemicals from tobacco smoke fuse with genes in DNA, causing mutations which are a precursor to cancer.
There are also many outside factors that can be affected by the choice to smoke. Students who smoke have be shown to be more prone to use other drugs, be violent, carry violent, exhibit suicidal behavior and take part in high-risk sexual behavior, according to reports from the American Cancer Society.
The problem is that teenagers have a tendency to be rebellious, and if they feel the need to act out, trying to stop them from engaging in any kind of negative behavior can be quite a difficult task. So these studies are damn stupid, like it or not.
[Via: newschannel5.com]
A new option may be soon be available to smokers who want to quit. A new injectable vaccine is to hit the market from drug maker GlaxoSmithKline.
The vaccine is called NicVAX, and it blocks nicotine from entering the brain, stopping smoking from creating a feeling of pleasure.
Trials have shown a high success rate in stopping smokers from getting back on the wagon if they have managed to quit once.
Products that are available on the market currently do not have consistent success rates.
The relapse rate within a year is fairly high, at nearly 90% according to figures from the American Lung Association.
The vaccine is injected and creates anti-bodies that are bound to the nicotine molecules, which prevent them from entering into the brain.
[Via: Telegraph.co.uk]
