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Smoking Skunk Raises Risk of Psychosis
LONDON (Reuters)—People who smoke “skunk”-a potent form of cannabis-are almost seven times more likely to develop psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia than those who smoke “hash” or cannabis resin, according to research.
Scientists from King’s College London’s institute of psychiatry said their study was the first to look specifically at skunk, rather than normal cannabis, and suggested high levels of tretrahydrocannabinol, or THC, were to blame for the drug’s effect on mental health.
“The risk of psychosis is much greater among people who are frequent cannabis users, especially among those using skunk, rather than among occasional users of traditional hash,” said Marta di Forti, the psychiatrist who led the study.
Di Forti and colleagues, whose work was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry on Tuesday, studied 280 patients who had experienced a first psychotic episode and 174 healthy people from the area of London where the research was conducted.
They found that those who had been diagnosed with psychosis serious enough to last a week and warrant admission to hospital were twice as likely to have used cannabis for longer than five years and more than six times more likely to use it every day.
And among all those who had used cannabis-from both the healthy group and the psychotic group-those with psychosis were almost seven times more likely to use skunk, a finding the researchers described as “striking.”
The potential dangers of cannabis sparked a row between British politicians and scientists last month after the government sacked its chief drugs adviser for arguing that cannabis was no more harmful than alcohol.
Previous studies have suggested smoking cannabis can double the risk of developing psychosis, Di Forti said, but hers is the first to look at skunk-a drug she said was now taking over from cannabis resin in the illegal drug trade in many countries.
The two main constituents of cannabis are THC-the psychoactive ingredient, which can produce psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia-and cannabidiol.
The researchers said cannabidiol appeared to have anti-psychotic properties and could be counteracting the THC.
Skunk traded illegally in southeast London, where the study was carried out, has around 12 to 18 percent THC and 1.5 percent cannabidiol, while regular cannabis resin has an average THC of around 3.4 percent and an equal amount of cannabidiol.
“It seems that with hash the equal amounts of THC and cannabidiol may be reducing the effect, but with skunk that balance is not there,” Di Forti told Reuters after a briefing.
“Unfortunately skunk is displacing traditional cannabis preparations in many countries,” she said, adding that while skunk had been more expensive than hash in the past, it was now selling for a similar price-under $8.25 a gram.
Source URL: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/26105/
Doctor Reminds All Of Dangers Of Smoking
“Anyone who treats cancer will tell you, we hate cigarettes,” he said. “Nationally, lung cancer is the No. 1 cause of cancer death. In fact, it accounts for more deaths than the next-three-common cancers combined – breast, prostate, and colorectal. The vast majority of lung cancer diagnoses – 90 percent in men and 70 percent in women – are associated with smoking.”
According to a 2003 report “Tobacco Control Country Profiles” published jointly by the American Cancer Society, the World Health Organization and the International Union against Cancer, approximately 1.3 billion people worldwide currently smoke cigarettes or other products.
While tobacco use in industrialized countries is declining, it is rising at an alarming rate in the developing world.
“About 35 percent of men in developed countries smoke, compared with almost 50 percent of men in developing nations and almost two-thirds of Chinese men,” according to the report said. “An estimated 4.9 million premature deaths from smoking occurred in the year 2000. … Of everyone alive today, an estimated 500 million people will eventually be killed by tobacco.”
The good news is that smoking rates in Utah are remarkably low.
So low that Donaldson said Lung cancer actually falls behind breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers in Utah.
“It is important to note that smoking is associated with more than just lung cancer,” he said. “It is also a risk factor for cancers of the head and neck, esophagus, pancreas, anus, kidney, bladder, cervix – I can’t even name them all.”
Smoking is also a major contributing cause of cardiovascular disease and chronic bronchitis.
Source URL: http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20091116/LIFESTYLE/911160307/Doctor+reminds+all+of+dangers+of+smoking
Smoking Linked To Colorectal Cancer
Most people don’t need another reason to quit smoking, with study after study linking the deadly habit to 16 different types of cancer as well as high blood pressure and emphysema.
A new study released this week, however, adds one more reason to quit, says the study’s author. Long-term cigarette smokers who have smoked for 40 years or more, or who have not quit before the age of 40, are more likely to develop colon cancer.
“This provides one more reason not to smoke, or to quit as soon as possible,” said senior author Dr. Michael J. Thun, vice president emeritus, epidemiology and surveillance research at the American Cancer Society.
“Colorectal cancer should be added to the list of cancers caused by smoking.”
Thun and colleagues studied the association between long-term cigarette use and colorectal cancer after adjusting for risk factors, including screening. Researchers followed 185,000 participants aged 50 to 74 from 1992 to 2005.
Those participants who smoked for 40 years or did not quit by the age of 40, had a 30 to 50 percent increased risk of developing colon or rectal cancer during the follow up, even when adjusting for 13 other potential risk factors, Dr. Thun said.
After 13 years of follow- up, researchers identified 1,962 cases of invasive colorectal cancer.
“These findings contributed to the evidence recently reviewed by the International Agency on Cancer (IARC) in October of this year,” said Thun. “IARC upgraded the evidence that smoking causes colorectal cancer from ‘limited’ to ’sufficient’.”
While Dr. Thun said previous studies have shown similar results, this study was the first to control for screening of all of the suspected risk factors for colorectal cancer, such as alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, and consumption of red or processed meat.
The IARC classification brings the number of cancer organ sites that are causally related to cigarette smoking to 17, according to the study.
Cigarette smoking has been related to cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, nasopharynx, nasal cavity, paranasal sinuses, larynx, lung, esophagus, stomach, colorectum, liver, pancreas, kidney (both renal cell and transitional cell carcinoma), urinary bladder and lower urinary tract, uterine, cervix and myeloid leukemia.
Source URL: http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Lifestyle/smoking_linked_to_colorectal_cancer_051220090212.html
Cigarette Smoke Exposure Prior To Heart Transplant Harmful: Study
The study conducted at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore showed that tobacco smoke leads to accelerated immune system rejection of the transplanted heart, heightened vascular inflammation and increased oxidative stress, and a reduction in the transplanted organ’s chance of survival by 33%-57%.
The study, conducted in rats, involved exposure to levels of tobacco equivalent to that of a habitual, light-to-moderate-range smoker and included comparisons between smoking and non-smoking donors and recipients.
“Our research shows that if a heart donor has been a habitual smoker, and you put that heart in a non-smoking recipient, that heart won’t work; it will be rejected,” says the study’s senior author, Mandeep R. Mehra, professor of medicine, head of the Division of Cardiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and chief of cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
“This study shows beyond a shadow of a doubt how smoking affects transplantation,” Mehra added.
The study has been published this month in the journal Circulation.
Tobacco Through Waterpipe Is As Harmful As Puffing
The belief among some waterpipe users is that this method of smoking tobacco delivers less tar and nicotine than regular cigarette smoking and has fewer adverse health effects.
However, the new study led by a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher has challenged this belief.
“The results are important because they provide concrete, scientific evidence that contradicts the oft-repeated myth that waterpipe tobacco smoking does not involve users inhaling the same harmful chemicals that cigarette smokers do,” said principal investigator Thomas Eissenberg, Ph.D., professor in the VCU Department of Psychology.
“We hope that these results will be used by physicians and public health
officials to inform waterpipe tobacco smokers that they risk tobacco-induced nicotine addiction and cardiovascular disease,” he added.
Eissenberg along with Alan Shihadeh, Sc.D., associate professor at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, compared the toxicant exposure associated with waterpipe smoking and cigarette smoking among 31 participants between the ages of 18 and 50.
Each participant completed two 45-minute sessions, one in which they smoked tobacco using a waterpipe and the other in which they smoked a single cigarette. The level of nicotine and carbon monoxide in the participants’ blood was measured, as was heart rate, puff number and puff volume.
They found that on average, the levels of carbon monoxide to which participants were exposed were higher when they were smoking a waterpipe than when they were smoking a cigarette.
Specifically, the peak waterpipe COHb level – amount of carbon monoxide found bound to red blood cells – was three times that observed for cigarette.
However, they observed that the peak nicotine levels did not differ – but there was exposure to nicotine through both methods of tobacco smoke.
Examining the number and volume of each puff showed that compared with smoking a cigarette, waterpipe tobacco smoking involved inhalation of about 48 times more smoke.
The study has been published in the December issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Smoking Kills 250 Daily
AT LEAST 250 Filipinos die each day, yes, each day, or about 90,000 a year, from smoking-related illnesses, cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic diseases, and cancers, especially lung cancers. In Malaysia about 10,000, and Vietnam at least 40,000, die annually from tobacco-related conditions. Indonesia’s death toll is the worst: 400,000 a year.
The sad fact is that official global tobacco youth survey has revealed that the “smoking prevalence among Filipino youth had jumped from 15 percent in 2003 to 21.6 percent in 2007,” and extrapolated to go even higher.
“We are losing the war against smoking,” stated Maricar Limpin, executive director of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP), “indicating that the law has not been effective.”
The 2003 act “sets both the guidelines for and regulation of the packaging, sale, distribution, and advertisements of tobacco products,” and also mandating the printing of warnings about the harmful effects of smoking.
Those figures above are from the 2005-2006 Tobacco and Poverty Study in the Philippines conducted by the College of Public Health of the University of the Philippines, National Epidemiology Center of the Department of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The past three years or so, even the printing of graphic warnings to discourage smoking has been blocked by many lawmakers. Do they have any vested financial interest to protect?
“It is being blocked because of fears it could kill the tobacco industry,” Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza, main author of the anti-smoking bill, said.
Obviously, for political correctness and expediency, majority of our legislators in Congress prefer to protect the tobacco industry and allow tobacco to continue to kill our people. What money from the tobacco lobby can do, huh?
Smoking kills. It is that plain and simple. There is no more doubt today that tobacco (cigarette smoking) is the predominant cause of lung cancer, besides other malignancies and cardiovascular diseases that maim, kill men and women and hurt our society, especially our children. In the United States alone, almost half a million die each year from smoking-related illnesses. These are preventable deaths! Demographic studies have shown that smokers are about 10 times more prone to die premature deaths than non-smokers. This unnecessary loss of lives is at an immense direct cost for non-smokers in terms of increased health risks from passive smoking, in higher health insurance premiums and taxes, not to mention personal and family tragedies in all shapes and forms.
As we have alluded to in a previous column, secondhand smoke is even more dangerous. Innocent bystanders are forced to inhale cigarette smoke at their workplaces or in public places, thus increasing their health risk. The Environmental Protection Agency engineers have shown that even the best available ventilation and air-moving equipment were unable to reduce carcinogenic (cancer-causing) air contamination to a safe level for a non-smoker sharing work space with a habitual smoker.
Why governments around the world allow and protect an industry that victimizes and hooks their young, poisons and kills their people, is incomprehensible, however you look at it. If financial profit were the justification and goal, then perhaps marihuana should be legalized and protected by the governments, because peddling this illegal drug (which does not cause those tobacco-induced diseases and even has some medicinal uses) would be more profitable, since health has not been considered (even ignored) in the overall equation of this controversy anyway. To be sarcastic about it, I would say let’s just consider the economics, and forget about the deadly adverse effects of tobacco on the 1.2 billion smokers around the globe, millions of them Filipinos, or on the billions of potential marihuana users, if it were legalized–and allow them to suffer and even kill themselves (cigarette smoking is an act of slow suicide also), as long as the industry and the government make money.
If you think about it, our government and those of other nations are peddling drugs (albeit addictive tobacco is a milder killer substance) in the name of profit, wantonly sacrificing their citizens’ health and future, shortening people’s lives, causing trillions of dollars or more of expenditures for research as to how to fight the habit, how to cure the tobacco-induced illnesses, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, and cancer, etc. This is plain stupidity.
As a cardiac surgeon, I can see the prescription, the solution that is obvious even to billions of non-medical people (including school graders) with common sense around the world: Eliminate the darn cause, the poison! Then, you don’t have to do expensive research looking for the “antidote” or finding the cure, etc. Instead, save the billions (or trillion) of dollars in each country to eliminate graft and corruption among government officials and eradicate poverty among the destitute, homeless and hungry. This way, we can even have these added bonuses: a smokeless society, a healthier citizenry, a nobler nation, and a less polluted environment ecologically friendlier to Mother Earth!
I might be naïve, a simpleton, or simply stupid, but I honestly cannot fathom to this day why we legalize the use of a deadly substance that causes illnesses and then spend money looking for cures for the diseases it causes, or why a government or a society would not get rid of a proven addictive poison, like tobacco, which maims and kills its people and devastates tens of millions of families. Maybe I am dumb too.
Unfortunately, the senseless global smoke-filled “killing field,” protected by our very own government, will continue. And I am fuming mad!
Source URL: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/opinion/view/20091207-240632/Smoking-kills-250-daily
Guest Essay: Smoking’s Deadly Cycle Starts At Home
The faint red glow of four cigarettes was barely visible among the swirls of smoke in the car. I am not claustrophobic but the smoke was suffocating me; I felt like I was in a gas chamber. That awful taste was stuck in the back of my throat and the stench was embedded in my clothing. This scene had become a familiar one for me, for smoking is somewhat of a family activity for my parents and two siblings. Fortunately, I resisted their influence, but why can’t other people resist parental influence as well?
When children grow up in smoking households they see no consequences for that action. Unfortunately, their minds are like sponges; they imitate a lot of what their parents do. Family First Aid reports that, “Only 2 percent of people who smoke were brought up in a non-smoking household.” The majority of people who smoke were greatly influenced by their parents growing up.
Smoking is a ruthless killer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “The adverse health effects from cigarette smoking account for an estimated 438,000 deaths, or nearly 1 of every 5 deaths, each year in the United States.” Imagine if people didn’t smoke. Thousands of lives a year could be spared; I might still have a grandfather.
Parental influence on children is a key factor in the development of bad habits, especially smoking. I know how strong parental influence is, as it is exemplified in the smoking habits of my two older siblings. Congruently, smoking should be banned from household settings, at least until all of the kids are within legal age of the activity. No good can come from it; there is no upside. Why do people smoke when they know that its side effects are deadly? Why do parents choose to smoke in front of their kids if it is killing them?
Source URL: http://www.pioneerlocal.com/norridge/news/1911658,park-ridge-smokeletter-120309-s1.article
Great American Smokeout: 5 Things You Can Do To Help You Stop Smoking
Everyone knows smoking is bad, but it’s also an amazingly addictive habit. Quitting smoking has been compared to getting off of heroin, and to some it may feel worse. Nevermind the smoking side effects! Not only is smoking addictive physically, but it’s also an emotional and social connection. People bond over smoking, there are ’smoke breaks’ and smoking can give comfort when needed. But let’s face it–it’s a nasty habit that doesn’t lead to anything positive. Here are some replacement behaviors for you to use the next time you want to light up:
1) Breathe Deep. For some people, the inhaling of the cigarette smoke is the only time during the day they take a deep breath. Why not try that deep breathing without the smoke? A few rounds of deep breaths will give you a different kind of buzz.
2) Chew some gum and hold a pencil. Sounds silly, but a lot of the connection to cigarettes can be an oral and/or manual fix. Replace the butt with something different, and healthier.
3) Go for a walk. Instead of clogging up your body and mind with toxins and smoke, give it a chance to clear. Smoking breaks can often signal a need to escape or take a moment to regroup. Going for a walk around the block, complex, or building can give you a mental break while being physically productive.
4) Drink some water. Maybe you’re bored so you decide to have a cigarette, or you’re tired so you want a perk-up. Chugging some water is a better solution and will give you energy by revitalizing you from the inside out.
5) Call a friend. Changing habits can be difficult! Call a friend for support, tell him what you’re doing–how you’re trying to quit smoking and ask for reinforcement. I’m sure he’d be happy to help.
Quitting smoking can be the best thing you can do for your health! Changing habits can be hard, but with the right support and foundation, it can lead to a healthy, happier life. For more information on how to get happier and healthier, “Get Healthy” is for those looking to make a change in their lifestyle habits, but aren’t sure where to start.
High-Risk Women May Often Avoid Using Tamoxifen
In an effort to inform women about the risks and benefits of tamoxifen, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center created a decision aid, which was tailored to the health history of each of the 632 women in the study.
“That means, when women read this decision aid, they learned about how the drug was likely to affect them given their age, race, breast cancer history and medical history,” study author Angela Fagerlin, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and a research investigator at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, said in a university news release.
The researchers found that the decision aid helped inform the women about the risks and benefits of tamoxifen, with 63 percent correctly answering at least five of the six questions about the drug and 41 percent getting all six questions right.
However, although the women apparently achieved a high level of understanding about the risks and benefits of tamoxifen therapy, only 29 percent said they were likely to look for more information about the drug, 29 percent said they’d talk to their doctor about it and only 6 percent said they were likely to take tamoxifen. When questioned about the drug again three months later, fewer than 1 percent of the women had started taking the drug and fewer than 6 percent had sought more information or talked to their doctor about tamoxifen.
Eighty percent of the women in the study said they were worried about the drug’s side effects, which can include hot flashes, sexual problems and, in rare cases, blood clots, cataracts or endometrial cancer, the study authors noted.
“Experts have bemoaned the dearth of women taking these pills, worried that word has not gotten out about tamoxifen’s ability to prevent breast cancer in high-risk women. Our study shows that even when the word does get out, most women are too concerned about the pills’ side effects to want to take it,” senior author Dr. Peter Ubel, a professor of internal medicine and director of the University of Michigan’s Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine, said in the news release.
Smoking Drug Warning
DOCTORS were warned about the potential dangers of anti-smoking drug Champix in December last year.
A Sunday Tasmanian investigation reveals the December 2008 edition of the Australian Adverse Drug Reactions Bulletin said to October 2008 there had been 339 adverse reports for Champix, including reports of people contemplating suicide.
Since then 8030 Tasmanians have been prescribed Champix and it is understood at least one committed suicide while on the drug.
Last week Australia’s drug watchdog, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, said since Champix went on the market in January last year there had been 808 adverse reaction reports including eight suicides and 149 reports of suicidial behaviour.
Around Australia 730,000 prescriptions for Champix have now been dispensed.
Last weekend Devonport’s Matthew Prescott told the Sunday Tasmanian Champix changed his personality and led to him disappearing for more than a week.
He said while using the drug he experienced depression, dry retching, paranoia and aggressiveness.
Mr Prescott was not warned of possible side-effects even though health professionals had known since December it was increasingly likely there was an association between Champix and serious neuropsychiatric events.
Smoking cessation expert Sharon Lawn from Adelaide’s Flinders University said Champix was a very good drug but people using it had to be supported.
“After the first week on the drug people should be seeing a health professional every second day for monitoring and management of any symptoms, particularly if they have a mental illness,” she said.
“It is vitally important to pick up early changes in behaviour so doctors should not fall into the trap of prescribing without monitoring.”
Dr Lawn said there needed to be clearer processes to support people on Champix.
“At the moment there are no structural mechanisms in place for following up patients and there should be.”
Dr Lawn said smoking could be a very difficult thing to stop and Australia’s remaining smokers were those experiencing the greatest difficulty doing so.
American Food and Drug Administration advice on Champix:
* Patients should tell their doctor about any history of psychiatric illness before starting Champix.
* Health care professionals, patients, patients’ families and care givers should monitor for changes in behaviour and mood.
* Patients should immediately report changes in mood and behaviour to their doctor.
Source URL : http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2009/12/06/114021_lifestyle.html
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