If you have ever wondered about just how far the tobacco industry is controlling your government, check out the video link below for one example. At Denver International Airport, DIA, in health-conscious Colorado, big tobacco is in charge! - Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

Colorado’s largest government building - Denver International Airport - is the only business in the state to allow indoor smoking. FOX 31 wanted to know why, and you will be surprised at what they found.

Click here for video

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It is surprising that this one took as long to get researched as it did. I have pointed to the link between the enormous amounts of added sugars in cigarettes and smokers’ bloodsugar levels for many years.

This does not only lead to diabetes or hypoglycemia - the sugars also make it harder for smokers to quit smoking!

Some of them are:  

 - juice concentrates of apple, apricot, beet, fig, grape, pineapple, plum, prune, and raisin

 - chocolate, honey, malt, maple syrup, maltodextrin, molasses, rum, sugar, sugar alcohol, and wine sherry

 - many sugar-like chemicals, like sucrose octaacetate, for example

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

Smokers should be screened for type 2 diabetes and encouraged to quit smoking to prevent it, two Boston researchers recommend based on a new review of studies linking smoking and diabetes.

Already the leading cause of preventable death around the world, smoking has now been tied to a 44 percent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, Swiss researchers report in a review of 25 studies of 1.2 million people, published in tomorrow’s ‘Journal of the American Medical Association’.

Two Harvard researchers, writing in an editorial that also appears in the journal, call on physicians to test smokers for diabetes and encourage them to quit smoking.

Current US Preventive Services Task Force guidelines suggest screening adults with high blood pressure and high cholesterol while the American Diabetes Association recommends testing adults 45 and older every three years.

“Given the increased incidence of type 2 diabetes associated with smoking, it is likely important and prudent for clinicians also to screen for and carefully monitor glucose levels among current and former smokers,” write Eric L. Ding and Dr. Frank B. Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School.

“Major population prevention of type 2 diabetes is achievable by avoidance of smoking and modification of lifestyle factors through a combination of healthy weight control, regular physical activity, moderate alcohol intake, and proper diet.”

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I have no intention of turning this blog into an anti-Chantix campaign, but the horror stories about possible fatal side effects of this very controversial stop smoking drug seem to keep pouring in.

Now a man in the UK committed suicide, after suddenly developing depression while on the smoking cessation medication Champix, (the European name for Chantix).

The British Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency, MHRA, disclosed last week that it received nearly 1000 reports of adverse reactions, including depression and suicidal thoughts.

A week ago the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about the possibility of severe side effects of Chantix, after receiving more than 5000 complaints.

Please see my blogs FDA releases over 5000 Chantix Complaints and Stop smoking drugs side effects may be worse than thought for more information on last week’s news. - Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

The family of a man who killed himself while taking a ”wonder pill" to help him give up smoking have blamed his death on side effects of the drug.

Omer Jama hoped the Champix tablets were the cure that would end his 15-year addiction to smoking - but his family are certain that they led him to take his own life.

Last week American drug safety experts issued a warning about the pill and suicide.

Only four weeks after he began a course of pills to help kick his 20-a-day habit, Mr Jama, 39, a television editor, was found dead with his wrists slashed at his home.

His death came only four days after he was pictured smiling with his newborn niece. He had also recently booked a holiday to Cuba to celebrate his 40th birthday.

Mr Jama’s brother, Ali, said the keen golfer, from Bolton, had split from his wife earlier this year but the pair remained on good terms.

"They just weren’t the actions of a man who was contemplating suicide," said Mr Jama, 41.

"He’s got no history of depression and was never the sort of person you would see feeling sorry for himself.

Up to 200,000 people in Britain have taken the twice-a-day tablets after the treatment was hailed as the most effective weapon in the fight to give up smoking.

It was disclosed last week that the MHRA has received 839 reports of adverse reactions. Forty-six were linked to depression, with 16 smokers claiming to have suffered suicidal thoughts - although no suicides were reported.

An MHRA spokesman said the drug was now being closely monitored, with doctors warned to keep an eye on patients.

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Alright, let’s crunch some numbers today. No, not because I love statistics, but rather to get a reality check:

In 2006 almost 46 million U.S. adults were smokers. That is 1/5 of the population! In that group, 36.3 million smoked everyday and 9 million smoked some days. 20 million -nearly half of them- managed to stop smoking for more than one day during the previous 12 months.

These stats compare well with my own research. I found that a good 70% of all smokers sincerely want to quit smoking, but they simply do not know how to do it, or they initially lack the confidence that smoking cessation would actually work for them.

A lot of continous effort and education is needed to adequately support that majority of smokers who really wish to stop smoking. Today’s post looks at why this is more important today than ever before. - Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

The number of Americans giving up cigarettes may have hit a plateau.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of 2006 data found that approximately 20.8% of U.S. adults — about 45 million — are cigarette smokers.

This prevalence, which has held steady since 2004, suggests a stall in the previous seven-year decline. During that period, the proportion of smokers shrank from 24.7% to 20.9%.

Public health and tobacco control advocates point to recent developments in which state tobacco control funds have been reallocated and policy initiatives have faced roadblocks as possible explanations for the slowing quit smoking rates. They also view the report as a wake-up call.

Smoking rates have been on a downturn since a 1964 surgeon general’s report linked lung cancer and cigarette use. At that time, an estimated 42% of the American population were smokers.

But more than 400,000 people still die each year from smoking-related illnesses and, for every death, 20 more people are living with such conditions.

People diagnosed with smoking-related illnesses continued to be a difficult-to-reach population when it comes to smoking cessation messages.

One possible reason, explained American Medical Association President Ron Davis, MD, is that they may feel the damage from smoking is already done, that it is too late. "That’s a misinformed opinion," he said. "[Stopping] is beneficial at any age — whether sick or not."

People who do quit have a lower risk for death as well as a slower decline in lung function and a lower incidence of bronchitis, emphysema and other respiratory conditions than people who continue to smoke, according to the CDC report.

Those with cancer who smoke while receiving treatment decrease that treatment’s potential effectiveness. They also risk undermining survival prognosis and quality of life, and increasing chances of another malignancy.

"We as physicians need to communicate more effectively with our patients the myriad risks of smoking and the myriad benefits of quitting," said Dr. Davis.

The CDC researchers wrote that decreasing support for tobacco control activities is a likely factor behind the recent stall in overall quit rates.

"They are dead on target," said Dr. Houston, also a clinical professor in family medicine and public health at The Ohio State University.

Not only are the majority of states falling well below the CDC’s recommended level of anti-tobacco expenditures, he said, but funding streams from the 1998 master settlement agreement between the tobacco industry and many state attorneys general also are dwindling.

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This post is an addition to my blog Smoking Cessation: FDA Releases over 5,000 Chantix Complaints from November 30, 2007. Please read it, if you have not done so yet.

Here is an important new video by WFAA News8 in Dallas about the highly controversial stop smoking drug Chantix. Click here to view it, as I am unable to put the actual video in this post. - Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

The Food and Drug Administration announced last week that they are now investigating whether the stop-smoking drug Chantix is safe. As Janet St. James of WFAA-TV News8 reports, the number and type of side effects might be far greater and more deadly than previously reported.

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