Related Smoking Articles
Daily Mail Reporter - 17th December 2009
Smoking just 15 cigarettes harms your DNA
Smoking causes changes to a person's genetic code, according to a comprehensive new lung cancer study
Smokers experience one mutation to their DNA for every 15 cigarettes they smoker, according to a study that mapped out the genetic blueprint of a lung cancer patient.
British researchers led the massive international project, which identified 23,000 mutations that bore the expected signs of damage caused by chemicals in tobacco smoke.
All cancers are caused by mistakes in the genetic code - mutations in DNA that can be triggered by environmental agents.
The scientists hope the results will help them understand the causes of cancer and to develop new treatments.
They found the genetic defects ranged from single-letter changes in the person's code to deletions or re-arrangements of hundreds of thousands of letters.
No single mutation stood out as being the primary cause of the disease. Instead most were 'passenger' mutations that appeared to influence the development of cancer only in combination.
Study leader Dr Peter Campbell, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire said: 'The knowledge we extract over the next few years will have major implications for treatment.
'By identifying all the cancer genes we will be able to develop new drugs that target the specific mutated genes and work out which patients will benefit from these novel treatments.'
Dr Andy Futreal, also from the Wellcome Trust, said: 'Cancers occur when control of cell behaviour is lost - cells grow how, when and where they shouldn't.
'Mutations in DNA caused by, for example, cigarette smoke are passed on to every subsequent generation of daughter cells, a permanent record of the damage done.
'Like an archaeologist, we can begin to reconstruct the history of the cancer clone - revealing a record of past exposure and accumulated damage in the genome.'
A person's risk of lung cancer is known to fall to around normal some 15 years after quitting smoking.
Scientists suspect that lung cells containing harmful mutations are replaced by new cells that are clear of defects.
The researchers carried out the sequencing 60 times for lung cancer in order to produce accurate results. They also mapped the blueprint for melanoma (a dangerous form of skin cancer).
Professor Mike Stratton, joint head of the Cancer Genome Project said: 'These are the two main cancers in the developed world for which we know the primary exposure.
'For lung cancer, it is cigarette smoke and for malignant melanoma it is exposure to sunlight. With these genome sequences, we have been able to explore deep into the past of each tumour, uncovering with remarkable clarity the imprints of these environmental mutagens on DNA, which occurred years before the tumour became apparent.
'We can also see the desperate attempts of our genome to defend itself against the damage wreaked by the chemicals in cigarette smoke or the damage from ultraviolet radiation. Our cells fight back furiously to repair the damage, but frequently lose that fight.'
Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, said: 'We want to drive healthcare through better understanding of the biology of disease.
'This is the first glimpse of the future of cancer medicine, not only in the laboratory, but eventually in the clinic. The findings from today will feed into knowledge, methods and practice in patient care.
T'he team's results have been published in two papers today in the journal Nature.
Reuters – Nov 04 2009
Want to quit? Don't go to light smokes
WASHINGTON - Smokers who switch to a low-tar, light or mild brand of cigarette will not find it easier to quit and in fact may find it harder, researchers reported on Tuesday.
They found that smokers who traded to light cigarettes were 50 percent less likely to kick the habit.
"It may be that smokers think that a lighter brand is better for their health and is therefore an acceptable alternative to giving up completely," Dr. Hilary Tindle of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who led the study, said in a statement.
Her study of 31,000 smokers found that 12,000, or 38 percent, had switched to a lighter brand.
A quarter said they switched because of flavor but nearly 20 percent said they had switched for a combination of better flavor, wanting to smoke a less harmful cigarette, and as part of an effort to give up smoking completely, Tindle's team reported in the journal Tobacco Control.
Those who switched brands were 58 percent more likely to have tried to quit smoking between 2002 and 2003 than those who stuck with their brand. But they were 60 percent less likely to actually succeed in quitting, Tindle's team found.
"Forty-three percent of smokers reported a desire to quit smoking as a reason for switching to lighter cigarettes. While these individuals were the most likely to make an attempt, ironically, they were the least likely to quit smoking," Tindle said.
Other research has shown that so-called low-tar cigarettes have just as much tar, nicotine and other compounds as regular cigarettes, making their .
WebMD Health News - Oct. 27, 2009
Smoking's Damage Swift, Irreversible - By Bill Hendrick
Just 1 Cigarette Can Stiffen Arteries in Young Smokers, Study Shows
Cigarette smoking starts inflicting “very significant” damage on the arteries with the very first puffs taken by otherwise healthy young smokers, new research shows.
The damage worsens as time passes and is impossible to reverse, says researcher Stella Daskalopoulou, MD, of the McGill University Health Centre.
The study found that smoking just one cigarette increases the stiffness of the arteries in 18- to 30-year-old smokers by 25% after a treadmill exercise test. It was presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009 in Edmonton, Alberta.
As arteries stiffen, she says, the heart must work harder, increasing the risk for heart disease or stroke.
“Our results are significant because they suggest that smoking just a few cigarettes a day impacts the health of the arteries,” Daskalopoulou says in a news release. “This was revealed very clearly when these young people were placed under physical stress, such as exercise.”
She tells WebMD that the study compared the arterial stiffness of 10 young smokers, who puffed five to six cigarettes a day, to 10 nonsmokers. The median age of the participants was 21 years. Researchers, who included R.J. Doonan and other medical students under her supervision, measured arterial stiffness at rest and after exercise.
Arterial stiffness in all participants was measured using a method called applanation tonometry.
An initial arterial stiffness measurement was performed at rest for each subject to establish a baseline measure for all the participants. Smokers were instructed not to smoke for 12 hours prior to the test.
After the first meeting, the smokers completed two more tests on different days. For one test, they smoked a single cigarette and then repeated a treadmill exercise test. For the other test, smokers were asked to chew a piece of nicotine gum prior to the exercise test. Daskalopoulou found that after exercise:
* Arterial stiffness levels in nonsmokers dropped by 3.6%.
* Arterial stiffness in smokers increased by 2.2%.
* After one cigarette, it increased by 24.5% in the smokers.
* After nicotine gum, stiffness increased by 12.6% in the smokers.
What the study means, she tells WebMD, is that even light smoking in otherwise healthy people damages the arteries, compromising the ability to cope with physical stress, such as climbing stairs.
“The people tested were young and healthy,” she tells WebMD. “We found there was no significant difference at rest between smokers and nonsmokers, but then we got them to exercise, and the difference was clear.”
Cherry Wongtrakool, a pulmonary specialist at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, tells WebMD there’s no doubt that even one or two cigarettes impairs blood vessel function.
The question is, “how much of that change is going to be persistent,” which she says isn’t answered by the study.
“We know if you have any smoking in your personal history, that puts you at risk for a number of diseases, even if you are a former smoker,” Wongtrakool says.
Daskaloupoulou is working on another study now examining whether former smokers who recently stopped can recover some lung function, and if so, how long it takes.
“This study is very exciting,” Daskalopoulou tells WebMD. “The earlier you stop, my belief is, the faster some recovery will be, but I don’t believe the [arterial] system ever goes back to normal. If you stop early, the damage will be much smaller, but there will still be damage.”
She also says that young people who believe that a little smoking doesn’t hurt are wrong.
Beth Abramson, MD, spokeswoman for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and director of the Cardiac Prevention Center at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, tells WebMD the study is stunning in that it shows clearly that “harmful effects of smoking show up immediately. This is more evidence to prove that smoking is horrendous to one’s health.”
Any smoking is bad, she says, because “it does the opposite of what nitroglycerin does, which is helps increase blood flow to the heart.”
She says even people who’ve smoked for decades can benefit from quitting, though “it’s going to take longer to take your risk down.”
By Kalamazoo Gazette staff - October 08, 2009
Smokers turn to acupuncture in last effort to kick their habits
KALAMAZOO — Tom Hite, of Paw Paw, started smoking in 1977. He tried to quit several times, and at one point he stopped smoking for an entire year.
But his sedentary job as a truck driver led him to resume smoking about two packs a day, he said.
He tried nicotine patches to no avail. His daughter recommended acupuncture. He was skeptical but willing to try anything.
Since two visits to receive acupuncture at Springwood Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, on West Main Street in Kalamazoo, almost a year ago, he hasn’t touched a cigarette.
“I am not tempted at all, even though my wife still smokes,” Hite said. “I don’t really like to be around it. I don’t even think about smoking. I feel so good. I have more energy. I just feel totally better.”
Hite said he was spending about $10 a day on cigarettes. The two acupuncture appointments cost $120 — $60 for each treatment —only 12 days’ worth of cigarettes.
Springwood acupuncturist Charles R. Adams, whom Hite visited, said that he has about an 85 percent success rate in smoking cessation through acupuncture. He emphasized that acupuncture helps relieve cravings but doesn’t change habits. Ex-smokers may need to change their routines that used to involve smoking, such as having a morning cup of coffee or drinking alcohol.
How it works
Adams said that he treats smokers by inserting extremely small sterile needles in the ears, hands and feet and applying mild electrical stimulation to two points in the ears.
“It is designed to get the brain to generate naturally occurring chemistry that fills the receptor site accustomed to being filled with nicotine,” he said. “It allows people to get over the craving, to take the edge off.”
Skepticism all for naught
For most people, two sessions close together is very effective, he said.
Terry Forrister, 42, of Coldwater, smoked about a pack a day for 23 years. But he worried about future health problems that could be caused by smoking. Before he received acupuncture, he had tried quitting many times using patches and going “cold turkey.”
Then someone he knew, Angie Brown, director of Borgess Integrative Medicine, recommended he get acupuncture at her facility.
“I was skeptical,” he said.” I’ve tried many things many times, all unsuccessfully.”
In March, he went to Borgess for two acupuncture sessions two days apart. He smoked after the first session, but after the second session he quit. Now he’s a believer.
“To go from more than a pack a day to cold turkey is just amazing,” he said. “I’d never had the willpower before.”
Paul Enright, the only acupuncturist at Borgess Integrative Medicine, said that when he treats a patient for smoking cessation, he focuses on points in the ear that control addictions. Enright declined to discuss his success rate.
He sees the biggest surge in patients looking for smoking cessation at the start of the year and in November during the Great American Smokeout, planned and publicized by the American Cancer Society.
Enright, who has a master’s degree from the Midwest College for Oriental Medicine in Chicago, said that acupuncture is becoming more accepted by mainstream medicine, although many people consider it a “last-ditch effort.”
“I tell my patients to be receptive to the possibility that it might help,” he said. “Just open yourself up to the possibilities.”
ttawacitizen.com - September 2009
Smoking pregnant increases baby's asthma risk: Study
VIENNE - Smoking during pregancy increases the risk of a baby developing asthma up to sixfold, said a Swedish study published at the European Respiratory Society's annual congress on Monday.
The study by Professeur Anders Bjerg of the Sunderby central hospital in Norrbotten and his specialists showed that smoking leads to babies being born underweight, a fact that has an impact on the development of asthma.
The Swedish doctors studied asthma in about 3,400 children between 1996 and 2008.
The study found that babies of smoking mothers had an average weight of 211 grammes (7.44 ounces) less than those of mothers who do not smoke.
Nearly a quarter (24.3 percent) of smoking mothers' babies weighed less than 2.5 kilogrammes at birth against 4.1 percent for those of non-smoking women.
In underweight children of women who smoked throughout their pregnancy the asthma risk was at 23.5 percent, against 7.7 percent in children of non-smoking mothers who were born with an average weight.
USA TODAY 9-21-09
by Liz Szabo,
Two separate analyses released Monday each found that heart attack rates fall 17% within a year after smoking bans take effect. One analysis, which included 13 studies, appears in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. A second analysis, which considered 11 studies, appears in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Community smoking bans have an immediate and dramatic effect on reducing heart attacks, according to two new analyses of laws in the USA, Canada and Europe.
Cigarette smoke can trigger a heart attack in people with underlying heart disease by causing clots or spasms in the blood vessels, says David Goff, a spokesman for the American Heart Association who wasn't involved in either study.
Given that there are about 920,000 heart attacks every year, the studies suggests that public smoking bans could prevent more than 150,000 of these, according to the Cardiology paper.
Taken together, the findings provide strong, consistent evidence that the country should enact more smoke-free laws, Goff says.
"This is a huge, huge effect for a very, very low cost," says Stanton Glantz of the University of California-San Francisco, co-author of the Circulation study.
Smoke-free laws reduce heart attacks in three ways, Glantz says. First, they protect smokers themselves. Second, they protect non-smokers — especially waiters and bartenders — from secondhand smoke. Third, they encourage people to quit or smoke less by making it more difficult for people to find place to light up.
Smoke-free laws have other healthy side effects, says Tom Glynn of the American Cancer Society. They also reduce the risk of lung cancer, although more slowly.
Preventing heart attacks can save money.
Cardiovascular disease costs the country $475.3 billion a year, both in direct costs, such as hospital stays, and indirect costs, such as missed work, Goff says. It costs at least $14,000 to treat one heart attack patient in the hospital, says Goff, who says that cardiac rehab, medication and other care cost even more.
"Really pushing strong smoke-free policies has a huge effect on health care costs by simply avoiding disease," Glantz says.
Thirty-one states now forbid smoking in workplaces, restaurants or bars, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation. About one in five adults smoke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.