Smoking persists as a major risk factor for death from heart disease and cancer in adults who already have heart disease and receive good medical therapy, according to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Current smokers more than doubled their risk of death from heart disease and cancer and all causes in the three-year study period. Current smokers also were at increased risk of heart attack and stroke compared to former smokers and nonsmokers.

Source

"Both of my parents were smokers and both of them eventually died from it, but, since my mother was, throughout my childhood until I was 16 years old, an old-fashioned 1950’s style "stay at home" mom, my strongest memories, the ones forged in early childhood, are of her and her smoking more than of my father’s.

Possibly even before, because the other sense which is considered to be strongly associative is the sense of taste and, since I was breast fed for the first few months of my life, (though, because my mother stopped producing milk when I was 8 months old, probably because of her smoking, I was given a bottle which I promptly rejected and began sucking my thumb - a habit which continued throughout my life until I started smoking!) I probably absorbed the taste of nicotine from her very body as an infant and so, when I tried smoking for the first time, the taste and the sensation instantly found a very old neural pathway and dug in"…

Read the entire powerful story here

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it will immediately require boxed warnings about the risk of serious neuropsychiatric symptoms on the packaging of two popular alleged smoking cessation drugs –  varenicline (Chantix, Champix) and buproprion (Zyban, Wellbutrin and generics).

Reports of behavioral changes, depression, agitation, hostility and suicidal thoughts and behavior associated with use of the drugs have been submitted to the FDA’s adverse event reporting system.

Throughout the marketing history of the drugs, there have been 98 suicides and 188 attempted suicides in varenicline (Chantix / Champix) users and 14 suicides and 17 attempted suicides in buproprion (Zyban, Wellbutrin) users, the agency reported.

Please click here for more information about the Chantix controversy.

Source

I admit, these numbers surprised even me: 9 out of 10 smokers with New Year’s resolutions to quit smoking did not make it past the first 24 hours, says an Australian study!

Source

This is crucially important information for women who are pregenant - and their smoking partners (the secondhand smoke). Find out why both should stop smoking at the first indication of a pregnancy.

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

In research that might have implications for human reproduction, U.S. and Chinese scientists have found that cigarette smoke damages mouse eggs and embryos.

The study was designed to examine whether cigarette smoke causes oxidative stress, cell death and dysfunction, and the shortening of telomeres (DNA at the ends of chromosomes that protect them from degradation). Two groups of female mice were exposed to cigarette smoke or cigarette smoke condensate for four weeks and compared to a control group of mice.

The mice exposed to cigarette smoke or the condensate were more likely than the unexposed mice to show increased fragmentation and delayed fertilization, resulting in impaired embryo development, the study found.

The fragmented eggs also showed oxidative stress, and embryos from mice exposed to cigarette smoke or condensate for four weeks before fertilization were more likely to contain dead cells and altered expression of the protein Oct4, which plays an important role in the formation of viable blastocysts (a stage of embryonic development).

The study was published in the November issue of the journal Fertility and Sterility.

Source

Reasons to stop smoking: Smoking, drinking may cause throat, stomach cancer

Drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes appear to increase the risk of certain common throat and stomach cancers, Dutch researchers say.

The findings, presented at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington, underline other health recommendations for people to follow a healthy lifestyle.

Source

Reasons To Stop Smoking: Massachusetts Smoking Ban Saves 600 Lives So Far

Today, I have great news to report:

The Harvard School of Public Health and the Massachusetts Public Health Department say that almost 600 less heart attack deaths occurred since their statewide smoking ban started in 2004!

Dr. Michael Siegel, a Boston University School of Public Health specialist in tobacco control, used to be very critical of smoking bans, and even of Harvard’s previous research. He now has this to say:

"This is the strongest study yet done of the effect of smoking bans on heart attacks. You can no longer argue that these declines would have occured simpy due to medical treatment."

I could not agree any stronger, Dr. Siegel!

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

Source

Reason To Stop Smoking: Cigarettes Are Unreasonably Dangerous, Tobacco Lawyer Admits

While Alvin Davis, lawyer for Ligget Group Inc (maker of Chesterfield cigarettes) admits that "cigarettes are unreasonable dagerous", he also believes that "the question is whether that alone is a sufficient basis to hold the manufacturer liable"!

Reason enough for Davis to ask the Florida Supreme Court to reverse a $545,000 product liability verdict Thursday because the ailing smoker who won the judgment wasn’t required to prove the company could have made a safer cigarette!!!

WHAT???

Find the whole unbelievable story below.

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

Source

Reasons To Stop Smoking: San Francisco - Judge Denies Bid To Stop Ban On Cigarette Sales In Drug Stores

A federal judge denied a motion by Philip Morris USA Inc. for a preliminary injunction that would have put on hold San Francisco’s ban on tobacco sales by pharmacies until the cigarette company’s lawsuit against the city is resolved.

The ordinance is the first of its kind in the nation. It was approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in July, signed by Mayor Gavin Newsom in August and went into effect Oct. 1. Read my post on that.

Philip Morris, the nation’s largest cigarette company, argued in court filings that the city’s regulation violates the First Amendment because it effectively forces tobacco companies to pull the advertising that accompanies its products in drug stores.

Source

Another city in Los Angeles county says ‘Stop Smoking here’! After Santa Monica, Burbank, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, Baldwin Park, and most recently Pasadena, Glendale now also has a strict citywide smoking ban - and it is effective immediately!

To protect people from secondhand smoke, smoking is prohibited in parks, all city property, publicly accessible private property, common areas of apartment complexes, hotel rooms, and outdoor dining patios (unless there is a 10-foot separation between smokers and non-smokers).

A task force to enforce these strategies will be formed, and repeat offenders will have to pay fines of up to $500.

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

Source