Smoking Can Create Damage Right from the First Puf...

New research shows that taking only a few puffs from a cigarette start doing damage to a young people who are otherwise healthy. Researcher Stella Daskalopoulou, MD, of the McGill University Health Center, says that the damage escalates as time passes, and isn't possible to reverse it. Smokers aged 18-30 were tested, they smoked a cigarette after doing a treadmill exercise, and it was found that the arteries of an...

Teens Respond Better to Phone Counseling for Quitt...

Teens are more likely to quit smoking if they receive telephone counseling, according to new research. A telephone-counseling program was created by researchers, 2,000 smokers from 50 Washington state high schools were recruited to test the program. Once they had received parent permission, researchers began testing at 25 of the high schools. The students took part in a follow-up survey about a year later. In comparison to...

Heart Attack Rates Greatly Reduced With Indoor Smo...

A report done by US health experts has confirmed that indoor smoking bans have lowered the risk of heart attack, even among nonsmokers, because exposure to secondhand smoke has been reduced. The report was produced by the Institute of Medicine for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it shows that since smoking has been banned from workplaces, restaurants and bars the rate of cardiovascular-related health...

Psychotic Episodes in Children Affected by Mothers...

A new study suggests that mothers who smoke during their pregnancy could put their children at risk of having delusions, hallucinations or other psychotic symptoms. A survey of 12-year olds in the UK showed that those whose mothers had smoked were about 20% more likely to face such issues. The link was even more pronounced at 84%, if the mother smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day. Though further study of the issue is required,...

Chantix May not Induce Suicidal Behavior

According to a new British study the smoking cessation drug varenciline (Chantix) does not increase the risk of suicidal tendencies or depression. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently mandated that a "black box warning" be carried by the drug's packaging, which would indicate to users that by using the drug they were at risk of experiencing "serious neuropsychiatric symptoms." This includes...

Heart Attack Rates Reduced Drastically With Smokin...

Researchers have recently stated that smoking bans in public places can reduce heart attack rates by about 36%, further supporting the effectiveness of smoking restrictions. Widespread bans on smoking are encouraged in enclosed public places, to help improve general public health. The author of the study James Lightwood of the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement, "This study adds to the already...