A new study finds that smokers may be subjecting others to toxins even when they smoke nowhere near them. “Third-hand” smoke is the phenomenon that occurs when contamination sticks around after the cigarette is put out. The authors of the study contend that, for example, if you smoke and then come into contact with your baby, toxins stick to your hair and clothing and are then transferred to the child. Also, breastfeeding mothers should be aware that these same toxins are transferred through breastmilk.
It is thought the study could help lead to home smoking bans, and tobacco awareness campaigns. Read more…
The western diet is becoming deadly!
According to a recent study, there are nine major risk factors were found to significantly increase the risk of heart attacks and heart disease: smoking, lipids, hypertension, dietary choice, physical activity, alcohol consumption, diabetes, obesity and psychosocial factors.
A new study suggest that most cancers are preventable. The study says that 80 per cent of cancers are diagnosed in the elderly. And, apparently, 80 per cent of risk factors are potentially preventable. For example, they connected smoking and lung cancer. (They need a study for that?) Read more…
Research shows there are many benefits of quitting smoking, even during day one.
Within 20 minutes:
Blood pressure decreases, and the pulse slows to its normal rate.
Temperature in the hands and feet increases to normal.
Within 8 hours:
Carbon monoxide level in blood drops to normal, and oxygen level
increases.
Within 24 hours:
Breath, hair and skin stop smelling like smoke. The chance of having
a future heart attack starts decreasing.
Within 48 hours:
Damaged nerve endings begin to recover. As a result, sense of taste
and smell begin to improve.
Within 72 hours:
The body is virtually free of nicotine. The bronchial tubes relax,
making it easier to breathe.
Within 2 weeks to 3 months:
The lungs can hold more air. Exercise becomes easier. Circulation
improves.
Within 1 year:
Coughing, congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath decrease. Cilia
are better able to clean lungs and prevent infection. Overall energy
increases.
After 1 year:
The risk of coronary heart disease is cut in half.
After 5 years:
The risk of having a stroke is reduced to that of a non-smoker.
After 10 years:
The risk of developing lung cancer is cut in half. The risk of other
cancers decreases significantly.
After 15 years:
The risk of coronary heart disease drops, usually to the level of
someone who never smoked.
There may be more than nicotine that’s stopping you from giving up smoking. Research shows that cigarettes are designed to manipulate your taste buds too! The natural and added flavors to tobacco make it even harder for someone to quit.
Honey, vanilla, and cocoa may sound sweet and good but, cocoa, for example, is a nice treat when mixed in its powdered form with hot milk. But when burned in a cigarette, cocoa produces bromine gas, which both dilates and anesthetizes the lungs, maximizing their absorption of smoke and nicotine.
A person’s taste buds may be the reason that they begin to smoke or not. So-called bitter tasters are less likely to cite taste as a motivating factor for smoking—and less likely to smoke in the first place. However, those who have very little bitter tasters are much more likely to become addicted, according to research.
Tens of millions of Americans have quit smoking cigarettes. The benefits of quitting — no matter what your age — are prodigious. Risks of heart disease and stroke plummet. So does the risk of lung cancer, along with cancers of the mouth, throat, bladder, cervix and pancreas. But can the damage from smoking ever be completely undone? Norman Edelman, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, explains.
Q: Does your body fully heal after quitting smoking?
A: When you quit smoking, the inflammation in the airways goes down. The little hair-like projections in the airways that we call cilia — which are paralyzed by smoke — begin to work again. So the lungs will get better in weeks to months. Breathing will get better. Exercise capacity will get better. Paradoxically, people find that they cough a little more right after they stop smoking, but that’s natural. That’s the lungs cleaning themselves out. Read more…
According to LAURA BLUE
From Macleans.ca:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - On websites touting the mind-blowing powers of salvia divinorum, come-ons to buy the hallucinogenic herb are accompanied by warnings: “Time is running out! … stock up while you still can.”
That’s because salvia is being targeted by U.S. legislators concerned that the inexpensive and easy-to-obtain plant could become the next marijuana.
Eight states have already placed restrictions on salvia, and 16 others, including Florida, either have banned it or considering doing so.
“As soon as we make one drug illegal, kids start looking around for other drugs they can buy legally. This is just the next one,” said Florida state Representative Mary Brandenburg, who has introduced a bill to make possession of salvia a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Some say legislators are overreacting to a minor problem, but no one disputes that the plant impairs judgment and the ability to drive.
Native to Mexico and still grown there, salvia divinorum is generally smoked but can also be chewed or made into a tea and drunk.
Called nicknames like Sally-D, Magic Mint and Diviner’s Sage, salvia is a hallucinogen that gives users an out-of-body sense of travelling through time and space or merging with inanimate objects. Unlike hallucinogens like LSD or PCP, however, salvia’s effects last for a shorter time, generally up to an hour.
No known deaths have been attributed to salvia’s use, but it was listed as a factor in one Delaware teen’s suicide two years ago.
“Parents, I would say, are pretty clueless,” said Jonathan Appel, an assistant professor of psychology and criminal justice at Tiffin University in Ohio who has studied the emergence of the substance. “It’s much more powerful than marijuana.”
Salvia’s short-lasting effects and fact that it is currently legal may make it seem more appealing to teens, legislators say. In the Delaware suicide, the boy’s mother told reporters that salvia made his mood darker but he justified its use by citing its legality. According to reports, the autopsy found no traces of the drug in his system, but the medical examiner listed it as a contributing cause.
Mike Strain, Louisiana’s Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner and former legislator, helped his state in 2005 become the first to make salvia illegal, along with a number of other plants. He said the response has been largely positive.
“I got some hostile e-mails from people who sold these products,” Strain said. “You don’t make everybody happy when you outlaw drugs. You save one child and it’s worth it.”
An ounce of salvia leaves sells for around $30 on the Internet. A liquid extract from the plant, salvinorin A, is also sold in various strengths labelled “5x” through “60x.” A gram of the 5x strength, about the weight of a plastic pen cap, is about $12 while 60x strength is around $65. And in some cases the extract comes in flavours including apple, strawberry and spearmint.
Websites such as Salviadragon.com tout the product with images like a waterfall and rainbow and include testimonials like “It might sound far fetched, but I experience immortality.”
Among those who believe the commotion over the drug is overblown is Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a non-profit group that does research on psychedelic drugs and whose goal is to develop psychedelics and marijuana into prescription medication.
“I think the move to criminalize is a misguided response to a very minimal problem,” Doblin said.
Doblin said salvia isn’t “a party drug,” “tastes terrible” and is “not going to be extremely popular.”
He disputes the fact teens are its main users and says older users are more likely. “It’s a minor drug in the world of psychedelics,” he said.
Moreover, it’s hard to say how widespread the use of salvia is. National and state surveys on drug use don’t include salvia, and because it is legal in most states, law enforcement officials don’t compile statistics, either.
San Diego State University last year surveyed more than 1,500 students and found that four per cent of participants reported using salvia in the previous year.
Brandenburg’s bill would make salvia and its extract controlled substances in the same class as marijuana and LSD.
Florida state Senator Evelyn Lynn, whose committee plans to study the salvia bill Tuesday, said the drug should be criminalized.
“I’d rather be at the front edge of preventing the dangers of the drug than waiting until we are the 40th or more,” she said.
Here are some facts about a plant some authorities worry will become the new marijuana:
NAME: Salvia divinorum
NICKNAMES: Salvia, Sally-D, Magic Mint, Diviner’s Sage, Maria Pastora, Sage of the Seers, Lady Salvia, Purple Sticky, Sage.
REPORTED EFFECTS: Hallucinogenic effects that last up to one hour, out-of-body experiences, loss of motor co-ordination and awareness of surroundings, loss of consciousness, uncontrolled laughter.
HOW IT’S USED: Smoked, chewed, made into tea, smoked in water pipes.
ORIGIN: Native to Oaxaca, Mexico, and used by Mazatec Indians in healing rituals.
States that have restricted salvia as of December 2007: Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee.
STATES THAT HAVE BANNED OR ARE CONSIDERING BANNING SALVIA: Alabama, Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Rising tobacco use and poverty will fuel cancer across the developing world, more than doubling the number of new cases to 27 million by 2050, experts predicted on Thursday.
Cancer is already the No. 2 cause of death globally, after heart disease and ahead of AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other causes. And as people live longer and adopt bad habits such as smoking, cancer cases will rise, said Dr. Nancy Davidson of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
“It accounts for 10 percent of deaths,” said Davidson, who is president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She cited this week’s report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer that 7.6 million people will die of cancer this year, 5 million of them in developing countries.
The statistics contradict a perception that cancer is a disease of rich nations. Cancer deaths have fallen in the United States, dropping by more than 2 percent between 2002 and 2004. “There will be 12 million new cancer cases diagnosed worldwide in 2007.
By 2050, this number will more than double to 27 million, even if the rates don’t change,” Dr. Lynn Ries of the U.S. National Cancer Institute said in a telephone briefing. Of these, 5.4 million cases will be in economically developed countries and 6.7 million in developing countries, Ries said. Cancer is caused by a mix of factors, including genes, diet, lack of exercise and, rarely, chemical exposure. But the No. 1 cause is smoking.
Read more.
SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Dec. 18 /PRNewswire/ — January 1, 2008 will mark the ritualistic day of New Year’s promises as many vow to stop smoking. The New Year also brings added pressure to smokers as January 1 marks the first day of the Illinois Smoking Ban.
For those resolving to make 2008 the start of a smoke-free life, a new technology called low-level laser therapy, is available. Laser Therapy, provided by Achieve Laser, is quickly becoming a very successful aid in helping individuals to quit smoking once and for all.
Achieve Laser opened in April 2007 and has experienced encouraging success rates for those committed to quitting. Of the clients who have started the Achieve Laser program, approximately 70% have remained smoke-free after 30 days.
“Our ambition is to help smokers achieve their goal of breaking their smoking addiction forever,” states David Jackson, CEO of Achieve Laser.
Mr. Jackson personally overcame his nicotine addiction after more than 15 years of smoking a pack a day. “My success with laser therapy motivated me to offer new hope to smokers still struggling to quit. Our work is very gratifying and we are extremely proud of the success of our clients.”
The cost of Achieve Laser’s 3-Step Program is $329. Before treatment begins all individuals are screened to determine their smoking and health history. Once approved, clients are placed into a comprehensive program that includes several laser treatments and a customized plan, which addresses the unique behavioral and psychological aspects of the individual’s addiction.
Based on similar principles as acupuncture, laser therapy utilizes a cool laser that targets various points on the body including the ears, face, and hands. Laser treatments promote the release of endorphins - the body’s natural chemical, which promotes relaxation. This effect helps to minimize withdrawal symptoms and cravings that accompany nicotine withdrawal.
“Unlike other smoking cessation aides, laser therapy does not involve drugs or nicotine replacement,” states Brian Frank, co-owner of Achieve Laser. “This allows our clients to overcome their body’s addiction faster and without side-effects.”
For individuals resolved to making 2008 their smoke-free year, and those facing the upcoming Illinois Smoking Ban, laser therapy may be a successful choice.
For more information visit www.AchieveLaser.com or www.QuitSmokingChicago.net
Achieve Laser provides gift cards at www.QuitSmokingGiftCard.com.
Latest stats on cancer deaths:
About 7.6 million people will die this year worldwide from various types of cancer, with lung cancer — heavily driven by smoking — killing 975,000 men and 376,000 women, the American Cancer Society said on Monday.
In all, about 12.3 million people will develop cancer this year, the organization projected, using data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organization.
About 20,000 people die of cancer every day worldwide, the report showed. Smoking was heavily responsible for the lung cancer scourge.
Cancer’s burden is on the rise in developing countries as deaths from infectious diseases and child mortality fall and more people live longer, American Cancer Society epidemiologist Ahmedin Jemal said in a telephone interview. Cancer is more common as people get older, Jemal noted.
Cancer also is increasing in developing countries as people embrace habits linked to cancer such as smoking and fattier diets, Jemal said.
The report estimated 5.4 million people will get cancer and 2.9 million will die of cancer in developed nations, with 6.7 million cases and 4.7 million deaths in developing nations.
See our top 10 lists on Cancer.
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