We are all aware of the fact that smoking is not a good habit to follow. But it seems that if you are a female smoker there is research to show that you are really in trouble.
This growing body of research has show that smoking has a more damaging effect on the lungs for women than for men.
On Monday the American Thoracic Society held a meeting in San Diego, where it was shown by this study that women were more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary age. Men are also at a risk of developing this disease but later in life and after a greater number of years of smoking.
And even though women start smoking at a later age and smoke less, it has been proven that they are more likely to develop lung cancer from smoking.
Dr. Inga-Cecilie Soerheim, a co-author of the study says, "Many people believe that their won smoking is too limited to be harmful - that a few cigarettes a day represent a minimal risk. But there is no such thing as a safe amount of cigarette smoking. Our data suggest that this is particularly true for female smokers."
Smoking is danger no matter what angle or gender you look at it from. We are given varying statistics on smoking daily, yet this does not help us quit whether we are male or female.
[Via: Chicago Sun-Times]
Researchers at University of Arizona have put forth a theory that states - if a mother smokes while pregnant her child is more likely to become a smoker as a teen or young adult, and remain addicted throughout their lives.
The lead researcher, Dr. Roni Grad, and associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the university says, "Somehow smoke is changing the brain chemistry. If you are exposed to smoking prenatally or in the early years of life, you are much more likely to be a chronic smoker at the age of 22."
These children have four times the chance of becoming regular smokers.
One additional consequence of a mother smoking while pregnant is that her child is much more likely to be unable to quit. In fact, whether a child's father smoked or peer pressure was found to have a much lesser impact than the smoking habits of the mother.
Ideally nobody would smoke but this just give mothers one more reason not to smoke while they are pregnant.
[Via: US news]
According to a professor from UCSD Med School in San Diego, the dangers of smoking have increased, and it is more risky to smoke today than it was in the 1960's. Professor emeritus David Burns led the study, where lung cancer death rates were compared over time.
The study found that over the past 40 years, the risk of dying from lung cancer has doubled. One of the reasons for this is the use of filtered cigarettes. Smokers end up having to draw harder on the cigarette to get their fix, yet these cigarettes deliver just as much nicotine and tar.
By drawing harder on cigarettes a smoker ends up drawing a greater amount of carcinogens deeper into the lungs, which causes a greater variety of cancers.
There is also the modern trend of curing tobacco in the U.S., but process ends up creating a cancer-causing chemical called nitrosamine. Burns found that in countries where this process is not in use and where this chemical is not found in cigarettes, cancer death rates are lower.
Tobacco companies have been defending themselves with the argument that this article has not been published, therefor making it unreliable. But Burns feels that once his study is published reactions from the industry will change.
There are many documentations of people smoking and living nearly a century. It is very likely that the way tobacco is processed these days has a lot to do with the danger of lighting up.
[Via: kpbs.org]
A new study has shown that smoking during pregnancy does not effect physical and cognitive development in the way it has been thought to. The study suggests that smoking affects the child's birth weight and their risks of becoming overweight but causes no direct harm to other aspects of the child.
A U.S. study in the 1960's tracked 53,000 children, the children of smoking mothers were much more at risk of having a low birth weight, and this consequence has been noted in studies for a long time.
There is also weaker evidence that shows children of smoking women were very likely to be overweight by the age of 7. Studies in the past have shown this link quite often, and it is felt that an aspect of the brain that helps control appetite is affected.
What current studies are showing is that intelligence, school performance and behavioural problems are not a consequence of smoking during pregnancy.
Of course, the growth of child is a very complicated process and women should still be careful when they are pregnant. However, this research shows that nicotine is not as strong a drug as it is portrayed to be.
[Via: China Daily]
We usually associate tobacco with being a cause for cancer rather than a solution or a cure.
Arizona scientists would tell you differently, they think that tobacco plants may hold the key to developing a cancer vaccine that is personalized and possibly the cure for many other diseases.
The field of plant-based biotechnology is growing at fast paced rate and this type of cancer treatment is gaining so much interest that even drug giants like the German company Bayer are keeping an eye on this new vaccine.
Charles Arntzen, director of the ASU Biodesign Institute's Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology said, "Most important is that the vaccine has been successfully used in human clinical trials."
It showed an immune response in 70% of patients that had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma when it was tested. This testing is just in its early stages but none of the patients had any harmful side effects after the treatment.
This is why we should never act too quickly in trying to get any kind of drug or plant banned. Tobacco may be the solution to the problem it has been causing all along.
[Via: azcentral.com]
