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]
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]
Smokers who suffer from bi-polar disorder might have an increased risk of experiencing suicidal behavior. According to a new study, this could be due to the fact that they are more at risk of acting impulsively.
Better known as manic depression, bipolar disorder causes large changes in mood, from depression to euphoria. It has already been proven that patients with bipolar disorder who smoke are more prone to suicidal thoughts, but the reason has not been known.
New findings show that one of the symptoms of bipolar disorder is impulsivity and that this is what leads to both smoking and suicidal behavior.
Though smoking is not an absolute marker of risk of suicide, this type of information will be used to make patient assessment more comprehensive, suggest researchers.
Though most smokers do not face this type of risk, it goes to show how many aspects a smoking addiction can have and that smokers should be given more of a break…
[Via: ABC News]
According to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even though a lot of progress has been made in reducing the number of smokers in the United States over the past few decades, during the past few years this decline has stopped.
Between 1998 to 2008, in the United States the percentage of smokers has dropped from 24.1 to 20.6 percent.
The report states that, "during the past five years, rates have shown virtually no change." The smoking rate has actually risen slightly from 19.8% in 2007 to 20.6% in 2008.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, the CDC director said, "Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., and we know what to do. We want to provide support to states and localities to implement proven programs, and if we do that, we can save literally millions of lives in the decades to come."
Smoking levels are higher among those who do not have a college education. The director of CDC claims that the lack of funding for smoking cessation programs is the main cause of this problem…
[Via: usnews.com]
Researchers say that smokers who try to quit by smoking a milder cigarette or one with low tar levels, will not see much success. In fact, it has been found that smokers who have chosen this method have 50% lower chance of kicking the habit.
Dr Hilary Tindle from the University of Pittsburgh said, "It may be that smokers thing that a lighter brand is better for their health and is therefore an acceptable alternative to giving up completely."
Dr Tindle did a study on 31,000 smokers and found that 38% decided to switch to a lighter brand, with the logic that they wanted to smoke something that was less harmful, but nearly 60% did not succeed in quitting.
It was found that even though those who chose to switch to a lighter brand had a great will to quit, they were ironically less likely to quit.
So if you want to quit smoking this is really not the way to go. Smoking is a multi-layered addiction and just because the nicotine levels of a cigarette are low, that does not mean you can get rid of the force of habit.
[Via: dailymail.co.uk]
