tobacco
PositiveTip for
Pot Leads the List
Posted by Fred Hardinge on
Illicit drug use is a substantial cause of mortality and morbidity.
Tracking the use of illegal drugs is a challenge because of their illegality, but researchers from Australia estimate that 149 to 271 million people around the world use them. Pot (cannabis) is the most widely used. This study did not include hallucinogens, inhalants, anabolic steriods or ecstasy. For perspective, the WHO has estimated that illegal drug use causes 250,000 deaths annually, compared with 2.25 million due to alcohol and over 5 million caused by tobacco.
PositiveTip: For health and safety avoid all illegal drugs, along with the more popular legal ones such as alcohol and tobacco!
Prevent Your Own Cancer
Posted by Elvin Adams on
Nearly 50% of all cancer deaths can be prevented. It is reliably estimated that lifestyle and environmental factors are responsible for 42% of the cancers in the United Kingdom. What is true in the UK is likely to be true in much of the industrialized world.
The research looked at the contribution to cancer made by tobacco, unhealthful foods in the diet, obesity, alcohol, lack of exercise, industrial exposures, radiation and several other factors that make a small contribution to cancer.
Of the 314,000 cases of cancer in the UK in 2010, 134,000 were preventable. Tobacco caused 60,000 premature cancer deaths.There were 29,000 cancers caused by eating red meat or a lack of fruits and vegetables in the diet. Obesity was responsible for another 17,000 premature cancer deaths. Alcohol drinking caused 12,000 premature deaths.
Tobacco Use
Posted by Gary Hopkins on
An estimated 440,000 people die from smoking - related causes each year in the United States. Nearly all smoking - related deaths occur after the age of 35, but the majority of adults who smoke began during adolescence. Eighty - two percent of adults who smoke started smoking before age 18, and virtually no adult smokers start after the age of 25.
Young adults ages 18 to 25 have the highest prevalence of recent smoking — 60 percent higher than that of adults over the age of 25. The National Institute on Drug Abuse describes the situation with tobacco by pointing out the following:
The World is Killing Itself
Posted by Elvin Adams on
For thousands of years humans have fallen to the illnesses served up by nature's villains. Infectious disease such as bubonic plague, malaria and tuberculosis have killed millions. But the tables have turned -- we are now killing ourselves at a higher rate than nature is killing us.
The World Health Organization reveals this in the Global Status Report on Noncommunicable Diseases. Each year, of the 57 million deaths in the world, 63% (36 million) are now from self-inflicted causes. Four specific risk factors were identified: (1) tobacco, (2) alcohol, (3) lack of exercise, and (4) poor eating habits.
Around the world, one billion adults are overweight. This will rise to 1.5 billion by 2015. Of children under 5 years of age, 40 million are overweight or obese.
Smoking Reaches Your Toenails
Posted by Elvin Adams on
Cigarette smoking is the primary cause of lung cancer throughout the world.
The risk of developing lung cancer is related to the total dose of smoke to which you have been exposed during your lifetime. This can be estimated in several ways including: the number of cigarettes smoked per day, the depth of smoke inhalation, the number of pack-years, and the age at which smoking began.
These measures of exposure correlate well with the risk of getting lung cancer, but they are subjective measures and rely on the truthfulness and accuracy of the information smokers report about themselves. Recently, a novel method of more accurately determining smoke cumulative smoke exposure was reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
PositiveTip for
Selling, Addicting and Killing
Posted by Fred Hardinge on
Tobacco companies report increasing sales--in vulnerable poor countries.
Major tobacco companies continue to expand business in the vulnerable middle- and low-income countries of the world. In fact, some analysts have called the tobacco industry "recession resistant". These companies report increased revenue and rising share values in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. How do you relate to this morally repugnant industry?
PositiveTip: If you own stock in these companies peddling death, consider selling it. Then you can hold your head higher, knowing you have morally done the right thing.
PositiveTip for
30th U. S. Surgeon General's Smoking Report Issued
Posted by Fred Hardinge on
US Surgeon General reports there is NO risk-free level of smoking.
The U.S. Surgeon General has just released How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease, exploring how smoking is responsible for nearly one in every five deaths and costs almost $200 billion in health expenditures and lost productivity per year. The principal message of the report is:
- There is NO risk-free level of exposure to tobacco smoke.
- Smoking leads to DNA damage, bonding of carcinogens to DNA, and cancer growth.
- Smoking damages the delicate lining of the arteries leading to cardiovascular events.
PositiveTip: Stopping smoking is the only way to lessen the severity of tobacco smoke damage.
PositiveTip for
Esophageal Adenocarcinoma and Smoking
Posted by Fred Hardinge on
Tobacco use significantly contributes to esophageal adenocarcinoma.
Should the abundance of evidence linking smoking to all manner of cancers not be sufficient, consider this: National Cancer Institute researchers have found that the odds ratio for esophageal adenocarcinomas is more than doubled in smokers compared with never smoking. The good news is that those who have quit for 10 years or more have a significantly reduced risk.
PositiveTip: Never starting to smoke is the healthiest, but quitting yields big benefits, too.
Eat Right, Prevent Lung Cancer
Posted by Elvin Adams on
Cigarette smoking causes more deaths worldwide than any other environmental factor.
Lung cancer leads a parade of other smoking-related cancers. Undoubtedly, the best way to reduce the disease and death that come from cigarettes is to just quit smoking. But there are other healthy choices you can make as well.
A diet with a variety of fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of developing lung cancer by 27% in cigarette smokers. This information comes from a study of nearly half a million adults across 10 European countries, and was just published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Parental Connectedness: Substance Use by Youngsters
Posted by Gary Hopkins on
This is the fifth in a series of blogs about the benefits of connectedness between parents and children.
Research shows that :
“…among both older and younger teens, those who felt very connected to parents and other family members reported less frequent use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. The presence of parents at home during key times of the day was associated with a lower likelihood of smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol among older teens (those in grades 9 – 12) and with a lower likelihood of marijuana use among both older and younger teens.”