Okay, there are three reasons you keep puffing your life away. There are also three ways to help you kick the habit of puffing your life away. They are:
Behavioral Therapy
Medicines. Nicotine replacement including a nicotine replacement patch, gum, and nasal spray. Newly introduced prescription medications like the antidepressant bupropion approved by the FDA for tobacco smoking cessation use in 1997 marketed as Zyban.
A long range plan to help start, support, and succeed at tobacco cessation and support to help you work the plan.
Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive therapy is quick and helps adjust your lifestyle and habits as they now are. It leaves your great grandparents and Mommy and Daddy out of it. It’s productive and can help some people a lot.
Tobacco quitting support groups are invaluable, especially online forums. The folks in them understand your problems, they are going through the same experiences, and it’s private. I mean, it’s not like sitting in the town square spilling your beans and hoping it won’t be the next day’s diner gossip.
Group Quits. The pulling together of close friends or family members who also want to quit using tobacco products can be incredibly helpful support for each other. A group of us used what we called “dime therapy” to support each other. It simply meant calling each other for moral support when we weakened.
Another support can be your own words – written in a journal. Anytime you need a boost you can check out your progress and or check out why and when you smoke so you can avoid those times. Journals can help you keep your quitting program running on target, especially since the first quitting step is to create a long term plan. The second is encouraging yourself and a journal can include gratitude notes, reminders why and how to quit using tobacco and anything else that will help you quit. Has a celebrity you admire come out against smoking? Write down their words for when you need them most. A journals power is endless. And best of all, you don’t have to be a professional writer to benefit from your words.
Your doctor, dentist, or pharmacist can also point you to places to find support.
Sources: www.drugabuse.gov, www.nida.gov or www.cancer.gov or www.smokefree.gov Or, call the National Cancer Institute’s Smoking Quitline at 1-800-784-8669
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Second Hand Smoke and Children
Okay, I’ve said what I can to those who are able to make their own decisions. Since small children and babies can’t do the same, let’s concentrate now on what passive or second hand smoke does to little ones.
Children are especially susceptible: their tiny lungs are still developing and childhood exposure to secondhand smoke results in decreased lung function. Children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to develop asthma, the leading serious chronic childhood disease in the US.
More Numbers for the Curious: In a late 90s government study, it was found that 9-12 million American children under age 5 were exposed to secondhand smoke in the home and 43 percent of American children aged 2 months to 11 years live in a home with at least one smoker.
Exposure to secondhand smoke increases the severity and frequency of asthma episodes; 200,000 to 1,000,000 asthmatic children with asthma have experienced aggravated symptoms.
From 1982 to 1995 the prevalence of pediatric asthma has increased by 86.8 percent. Asthma accounts for approximately 17 percent of all pediatric emergency visits in the US.
Exposure to secondhand smoke causes 150,000 to 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections (pneumonia and bronchitis) annually in children 18 months and younger; these infections result in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations each year.
Secondhand smoke exposure causes buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 700,000 to 1.6 million physician office visits. Middle ear infections are the most common cause of childhood operations and of childhood hearing loss.
A California EPA study estimated 1,900 to 2,700 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths annually were associated with secondhand smoke exposure
Sources: http://www.lungusa.org, www.cdc.gov , www.drugabuse.gov , www.cancer.gov www.smokefree.gov, www.srnt.org, www.quitnet.org
A Personal Story – Montel Williams and Sudden Infant Deaths
US Surgeon Generals have repeatedly reported that exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Other government health agencies and country wide universities support these findings. Still, we hear no outcry of indignation or anger. Montel Williams, a highly intelligent and compassionate television personality, recently featured parents on his show who had lost their toddlers, each over 12 months old, due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
These parents are understandably making it their mission to find out why this is happening to toddlers since earlier medical information said that babies under 12 months old were those most prone to this mysterious death. These heartbroken parents wanted to know how it happened and why it happened.
As I watched, I had to wonder: Among the usual roster of “experts” on the show, some were conspicuous by their absent. Where were the experts, including our government’s experts, who have investigated and reported on the connection between environmental smoke and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome? The Surgeon Generals of our country are not exactly invisible. The connection between tobacco smoke and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is in fact, as google.com attests, the worst kept secret in America.
I wondered how Mr. Williams’ staff researchers could have missed this information. I wondered why, in view of the heavy smoking in our country, this bit of information is not scaring the hell out of parents and grandparents? And most of all, why it is not being made a more public debate?
Just Curious.
Did You Know?
Eleven percent (11%) of children aged 6 years and under is exposed to Environmental or Second Hand Smoke in their homes on a regular basis (4 or more days per week).
Children are especially susceptible: their tiny lungs are still developing and childhood exposure to secondhand smoke results in decreased lung function. Children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to develop asthma, the leading serious chronic childhood disease in the US.
More Numbers for the Curious: In a late 90s government study, it was found that 9-12 million American children under age 5 were exposed to secondhand smoke in the home and 43 percent of American children aged 2 months to 11 years live in a home with at least one smoker.
Exposure to secondhand smoke increases the severity and frequency of asthma episodes; 200,000 to 1,000,000 asthmatic children with asthma have experienced aggravated symptoms.
From 1982 to 1995 the prevalence of pediatric asthma has increased by 86.8 percent. Asthma accounts for approximately 17 percent of all pediatric emergency visits in the US.
Exposure to secondhand smoke causes 150,000 to 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections (pneumonia and bronchitis) annually in children 18 months and younger; these infections result in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations each year.
Secondhand smoke exposure causes buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 700,000 to 1.6 million physician office visits. Middle ear infections are the most common cause of childhood operations and of childhood hearing loss.
A California EPA study estimated 1,900 to 2,700 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths annually were associated with secondhand smoke exposure
Sources: http://www.lungusa.org, www.cdc.gov , www.drugabuse.gov , www.cancer.gov www.smokefree.gov, www.srnt.org, www.quitnet.org
A Personal Story – Montel Williams and Sudden Infant Deaths
US Surgeon Generals have repeatedly reported that exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Other government health agencies and country wide universities support these findings. Still, we hear no outcry of indignation or anger. Montel Williams, a highly intelligent and compassionate television personality, recently featured parents on his show who had lost their toddlers, each over 12 months old, due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
These parents are understandably making it their mission to find out why this is happening to toddlers since earlier medical information said that babies under 12 months old were those most prone to this mysterious death. These heartbroken parents wanted to know how it happened and why it happened.
As I watched, I had to wonder: Among the usual roster of “experts” on the show, some were conspicuous by their absent. Where were the experts, including our government’s experts, who have investigated and reported on the connection between environmental smoke and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome? The Surgeon Generals of our country are not exactly invisible. The connection between tobacco smoke and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is in fact, as google.com attests, the worst kept secret in America.
I wondered how Mr. Williams’ staff researchers could have missed this information. I wondered why, in view of the heavy smoking in our country, this bit of information is not scaring the hell out of parents and grandparents? And most of all, why it is not being made a more public debate?
Just Curious.
Did You Know?
Eleven percent (11%) of children aged 6 years and under is exposed to Environmental or Second Hand Smoke in their homes on a regular basis (4 or more days per week).
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
SECONDHAND OR ENVIRONMENTAL SMOKE
So you don’t smoke? You don’t chew? You don’t dip? Since you take good care of your health by not using tobacco products, you are “home free” as they say. Right?
Wrong.
Every day, men, women, youths, and babies are subjected to the same dangers smoking tobacco products inflicts on smokers’ bodies. These innocent victims are damaged by second hand smoke -- also called environmental smoking.
Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. Secondhand smoke is estimated to cause 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually and 37,000 heart disease deaths in non-smokers each year.
In another earlier study done during the late 80s and early 90s, it was found that non-smoking spouses of smokers were prone to higher rates of lung diseases than women married to non smokers. The rate increased in proportion to the amount of smoking done by their spouses. The tobacco industry strongly refuted Dr. Hirayama’s findings in full page newspaper ads although the industry’s own experts are said to have agreed with his findings.
What is second hand or environmental smoke?
Secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke, is a complex mixture of gases and particles that includes smoke from the burning cigarette, cigar, or pipe tip (sidestream smoke) and exhaled mainstream smoke.
Thousands of chemicals are found in the mixture including hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, and dozens of compounds that are known carcinogens, tumor promoters, or tumor initiators. Many of these chemicals have been identified as hazardous and are regulated by various federal or state agencies.
When California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his plan to open a smoking rotunda in the California Capitol, it brought protestors out in droves. Their arguments against such a powerful example of smoking approval included the fact that smoking harms not only the smokers but anyone else in their vicinity.
When you walk through a passel of smokers filling the air with their smoke, your health is being endangered. If you eat in a restaurant that is playing head games with the laws that decree separate spaces for smokers and non smokers – you know the ones I mean; their separate spaces consist of two tables away from smokers – your health is being endangered. If you work where smoking areas are near entrances you need to use repeatedly, your health is being endangered.
How is it being endangered?
Numbers for the curious and the magic numbers can make happen -- so okay, here are some solid stats for free.
Secondhand smoke exposure causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults.
Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their heart disease risk by 25–30 percent and their lung cancer risk by 20–30 percent.
Breathing secondhand smoke has immediate harmful effects on the cardiovascular system that can increase the risk of heart attack. People who already have heart disease are at especially high risk.
There is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure. Even brief exposure can be dangerous.
Now, here’s the big message. If you or others in your household are smoking around children or babies, you are endangering their health.
Sorry, I don’t mean to lay a guilt trip on smokers but it’s the truth. If you date or are married to a smoker who smokes in your presence or children’s presence, your and their health are being seriously endangered. Let’s put it this way, would you live in a garage that has three autos in it gurgling out carbon monoxide?
As an ex-smoker who went through smoking every day, then quitting every day until it finally took, I know that nicotine addiction smoking is tough to kick. However, if your spouse or significant other smokes, for their sake, yours, and any little ones, help that loved one quit killing themselves. How? Sometimes telling them how much you love them and how much you fear losing them can help start them thinking of quitting.
One nauseating little trick I used to help me stop was to soak two cigarettes in water for a day. Then I sat and stared at the results for a few minutes. I imagined that awful yellow gunk going into my lungs and it repulsed me. It can work with some and not with others.
Wrong.
Every day, men, women, youths, and babies are subjected to the same dangers smoking tobacco products inflicts on smokers’ bodies. These innocent victims are damaged by second hand smoke -- also called environmental smoking.
Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. Secondhand smoke is estimated to cause 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually and 37,000 heart disease deaths in non-smokers each year.
In another earlier study done during the late 80s and early 90s, it was found that non-smoking spouses of smokers were prone to higher rates of lung diseases than women married to non smokers. The rate increased in proportion to the amount of smoking done by their spouses. The tobacco industry strongly refuted Dr. Hirayama’s findings in full page newspaper ads although the industry’s own experts are said to have agreed with his findings.
What is second hand or environmental smoke?
Secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke, is a complex mixture of gases and particles that includes smoke from the burning cigarette, cigar, or pipe tip (sidestream smoke) and exhaled mainstream smoke.
Thousands of chemicals are found in the mixture including hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, and dozens of compounds that are known carcinogens, tumor promoters, or tumor initiators. Many of these chemicals have been identified as hazardous and are regulated by various federal or state agencies.
When California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his plan to open a smoking rotunda in the California Capitol, it brought protestors out in droves. Their arguments against such a powerful example of smoking approval included the fact that smoking harms not only the smokers but anyone else in their vicinity.
When you walk through a passel of smokers filling the air with their smoke, your health is being endangered. If you eat in a restaurant that is playing head games with the laws that decree separate spaces for smokers and non smokers – you know the ones I mean; their separate spaces consist of two tables away from smokers – your health is being endangered. If you work where smoking areas are near entrances you need to use repeatedly, your health is being endangered.
How is it being endangered?
Numbers for the curious and the magic numbers can make happen -- so okay, here are some solid stats for free.
Secondhand smoke exposure causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults.
Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their heart disease risk by 25–30 percent and their lung cancer risk by 20–30 percent.
Breathing secondhand smoke has immediate harmful effects on the cardiovascular system that can increase the risk of heart attack. People who already have heart disease are at especially high risk.
There is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure. Even brief exposure can be dangerous.
Now, here’s the big message. If you or others in your household are smoking around children or babies, you are endangering their health.
Sorry, I don’t mean to lay a guilt trip on smokers but it’s the truth. If you date or are married to a smoker who smokes in your presence or children’s presence, your and their health are being seriously endangered. Let’s put it this way, would you live in a garage that has three autos in it gurgling out carbon monoxide?
As an ex-smoker who went through smoking every day, then quitting every day until it finally took, I know that nicotine addiction smoking is tough to kick. However, if your spouse or significant other smokes, for their sake, yours, and any little ones, help that loved one quit killing themselves. How? Sometimes telling them how much you love them and how much you fear losing them can help start them thinking of quitting.
One nauseating little trick I used to help me stop was to soak two cigarettes in water for a day. Then I sat and stared at the results for a few minutes. I imagined that awful yellow gunk going into my lungs and it repulsed me. It can work with some and not with others.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Females: Chewing and Dipping Tobacco
While many women confine their nicotine hits to smoking, some do chew and dip. It’s more prevalent among women in the South and Southwest. However, government studies estimate that 8 percent of high school students are current smokeless tobacco users. And though smokeless tobacco (dips and spit tobacco products) is more common among males (13.6%), female high school students’ accounts for 2.2 percent of dip and spit tobacco users.
As for middle school, hold your hat. An estimated 3 percent of middle school students are current smokeless tobacco users. Folks, we are talking about very young children here. And again, although smokeless tobacco is more common among males (4%), 2 percent of little girls in middle school are dipping and spitting tobacco.
Many people think smokeless tobacco (also known as dip, chew, or spit tobacco and snuff) is safe. Smokeless tobacco can cause bleeding gums (gum disease) and sores in the mouth that never heal. Eventually it could cause cancer in your mouth, your throat, and even your stomach! Just like cigarettes, it is addictive because it has nicotine. It stains your teeth a yellowish-brown color. It gives you bad breath. It can make you dizzy, give you the hiccups, and even make you throw up. (Definitely NOT cool!)
If you are just starting or thinking of starting to use smokeless tobacco, I urge you to first take a look at some of the ingredients that are in smokeless tobacco – before you even think of putting any of it in your mouth.
Nicotine (addictive drug)
Polonium 210 (nuclear waste)
Formaldehyde (embalming fluid)
Cancer-Causing Chemicals
Radioactive Elements
Pretty glamorous, right?
By the way, during 2005, the five largest tobacco manufacturers spent a new record of $250.79 million on smokeless tobacco advertising and promotion, versus the previous record of $236.68 million in 2001.
The two most popular spit tobacco brands among teens are both produced by the same high top tobacco product money maker. Ka-Ching!
I often wonder how those who produce harmful products or help sell and distribute them, reading about the cancers their products have inflicted on kids and others – how do they sleep at night? How do they look themselves in the mirror each morning? How do they go to church each Sunday or on the worshipping day of their faith?
I think I know now. Some years ago, a tobacco executive was faced with the information about how tobacco use by pregnant women affected their fetuses. How smoking caused low weight babies (and the subsequent health problems associated with low birth weights). His response? “Many mothers want low weight babies.”
Justify. Rationalize. Slip and slide responses. Feed on denial? More millions on fancy, well placed sales pitches? Or, as my grandmother would say, “they laugh all the way to the bank.”
Did You Know?
That a recent Danish medical study says that the more cigarettes pregnant females smoke while pregnant, particularly in the last months, the more they increase the risk of lowering their son’s sperm count later in life?
Not a good idea for anyone who would like to become a grandmother some day.
As for middle school, hold your hat. An estimated 3 percent of middle school students are current smokeless tobacco users. Folks, we are talking about very young children here. And again, although smokeless tobacco is more common among males (4%), 2 percent of little girls in middle school are dipping and spitting tobacco.
Many people think smokeless tobacco (also known as dip, chew, or spit tobacco and snuff) is safe. Smokeless tobacco can cause bleeding gums (gum disease) and sores in the mouth that never heal. Eventually it could cause cancer in your mouth, your throat, and even your stomach! Just like cigarettes, it is addictive because it has nicotine. It stains your teeth a yellowish-brown color. It gives you bad breath. It can make you dizzy, give you the hiccups, and even make you throw up. (Definitely NOT cool!)
If you are just starting or thinking of starting to use smokeless tobacco, I urge you to first take a look at some of the ingredients that are in smokeless tobacco – before you even think of putting any of it in your mouth.
Nicotine (addictive drug)
Polonium 210 (nuclear waste)
Formaldehyde (embalming fluid)
Cancer-Causing Chemicals
Radioactive Elements
Pretty glamorous, right?
By the way, during 2005, the five largest tobacco manufacturers spent a new record of $250.79 million on smokeless tobacco advertising and promotion, versus the previous record of $236.68 million in 2001.
The two most popular spit tobacco brands among teens are both produced by the same high top tobacco product money maker. Ka-Ching!
I often wonder how those who produce harmful products or help sell and distribute them, reading about the cancers their products have inflicted on kids and others – how do they sleep at night? How do they look themselves in the mirror each morning? How do they go to church each Sunday or on the worshipping day of their faith?
I think I know now. Some years ago, a tobacco executive was faced with the information about how tobacco use by pregnant women affected their fetuses. How smoking caused low weight babies (and the subsequent health problems associated with low birth weights). His response? “Many mothers want low weight babies.”
Justify. Rationalize. Slip and slide responses. Feed on denial? More millions on fancy, well placed sales pitches? Or, as my grandmother would say, “they laugh all the way to the bank.”
Did You Know?
That a recent Danish medical study says that the more cigarettes pregnant females smoke while pregnant, particularly in the last months, the more they increase the risk of lowering their son’s sperm count later in life?
Not a good idea for anyone who would like to become a grandmother some day.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Babies and Tobacco
Will it surprise you to know that babies smoke? If you are pregnant and you smoke, so does the baby you carry.
One study of reproductive health says that smoking and secondhand smoke is a major cause of sudden death syndrome, low birth weight, premature births, miscarriages, and health and developmental problems of children born to smokers. Nicotine use is also a major cause of stillborn children.
Another reputable medical study reports that cigarette smoking not only passes nicotine on to the fetus; it also keeps as high as 25 percent of the oxygen from reaching the placenta.
Here’s a couple of fascinating if deadly statistics for wannabe “Numbers” whiz kids: Smoking during pregnancy accounts for up to 14 percent of preterm deliveries – and about 10 percent of all infant deaths.
Moms who smoke and breastfeed pass the nicotine on to their babies through breast milk. And if your day care center has smokers, your child can develop bronchitis and other respiratory diseases as a result of secondhand smoke.
Here is the killer statistic. In spite of all these dangers, more than one in ten pregnant women smokes.
A Personal Story Mommy and the smoking gun
Heidi, a sweet and pretty new mom, had a first baby with some medical problems that required expensive specialized medical care. However, that did not stop either Heidi or her family from smoking near their children - or their fetuses when pregnant. They strongly embrace the concept that they are free souls who can do as they wish any time, any place, under any circumstance. And they do, including smoking cigarettes and cigars – even as their children run to and fro near and around them. Heidi, her husband Tim and her other family members are wonderful loving parents. They just gamble with the wrong chips.
Then, Heidi got pregnant again. This time, it was suggested that it might be best if she curtailed her smoking while pregnant.
Heidi shrugged her shoulders and lit another cigarette. Then the baby was born. The little girl weighed six pounds; she was born with jaundice and had difficulty digesting her food properly.
Will the child have other or more serious health abnormalities as she gets older? Only time will tell. Oh, did I mention that the mom is a registered nurse? What is wrong with this picture?
Ladies, gamble with your money, gamble with your hair color, gamble with your new prom dress, but please don’t gamble with a baby’s future health.
One study of reproductive health says that smoking and secondhand smoke is a major cause of sudden death syndrome, low birth weight, premature births, miscarriages, and health and developmental problems of children born to smokers. Nicotine use is also a major cause of stillborn children.
Another reputable medical study reports that cigarette smoking not only passes nicotine on to the fetus; it also keeps as high as 25 percent of the oxygen from reaching the placenta.
Here’s a couple of fascinating if deadly statistics for wannabe “Numbers” whiz kids: Smoking during pregnancy accounts for up to 14 percent of preterm deliveries – and about 10 percent of all infant deaths.
Moms who smoke and breastfeed pass the nicotine on to their babies through breast milk. And if your day care center has smokers, your child can develop bronchitis and other respiratory diseases as a result of secondhand smoke.
Here is the killer statistic. In spite of all these dangers, more than one in ten pregnant women smokes.
A Personal Story Mommy and the smoking gun
Heidi, a sweet and pretty new mom, had a first baby with some medical problems that required expensive specialized medical care. However, that did not stop either Heidi or her family from smoking near their children - or their fetuses when pregnant. They strongly embrace the concept that they are free souls who can do as they wish any time, any place, under any circumstance. And they do, including smoking cigarettes and cigars – even as their children run to and fro near and around them. Heidi, her husband Tim and her other family members are wonderful loving parents. They just gamble with the wrong chips.
Then, Heidi got pregnant again. This time, it was suggested that it might be best if she curtailed her smoking while pregnant.
Heidi shrugged her shoulders and lit another cigarette. Then the baby was born. The little girl weighed six pounds; she was born with jaundice and had difficulty digesting her food properly.
Will the child have other or more serious health abnormalities as she gets older? Only time will tell. Oh, did I mention that the mom is a registered nurse? What is wrong with this picture?
Ladies, gamble with your money, gamble with your hair color, gamble with your new prom dress, but please don’t gamble with a baby’s future health.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
How does tobacco affect ones looks?
Since how we look can and does inspire our purchases from toothpaste to underwear to makeup to bath soap to toe rings, let’s take a good look up close and personal at how tobacco products affect our looks.
Skin
Smoking not only makes your skin get wrinkles but it makes you skin look gray.
Don’t believe me? Research in the past 20 years has consistently shown that cigarette smoking causes skin wrinkling that could make smokers appear less attractive and prematurely old. Check out the little lines around the mouths of women who smoke. Check out the lines around their eyes which come from squinting through the smoke. Check out the bloom on your cheeks that is fading fast. It may take a while but it’s happening to you, too, with each puff you take.
According to a recent United Kingdom medical report, smokers’ skin can be prematurely aged by between 10 to 20 years. How does it do this?
Well, tobacco smoke in the environment is drying to the skin; and since the amount of blood flowing to the skin is decreased as well, the skin is depleted of oxygen and essential nutrients – and getting more dehydrated with each puff. Oxygen helps carry blood to the veins and just under your skin so if oxygen is depleted, your skin loses its rosy color.
Other research has shown that skin aging by smoking may also be caused by the break down of collagen in the skin. Collagen is the protein that maintains skin elasticity. Skin damaged by smoke looks grayish, wrinkled, and gaunt. Smokers in their 40s often have as many facial wrinkles as non-smokers in their 60's.
Now, if you don’t mind your fingers and fingernails or teeth looking yellow or having people back away from your “tobacco breath,” fine. But unless that boy or man you like smokes like a chimney, he will probably lean toward a gal whose breath smells fresh, clean and has a mouth that is sweetly kissable. Isn’t that the purpose of the fruit flavored lip gloss featured on every cosmetic counter?
Smoking and Psoriasis
Compared with non-smokers, smokers have two to three times the risk of getting psoriasis. While psoriasis is not life threatening, but this chronic skin condition can be very uncomfortable and disfiguring. Some studies have found that the risk of the disease increases the longer a person continues to smoke. According to other studies, smoking may cause as many as one quarter of all psoriasis cases and may also contribute to as many as half of the cases of palmoplantar pustulosis, a skin disease involving the hands and feet, that some experts view as a form of psoriasis. Ugh. All this and nicotine addiction as well. Hello?
Smoking and Body Shape
Smoking causes female smokers to store even normal amounts of body fat in an abnormal distribution. Smokers are more likely to store fat around the waist – the Apple shape we all hear is related to heart attacks, diabetes, high blood pressure, gallbladder problems, and cancer of the womb and breast.
Smoking and Harm to Your Body
If you smoke or chew or dip, you are gambling big time. You are gambling you will not get lung cancer, a stroke, a heart attack, cancer of the larynx, mouth, throat and esophagus or some form of cancer of the kidney, bladder, pancreatic and stomach associated with cancer.
Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of women and smoking causes 82 percent of all lung cancers in women. Lung cancer rates increased by more than 600 percent between the years 1950 and 2003. By 1987, lung cancer had passed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths among women. Here’s an eye opener: women who smoke at the same rate as men get cancer more than men. Women smokers have an increased rate of cervical and vulvar cancer.
Smoking can cause blindness to some women.
Female smokers go through menopause earlier than non smokers. This is a factor in a bone disease called Osteoporosis. Additionally, several research studies have identified smoking is also a risk factor for osteoporosis and bone fracture.
Osteoporosis is a condition in which bones weaken and are more likely to fracture (break). Fractures from osteoporosis can result in pain, disability, and sometimes death. Osteoporosis is a major health threat for an estimated 44 million Americans, 68 percent of whom are women.
Osteoporosis is a “silent” disease: it can progress for many years without symptoms until a fracture occurs. It has been called “a pediatric (childhood) disease with geriatric (old age) consequences,” because building healthy bones in youth helps prevent osteoporosis and fractures later in life. However, it is never too late to adopt new habits for healthy bones.
Smoking and Osteoporosis
Cigarette smoking was first identified as a risk factor for osteoporosis more than 20 years ago. Recent studies have shown a direct relationship between tobacco use and decreased bone density. Analyzing the impact of cigarette smoking on bone health is complicated. It is hard to determine whether a decrease in bone density is due to smoking itself or to other risk factors common among smokers. For example, in many cases smokers are thinner than nonsmokers, tend to drink more alcohol, may be less physically active, and have poor diets. Women who smoke also tend to have an earlier menopause than nonsmokers. These factors place many smokers at an increased risk for osteoporosis apart from their tobacco use.
However, most studies on the effects of smoking suggest that smoking increases the risk of having a fracture. Not all studies have supported these findings, but the evidence is mounting. In other words, the judge is still out on this research, but are we really willing to gamble on a broken hip tomorrow?
Smoking causes 30 percent of all cancer deaths.
Deaths of female celebrities from tobacco-related causes:
Lucille Ball, lung cancer, 69
Bette Davis, actress
Amanda Blake, actress
Betty Grable, actress, lung cancer, 57
Melina Mercouri, actress
Pat Nixon, wife of President Richard Nixon
Lee Remick, actress, kidney and lung cancer,
Gene Tierney, actress, emphysema
Death List Source. David Moyer, MD, author of The Tobacco Reference Guide, UICC Globalink
Skin
Smoking not only makes your skin get wrinkles but it makes you skin look gray.
Don’t believe me? Research in the past 20 years has consistently shown that cigarette smoking causes skin wrinkling that could make smokers appear less attractive and prematurely old. Check out the little lines around the mouths of women who smoke. Check out the lines around their eyes which come from squinting through the smoke. Check out the bloom on your cheeks that is fading fast. It may take a while but it’s happening to you, too, with each puff you take.
According to a recent United Kingdom medical report, smokers’ skin can be prematurely aged by between 10 to 20 years. How does it do this?
Well, tobacco smoke in the environment is drying to the skin; and since the amount of blood flowing to the skin is decreased as well, the skin is depleted of oxygen and essential nutrients – and getting more dehydrated with each puff. Oxygen helps carry blood to the veins and just under your skin so if oxygen is depleted, your skin loses its rosy color.
Other research has shown that skin aging by smoking may also be caused by the break down of collagen in the skin. Collagen is the protein that maintains skin elasticity. Skin damaged by smoke looks grayish, wrinkled, and gaunt. Smokers in their 40s often have as many facial wrinkles as non-smokers in their 60's.
Now, if you don’t mind your fingers and fingernails or teeth looking yellow or having people back away from your “tobacco breath,” fine. But unless that boy or man you like smokes like a chimney, he will probably lean toward a gal whose breath smells fresh, clean and has a mouth that is sweetly kissable. Isn’t that the purpose of the fruit flavored lip gloss featured on every cosmetic counter?
Smoking and Psoriasis
Compared with non-smokers, smokers have two to three times the risk of getting psoriasis. While psoriasis is not life threatening, but this chronic skin condition can be very uncomfortable and disfiguring. Some studies have found that the risk of the disease increases the longer a person continues to smoke. According to other studies, smoking may cause as many as one quarter of all psoriasis cases and may also contribute to as many as half of the cases of palmoplantar pustulosis, a skin disease involving the hands and feet, that some experts view as a form of psoriasis. Ugh. All this and nicotine addiction as well. Hello?
Smoking and Body Shape
Smoking causes female smokers to store even normal amounts of body fat in an abnormal distribution. Smokers are more likely to store fat around the waist – the Apple shape we all hear is related to heart attacks, diabetes, high blood pressure, gallbladder problems, and cancer of the womb and breast.
Smoking and Harm to Your Body
If you smoke or chew or dip, you are gambling big time. You are gambling you will not get lung cancer, a stroke, a heart attack, cancer of the larynx, mouth, throat and esophagus or some form of cancer of the kidney, bladder, pancreatic and stomach associated with cancer.
Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of women and smoking causes 82 percent of all lung cancers in women. Lung cancer rates increased by more than 600 percent between the years 1950 and 2003. By 1987, lung cancer had passed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths among women. Here’s an eye opener: women who smoke at the same rate as men get cancer more than men. Women smokers have an increased rate of cervical and vulvar cancer.
Smoking can cause blindness to some women.
Female smokers go through menopause earlier than non smokers. This is a factor in a bone disease called Osteoporosis. Additionally, several research studies have identified smoking is also a risk factor for osteoporosis and bone fracture.
Osteoporosis is a condition in which bones weaken and are more likely to fracture (break). Fractures from osteoporosis can result in pain, disability, and sometimes death. Osteoporosis is a major health threat for an estimated 44 million Americans, 68 percent of whom are women.
Osteoporosis is a “silent” disease: it can progress for many years without symptoms until a fracture occurs. It has been called “a pediatric (childhood) disease with geriatric (old age) consequences,” because building healthy bones in youth helps prevent osteoporosis and fractures later in life. However, it is never too late to adopt new habits for healthy bones.
Smoking and Osteoporosis
Cigarette smoking was first identified as a risk factor for osteoporosis more than 20 years ago. Recent studies have shown a direct relationship between tobacco use and decreased bone density. Analyzing the impact of cigarette smoking on bone health is complicated. It is hard to determine whether a decrease in bone density is due to smoking itself or to other risk factors common among smokers. For example, in many cases smokers are thinner than nonsmokers, tend to drink more alcohol, may be less physically active, and have poor diets. Women who smoke also tend to have an earlier menopause than nonsmokers. These factors place many smokers at an increased risk for osteoporosis apart from their tobacco use.
However, most studies on the effects of smoking suggest that smoking increases the risk of having a fracture. Not all studies have supported these findings, but the evidence is mounting. In other words, the judge is still out on this research, but are we really willing to gamble on a broken hip tomorrow?
Smoking causes 30 percent of all cancer deaths.
Deaths of female celebrities from tobacco-related causes:
Lucille Ball, lung cancer, 69
Bette Davis, actress
Amanda Blake, actress
Betty Grable, actress, lung cancer, 57
Melina Mercouri, actress
Pat Nixon, wife of President Richard Nixon
Lee Remick, actress, kidney and lung cancer,
Gene Tierney, actress, emphysema
Death List Source. David Moyer, MD, author of The Tobacco Reference Guide, UICC Globalink
Monday, August 16, 2010
History of women and tobacco
In a recent 2007 report, we learn that cigarette smoking is said to have been rare among women in the early 20th century. It became prevalent among women only after men embraced tobacco use.
“In 2005, 20.3 million (18.1 percent) of women smoked in the United States,” says the American Lung Association.
Recently, a new World Conference on Tobacco or Health report shows that young girls are smoking cigarettes almost as much as young boys. Survey results also show that girls and boys are also using non-cigarette tobacco products such as spit tobacco, bidis, and water pipes at similar rates, and that these rates are often as high as or higher than youth cigarette smoking rates.
According to another reputable study, more than one out of every five high school girls is a current smoker. Smoking rates among males and females in high school are almost equal now – 22.9 males and 23.0 females are current smokers.
Sadly, women who are role models for younger women and teens, smoke almost as much as men smoke – 18.1 percent of American women smoke compared to 23.9 men.
In other words, more than 12 million adult women and 1.8 million girls currently smoke.
This is really scary, ladies. Even as we read daily about the health issues costing our country our best resources – our precious young people – females seem to be on a lemming-like race to hospitals and morgues.
Still asking “why, why, why”? Here’s one thought provoking fact.
“Six years after the introduction of Virginia Slims and other brands aimed at the female market, the smoking initiation rate of 12-year-old girls had increased by 110 percent.
Increases among teenage girls of other ages were also substantial,” says the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, located in Washington, DC.
In my humble opinion, those figures translate into big bucks for the tobacco industry but a real rip-off of our kids’ health and our society.
Why do girls and young women use tobacco products?
There are several reasons and they all appeal to girls’ and women’s desire to be attractive, slim, and independent and sought after.
One of the most powerful incentives to start and continue smoking is the “image ad.”
Tobacco companies know what they are doing and they are very, very good at what they do. They are whizzes at public relations and spend millions to buy the most effective advertising campaigns money can buy. They hire artists and writers who are geniuses at manipulation. They pay big bucks for the most provocative and subliminally effective campaign psychologists, campaign creators, artists, and wordsmiths.
Females are a major target of Tobacco Company advertising. Does anyone remember the powerful “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” sales campaign? I do. Every sexy, glamorous pose that could be contrived beckoned to young women to smoke. Gorgeous models’ outfits were snazzy enough to make any woman sit up and take notice – AND DO ANYTHING TO IDENTIFY WITH THESE GORGEOUS BABES. The message said loud and clear that if you smoked, you were liberated, glamorous, ultra feminine – and Skinny. Slim. Willowy. Movie-star gorgeous. SLIM. Slim. Slim.
And how about the product name – “Virginia Slims?” None too subtle but wow, was it psychologically effective!
Females from the family teen to grandma bought the hype and considered tobacco cigarettes – and sometimes even cigars – a “diet smoke.” Believe this and I have a nice little bridge in Brooklyn I’ll sell you cheap.
The truth is simple: When you smoke, you don’t eat. If you cut back on your eating without smoking, you will still lose weight. If you lift a few light weights a couple of times a week and cut back on the bread, you will lose weight. If you walk around the Mall a couple of times three times a week, you will lose weight. And you won’t be spending your vacation-makeup-trendy clothes or charity “be kind to others a bit” free money for overly gussied-up boxes of packaged disaster.
Incidentally, Phillip Morris has proved that it does not necessarily need feminine imagery to capture the female market. Sexy male images can also influence females and their smoking habits. The Marlboro man with his rugged good looks and outdoorsy sexy image influenced women to smoke more Marlboros than any other brand.
Okay, I can hear you saying, “That’s old stuff. They don’t even have those ads anymore.
Fine. Let’s fast forward to June 21, 2007 and the Christian Broadcasting Network. CBNNews and their Health and Science section. Its article reported on the most recent R.J. Reynolds tobacco company’s method of marketing cigarettes to young females.
CBN’s interview with Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and Rep. Lois Capps of California describes the packaging, magazine ads and “blogging” connected with Reynolds’ new tobacco cigarette. Camel Number 9’s name is an obvious play on “Chanel No. 5”, an oldie but goodie perfume with an excellent reputation as a “classy” product.
R.J. Reynolds’ newly plugged cigarettes are all dressed up in feminine black and pink. Its ad copy calls this little nicotine bomb “light and luscious.” Cigarettes “luscious”? Oh, come on, R.J.
Light cigarettes have long been known to be no more safe than regular cigarettes and as for being “luscious,” are we talking about eating cigarettes?
Reynolds’ company adds some recruiting “bling” with free rhinestone lighters and stickers for females who hopefully might be tempted by Reynolds’ “freebies” to start smoking. The tobacco companies, as you might remember, “hooked” athletes with the same “freebie” come-ons in earlier decades.
In addition, a new advert method, using so called “unbiased” bloggers, may be helping to float this boat. Several bloggers – who may or may not be Reynolds’ “hired hands” – are reported by CBN folks to have put up Camel Number 9 pages on kid-friendly web sites hurrahing these fancy wrapped nicotine sticks. It was reported by CBN that one blogger referred to Camel No 9’s as cigarettes for “14- year-old-girls.” Another suggested that little girls might want to match their nail polish with these pink and black packaged smokes.
Unbiased bloggers, did I say?
As was said in the very funny movie, “America’s Sweethearts,” “Pardon me for saying this but you [they?] would sell my mother to China for medical experiments.” . . .
Okay, you get what I think of folks who deal in drugs . . . even “legal” ones. Been there, done that, don’t want anyone else to become victimized likewise.
“In 2005, 20.3 million (18.1 percent) of women smoked in the United States,” says the American Lung Association.
Recently, a new World Conference on Tobacco or Health report shows that young girls are smoking cigarettes almost as much as young boys. Survey results also show that girls and boys are also using non-cigarette tobacco products such as spit tobacco, bidis, and water pipes at similar rates, and that these rates are often as high as or higher than youth cigarette smoking rates.
According to another reputable study, more than one out of every five high school girls is a current smoker. Smoking rates among males and females in high school are almost equal now – 22.9 males and 23.0 females are current smokers.
Sadly, women who are role models for younger women and teens, smoke almost as much as men smoke – 18.1 percent of American women smoke compared to 23.9 men.
In other words, more than 12 million adult women and 1.8 million girls currently smoke.
This is really scary, ladies. Even as we read daily about the health issues costing our country our best resources – our precious young people – females seem to be on a lemming-like race to hospitals and morgues.
Still asking “why, why, why”? Here’s one thought provoking fact.
“Six years after the introduction of Virginia Slims and other brands aimed at the female market, the smoking initiation rate of 12-year-old girls had increased by 110 percent.
Increases among teenage girls of other ages were also substantial,” says the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, located in Washington, DC.
In my humble opinion, those figures translate into big bucks for the tobacco industry but a real rip-off of our kids’ health and our society.
Why do girls and young women use tobacco products?
There are several reasons and they all appeal to girls’ and women’s desire to be attractive, slim, and independent and sought after.
One of the most powerful incentives to start and continue smoking is the “image ad.”
Tobacco companies know what they are doing and they are very, very good at what they do. They are whizzes at public relations and spend millions to buy the most effective advertising campaigns money can buy. They hire artists and writers who are geniuses at manipulation. They pay big bucks for the most provocative and subliminally effective campaign psychologists, campaign creators, artists, and wordsmiths.
Females are a major target of Tobacco Company advertising. Does anyone remember the powerful “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” sales campaign? I do. Every sexy, glamorous pose that could be contrived beckoned to young women to smoke. Gorgeous models’ outfits were snazzy enough to make any woman sit up and take notice – AND DO ANYTHING TO IDENTIFY WITH THESE GORGEOUS BABES. The message said loud and clear that if you smoked, you were liberated, glamorous, ultra feminine – and Skinny. Slim. Willowy. Movie-star gorgeous. SLIM. Slim. Slim.
And how about the product name – “Virginia Slims?” None too subtle but wow, was it psychologically effective!
Females from the family teen to grandma bought the hype and considered tobacco cigarettes – and sometimes even cigars – a “diet smoke.” Believe this and I have a nice little bridge in Brooklyn I’ll sell you cheap.
The truth is simple: When you smoke, you don’t eat. If you cut back on your eating without smoking, you will still lose weight. If you lift a few light weights a couple of times a week and cut back on the bread, you will lose weight. If you walk around the Mall a couple of times three times a week, you will lose weight. And you won’t be spending your vacation-makeup-trendy clothes or charity “be kind to others a bit” free money for overly gussied-up boxes of packaged disaster.
Incidentally, Phillip Morris has proved that it does not necessarily need feminine imagery to capture the female market. Sexy male images can also influence females and their smoking habits. The Marlboro man with his rugged good looks and outdoorsy sexy image influenced women to smoke more Marlboros than any other brand.
Okay, I can hear you saying, “That’s old stuff. They don’t even have those ads anymore.
Fine. Let’s fast forward to June 21, 2007 and the Christian Broadcasting Network. CBNNews and their Health and Science section. Its article reported on the most recent R.J. Reynolds tobacco company’s method of marketing cigarettes to young females.
CBN’s interview with Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and Rep. Lois Capps of California describes the packaging, magazine ads and “blogging” connected with Reynolds’ new tobacco cigarette. Camel Number 9’s name is an obvious play on “Chanel No. 5”, an oldie but goodie perfume with an excellent reputation as a “classy” product.
R.J. Reynolds’ newly plugged cigarettes are all dressed up in feminine black and pink. Its ad copy calls this little nicotine bomb “light and luscious.” Cigarettes “luscious”? Oh, come on, R.J.
Light cigarettes have long been known to be no more safe than regular cigarettes and as for being “luscious,” are we talking about eating cigarettes?
Reynolds’ company adds some recruiting “bling” with free rhinestone lighters and stickers for females who hopefully might be tempted by Reynolds’ “freebies” to start smoking. The tobacco companies, as you might remember, “hooked” athletes with the same “freebie” come-ons in earlier decades.
In addition, a new advert method, using so called “unbiased” bloggers, may be helping to float this boat. Several bloggers – who may or may not be Reynolds’ “hired hands” – are reported by CBN folks to have put up Camel Number 9 pages on kid-friendly web sites hurrahing these fancy wrapped nicotine sticks. It was reported by CBN that one blogger referred to Camel No 9’s as cigarettes for “14- year-old-girls.” Another suggested that little girls might want to match their nail polish with these pink and black packaged smokes.
Unbiased bloggers, did I say?
As was said in the very funny movie, “America’s Sweethearts,” “Pardon me for saying this but you [they?] would sell my mother to China for medical experiments.” . . .
Okay, you get what I think of folks who deal in drugs . . . even “legal” ones. Been there, done that, don’t want anyone else to become victimized likewise.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
COPING WITH WITHDRAWAL
Okay, you want to quit. But every time you start, your plan is knocked out by your cravings to chew or dip. Here’s some of the best advice you will ever get about dealing with withdrawal, plus a few tips straight from my own hectic struggles.
You get a craving to stick that tobacco in your mouth, especially when you’re at where you always used it.
Wait it out. Deep breathing and exercise help you feel better right away.
When you feel irritable, tense, restless, impatient . . . it will pass.
Walk away from the situation. Deep breathing and exercise help to blow off steam. Ask others to be patient with you. Tell them you re quitting and need their help.
If you have constipation or irregularity . . . a normal result of changing what you take into your body . . .
Add more fiber to your meals, like whole grain breads and cereals, fruits and vegetables.
You may feel hungry more often or start to gain weight. This will all pass.
Eat regular meals. Feeling hungry is sometimes mistaken for the desire to dip or chew.
Remember, it takes about two weeks or so for your body to flush out all the nicotine, which is what makes you want more nicotine. Be patient with yourself.
You may feel like having sweets more often. Nicotine pushes up your insulin production and then crashes it down so it’s natural to crave a “sugar high” when you quit using tobacco.
Spit tobacco and dipping are both oral so replace them with some oral substitutes. Reach for low-calorie sweet snacks like apples, sugar-free gums and candies. You might like jerky sticks. If you like things that are salty or crunch instead of sweets, try chewing on pretzel sticks, rice cakes or cereal sticks. Chewing or dipping Quitters sometimes like “ants on a log.” (Stuff celery sticks with peanut butter and sprinkle with raisins)
I finally quit smoking by taking the advice of the American Lung Association. I drank lots of water. I drank so much water I felt as if I sloshed as I walked. I drank water all day and especially when I craved tobacco. Not only did it keep me hydrated and less interested in tobacco, all that water (about an 8-oz glass every hour all day) quickly flushed the nicotine out of my body. My cravings for tobacco went out the window after about three weeks. I kept telling myself, “Two weeks, two weeks, two weeks.
You get a craving to stick that tobacco in your mouth, especially when you’re at where you always used it.
Wait it out. Deep breathing and exercise help you feel better right away.
When you feel irritable, tense, restless, impatient . . . it will pass.
Walk away from the situation. Deep breathing and exercise help to blow off steam. Ask others to be patient with you. Tell them you re quitting and need their help.
If you have constipation or irregularity . . . a normal result of changing what you take into your body . . .
Add more fiber to your meals, like whole grain breads and cereals, fruits and vegetables.
You may feel hungry more often or start to gain weight. This will all pass.
Eat regular meals. Feeling hungry is sometimes mistaken for the desire to dip or chew.
Remember, it takes about two weeks or so for your body to flush out all the nicotine, which is what makes you want more nicotine. Be patient with yourself.
You may feel like having sweets more often. Nicotine pushes up your insulin production and then crashes it down so it’s natural to crave a “sugar high” when you quit using tobacco.
Spit tobacco and dipping are both oral so replace them with some oral substitutes. Reach for low-calorie sweet snacks like apples, sugar-free gums and candies. You might like jerky sticks. If you like things that are salty or crunch instead of sweets, try chewing on pretzel sticks, rice cakes or cereal sticks. Chewing or dipping Quitters sometimes like “ants on a log.” (Stuff celery sticks with peanut butter and sprinkle with raisins)
I finally quit smoking by taking the advice of the American Lung Association. I drank lots of water. I drank so much water I felt as if I sloshed as I walked. I drank water all day and especially when I craved tobacco. Not only did it keep me hydrated and less interested in tobacco, all that water (about an 8-oz glass every hour all day) quickly flushed the nicotine out of my body. My cravings for tobacco went out the window after about three weeks. I kept telling myself, “Two weeks, two weeks, two weeks.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
How addicted are you?
1. Do you still get dizzy or sick like you did when you first started using dip or chew?
2. Do you dip more often and in different places?
3. Have you switched to stronger products with more nicotine in them?
4. Do you swallow juice from your tobacco on a regular basis?
5. Do you ever sleep with dip or chew in your mouth?
6. Do you take your first dip or chew first thing in the morning?
7. Do you find it hard to do for more than a few hours without dip or chew?
8. Do you have strong cravings when you do without dip or chew?
It took me a few tries before I finally kicked smoking. The most important thing to know is that it takes about two weeks for nicotine to leave your body.
Focus on all you don’t like about dipping or chewing. Take a look at some reasons given by others as to why they wanted to quit. Are any of them important to you?
1. To prove I can do it
2. It’s disgusting
3. To avoid health problems
4. It’s barred at work or school
5. My parents don’t want me to do it
6. My girl friend or someone I want to date hates it
7. I have gum or tooth problems
8. I have white patches or sores in my mouth
9. My doctor or dentist told me to quit
10. I don’t want it to control me
11. To be a good example for other kids or my family
12. To save money
13. I don’t like the taste
Sources: National Cancer Institute, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, American Cancer Society, National Institute of Health, Saskatchewan Health Department, UICCGlobal Link, www.ash.org, Park Ranger Lee Pelham Cotton, www.nps.gov, Gene Borio, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, and The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
HOW TO QUIT DIPPING OR CHEWING
”They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” Andy Warhol
1. Pick a quit day and write it down. It’s best to pick a date in the next two weeks so you don’t put it off too long. This will give you time to get psyched up about quitting.
2. Cut back before you quit by tapering down. Some find it easier then “cold turkey.” First, notice where and when you dip or chew. What events trigger dipping or chewing for you? Do you always reach for a dip after meals? When you work out? In your car or truck? On your job? Don’t carry your pouch or tin with you. Challenge your self discipline; try doing without for five minutes, then ten minutes. Try to go longer and longer without as you head into your Quit Date. Now pick two or three of your trigger situations and stop dipping or chewing during those times. Like drug addicts who are working to get straight, it’s a good idea to avoid your dipping and chewing pals while you’re trying to quit.
3. Have your dentist or doctor check your mouth. Ask whether you need nicotine replacement therapy like gum, nicotine patches, etc. nicotine replacement therapy and non-nicotine replacement therapy (bupropion) have been approved by the FDA for smoking cessation. Further research is needed to determine their effectiveness for helping spit tobacco users quit.
4. Quit Day! Make your quit day special. You are doing something special for yourself. Keep busy and active. Start the day with a walk, run, swim or workout. Aerobic exercise will help you relax and boost energy, stamina and curbs your appetite.
5. Quit Day! Chew substitutes. Try sugar-free hard candies or gum, cinnamon sticks, mints, beef jerky, or sunflower seeds. Carry them with you; use them whenever you have the urge to chew or dip.
6. Quit Day! Change your daily routines to avoid tobacco triggers. Make an appointment to get your teeth cleaned. You’ll love how your mouth feels afterwards. Get right up from the table after you eat. Move rather than stand around and dip or chew. Watch what others who do not dip or chew spend their free time and copy the ways you find interesting.
7. Try not to slip but if you do, get right back on track. Like rodeo riders say, “If you get thrown, pick yourself up and get right back on that horse.”
8. Avoid alcohol beverages. Drinking them could bust your plan to quit.
9. Plan ahead for any trigger times and get ready to win out over your urges.
2. Do you dip more often and in different places?
3. Have you switched to stronger products with more nicotine in them?
4. Do you swallow juice from your tobacco on a regular basis?
5. Do you ever sleep with dip or chew in your mouth?
6. Do you take your first dip or chew first thing in the morning?
7. Do you find it hard to do for more than a few hours without dip or chew?
8. Do you have strong cravings when you do without dip or chew?
It took me a few tries before I finally kicked smoking. The most important thing to know is that it takes about two weeks for nicotine to leave your body.
Focus on all you don’t like about dipping or chewing. Take a look at some reasons given by others as to why they wanted to quit. Are any of them important to you?
1. To prove I can do it
2. It’s disgusting
3. To avoid health problems
4. It’s barred at work or school
5. My parents don’t want me to do it
6. My girl friend or someone I want to date hates it
7. I have gum or tooth problems
8. I have white patches or sores in my mouth
9. My doctor or dentist told me to quit
10. I don’t want it to control me
11. To be a good example for other kids or my family
12. To save money
13. I don’t like the taste
Sources: National Cancer Institute, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, American Cancer Society, National Institute of Health, Saskatchewan Health Department, UICCGlobal Link, www.ash.org, Park Ranger Lee Pelham Cotton, www.nps.gov, Gene Borio, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, and The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
HOW TO QUIT DIPPING OR CHEWING
”They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” Andy Warhol
1. Pick a quit day and write it down. It’s best to pick a date in the next two weeks so you don’t put it off too long. This will give you time to get psyched up about quitting.
2. Cut back before you quit by tapering down. Some find it easier then “cold turkey.” First, notice where and when you dip or chew. What events trigger dipping or chewing for you? Do you always reach for a dip after meals? When you work out? In your car or truck? On your job? Don’t carry your pouch or tin with you. Challenge your self discipline; try doing without for five minutes, then ten minutes. Try to go longer and longer without as you head into your Quit Date. Now pick two or three of your trigger situations and stop dipping or chewing during those times. Like drug addicts who are working to get straight, it’s a good idea to avoid your dipping and chewing pals while you’re trying to quit.
3. Have your dentist or doctor check your mouth. Ask whether you need nicotine replacement therapy like gum, nicotine patches, etc. nicotine replacement therapy and non-nicotine replacement therapy (bupropion) have been approved by the FDA for smoking cessation. Further research is needed to determine their effectiveness for helping spit tobacco users quit.
4. Quit Day! Make your quit day special. You are doing something special for yourself. Keep busy and active. Start the day with a walk, run, swim or workout. Aerobic exercise will help you relax and boost energy, stamina and curbs your appetite.
5. Quit Day! Chew substitutes. Try sugar-free hard candies or gum, cinnamon sticks, mints, beef jerky, or sunflower seeds. Carry them with you; use them whenever you have the urge to chew or dip.
6. Quit Day! Change your daily routines to avoid tobacco triggers. Make an appointment to get your teeth cleaned. You’ll love how your mouth feels afterwards. Get right up from the table after you eat. Move rather than stand around and dip or chew. Watch what others who do not dip or chew spend their free time and copy the ways you find interesting.
7. Try not to slip but if you do, get right back on track. Like rodeo riders say, “If you get thrown, pick yourself up and get right back on that horse.”
8. Avoid alcohol beverages. Drinking them could bust your plan to quit.
9. Plan ahead for any trigger times and get ready to win out over your urges.
Monday, August 9, 2010
How can snuff and chewing tobacco harm the body?
There are some pretty easy to understand dangers connected with dipping and chewing.
Here’s a brief summary of the harm dipping does in the mouth:
Spit tobacco may cause cancer of the mouth
Sugar in spit tobacco may cause decay in tooth roots
Dip and chew can cause your gums to pull away from the teeth in the place where the tobacco is held. The gums do not grow back
Leathery white patches and red sores are common in dippers and chewers and can turn into cancer
Recent research shows that spit tobacco use might also cause problems beyond the mouth. Some studies have shown that using spit tobacco may cause pancreatic cancer. And scientists are also looking at the possibility that spit tobacco use might play a role in the development of cardiovascular disease – heart disease and stroke.
Myths and Truths
But what about all the stuff you hear about smokeless tobacco suggesting that it’s as safe as being in your mother’s arms? Let’s look at a few myths – and truths.
Myth: Spit tobacco is a harmless alternative to smoking.
Truth: All tobacco, including smokeless tobacco, contains nicotine, which is addictive. The amount of nicotine absorbed from smokeless tobacco is 3 to 4 times the amount delivered by a cigarette. Also, the nicotine stays in the bloodstream for a longer time. Chewing tobacco and snuff contain 28 carcinogens (cancer–causing agents).
Myth: Dip or chew improves my athletic performance.
Truth: A study of professional baseball players found no connection between spit tobacco and player performance. Using spit tobacco increases your heart rate and blood pressure within a few minutes. This can cause a buzz or rush but the rise in pulse and blood pressure places an extra stress on your heart.
Myth: Good gum care can offset the harmful effects of using dip or chew.
Truth: There is no evidence that brushing or flossing will undo the harm that dip and chew are doing to your teeth and gums.
Myth: It’s easy to quit using dip or chew when you want to.
Truth: Unfortunately, nicotine addiction makes quitting difficult. But those who have quit successfully are very glad they did.
Other health threats related to dip or chew tobacco
Mouth Cancer – cancer of the cheeks, gums, lips and tongue. Smokeless (spit) tobacco users have a 50% higher chance of getting mouth cancer than non-users.
Throat Cancer – cancer of the voice box and cancer of the esophagus.
Heart disease – heart attacks, strokes and high blood pressure.
Dental diseases – stained teeth, tooth decay, receding gums, gum disease, bad breath and black hairy tongue.
Stomach problems – ulcers, stomach upset, increased bowel activity and stomach cancer.
Loss of taste and smell – causes loss of appetite which results in poor nutrition and poor health.
Physical changes – fatigue, muscle weakness, dizziness and decreased physical performance.
People who dip or chew spread their germs when they spit. This increases the risk of passing an infection to others.
Did you know? That baseball players like Babe Ruth used chew tobacco to keep their mouths moist while they were out on the ball field? And that, in the past, tobacco companies provided free smokeless tobacco (as free advertising) to players and their teams which led to their getting “hooked” on the stuff?
Did you know that Joe DiMaggio, baseball player, Joe DiMaggio Jr., Bartlett Giamatti, baseball commissioner and Yale president, Jesse Owens, Olympic athlete, Pee Wee Reese, baseball player, and baseball legend Babe Ruth, as well as high school athlete Sean Marsee all died of tobacco-related cancers or heart attacks?
Or the most ironic fact of all: Did you know that Wayne McLaren, the Marlboro Man, died of lung cancer at age 51?
Source: Celebrity death information courtesy of David Moyer, MD, author of The Tobacco Reference Guide, www.uicc.org funded in part by the European Union.
Athletes now speaking out about the dangers of smokeless tobacco include Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees, Braves' first baseman Andres Galarraga, Braves' winning pitcher John Smoltz and NFL Dallas Cowboys' quarterback Troy Aikman.
Here’s a brief summary of the harm dipping does in the mouth:
Spit tobacco may cause cancer of the mouth
Sugar in spit tobacco may cause decay in tooth roots
Dip and chew can cause your gums to pull away from the teeth in the place where the tobacco is held. The gums do not grow back
Leathery white patches and red sores are common in dippers and chewers and can turn into cancer
Recent research shows that spit tobacco use might also cause problems beyond the mouth. Some studies have shown that using spit tobacco may cause pancreatic cancer. And scientists are also looking at the possibility that spit tobacco use might play a role in the development of cardiovascular disease – heart disease and stroke.
Myths and Truths
But what about all the stuff you hear about smokeless tobacco suggesting that it’s as safe as being in your mother’s arms? Let’s look at a few myths – and truths.
Myth: Spit tobacco is a harmless alternative to smoking.
Truth: All tobacco, including smokeless tobacco, contains nicotine, which is addictive. The amount of nicotine absorbed from smokeless tobacco is 3 to 4 times the amount delivered by a cigarette. Also, the nicotine stays in the bloodstream for a longer time. Chewing tobacco and snuff contain 28 carcinogens (cancer–causing agents).
Myth: Dip or chew improves my athletic performance.
Truth: A study of professional baseball players found no connection between spit tobacco and player performance. Using spit tobacco increases your heart rate and blood pressure within a few minutes. This can cause a buzz or rush but the rise in pulse and blood pressure places an extra stress on your heart.
Myth: Good gum care can offset the harmful effects of using dip or chew.
Truth: There is no evidence that brushing or flossing will undo the harm that dip and chew are doing to your teeth and gums.
Myth: It’s easy to quit using dip or chew when you want to.
Truth: Unfortunately, nicotine addiction makes quitting difficult. But those who have quit successfully are very glad they did.
Other health threats related to dip or chew tobacco
Mouth Cancer – cancer of the cheeks, gums, lips and tongue. Smokeless (spit) tobacco users have a 50% higher chance of getting mouth cancer than non-users.
Throat Cancer – cancer of the voice box and cancer of the esophagus.
Heart disease – heart attacks, strokes and high blood pressure.
Dental diseases – stained teeth, tooth decay, receding gums, gum disease, bad breath and black hairy tongue.
Stomach problems – ulcers, stomach upset, increased bowel activity and stomach cancer.
Loss of taste and smell – causes loss of appetite which results in poor nutrition and poor health.
Physical changes – fatigue, muscle weakness, dizziness and decreased physical performance.
People who dip or chew spread their germs when they spit. This increases the risk of passing an infection to others.
Did you know? That baseball players like Babe Ruth used chew tobacco to keep their mouths moist while they were out on the ball field? And that, in the past, tobacco companies provided free smokeless tobacco (as free advertising) to players and their teams which led to their getting “hooked” on the stuff?
Did you know that Joe DiMaggio, baseball player, Joe DiMaggio Jr., Bartlett Giamatti, baseball commissioner and Yale president, Jesse Owens, Olympic athlete, Pee Wee Reese, baseball player, and baseball legend Babe Ruth, as well as high school athlete Sean Marsee all died of tobacco-related cancers or heart attacks?
Or the most ironic fact of all: Did you know that Wayne McLaren, the Marlboro Man, died of lung cancer at age 51?
Source: Celebrity death information courtesy of David Moyer, MD, author of The Tobacco Reference Guide, www.uicc.org funded in part by the European Union.
Athletes now speaking out about the dangers of smokeless tobacco include Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees, Braves' first baseman Andres Galarraga, Braves' winning pitcher John Smoltz and NFL Dallas Cowboys' quarterback Troy Aikman.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
What is Snuff and Chewing or Spit Tobacco?
There are two types of smokeless tobacco––snuff and chewing tobacco.
Snuff, a finely ground or shredded tobacco, is packaged as dry, moist, or in sachets (tea bag–like pouches). Typically, the user places a pinch or dip between the cheek and gum.
Chewing tobacco is available in loose leaf, plug (plug–firm and plug–moist), or twist forms, with the user putting a wad of tobacco inside the cheek. Smokeless tobacco is sometimes called "spit" or "spitting" tobacco because people spit out the tobacco juices and saliva that build up in the mouth.
Who Uses Snuff or Spit Tobacco?
In the United States, the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, which was conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, reported the following statistics:
An estimated 7.6 million Americans age 12 and older (3.4 percent) had used smokeless tobacco in the past month.
Smokeless tobacco use was most common among young adults ages 18 to 25.
Men were 10 times more likely than women to report using smokeless tobacco (6.5 percent of men age 12 and older compared with 0.5 percent of women).
In 1986, one surprising dental related study conducted by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control found that 17 percent of five-year-old girls and 10 percent of five-year-old boys in Alaska used smokeless tobacco. Further, they had been using it for an average of about a year. At that time, about 14 states still permitted children to buy snuff or spit tobacco.
In 1998, a legal settlement between the states and the tobacco companies included language which prohibited tobacco companies from taking “any action, directly or indirectly, to target youth . . . in the advertising, promotion or marketing of tobacco products." However, since the settlement, the tobacco companies have increased their cigarette marketing expenditures by 125 percent to a record $15.1 billion a year, or $41.5 million a day, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Much of this marketing is said to be targeted at kids.
On November 16, 2004, Matthew L. Myers President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, spoke out against the tobacco industries’ latest marketing ploys he says are meant to enlist youth to use their newly designed candy and coffee flavored tobacco products. He emphasized how and where the new youth-appealing tobacco products are being marketed.
“In the latest versions of its candy-flavored cigarettes, R.J. Reynolds has introduced Camel “Winter Blends” with flavors including “Warm Winter Toffee” and “Winter Mocha Mint.” Ads for these cigarettes are appearing in magazines with significant youth readership such as Rolling Stone, Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Elle,” Mr. Myers said.
“RJR’s online ads urge visitors to “Celebrate the wonder of Camel’s Winter Blends. Whether you’re skiing down the slopes or cuddling in a cabin.” In fact, it would be more accurate to describe these candy-flavored cigarettes as an invitation to “cuddle up with cancer,” said Mr. Myers.
The U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company was then marketing spit tobacco with flavors including berry blend, mint, wintergreen, apple blend, vanilla and cherry.
The company’s defense? Lots of adults like tobacco with flavoring in it.
Now let’s fast forward to 2005 and 2006.
In 2005, a Harvard School of Public Health found that tobacco companies had not given up recruiting youth as their new smokers, snuff and spit tobacco users; they had just changed tactics.
“Internal research by the tobacco industry showed manufacturers that they could capitalize on youths' attraction to candy flavors. They used innovative product technology, such as a flavor pellet embedded in one company's cigarette filters, to deliver fruit and liqueur flavors. . . . Fruit and candy flavors were also added to smokeless tobacco products, cigars and cigarette rolling papers,” said the study.
Carrie Carpenter, lead author of the study and a research analyst at HSPH, stated, "Flavored cigarettes can promote youth smoking initiation and help young occasional smokers to become daily smokers by reducing or masking the natural harshness and taste of tobacco smoke and increasing the acceptability of a toxic product."
Finally, in 2006, Massachusetts complained to the attorney general about flavored cigarettes violating the earlier Master Settlement --- the first state to do so. Its complaint was supported by the Harvard School of Public Health Study.
On October 11, 2006, in a settlement with the Attorney Generals of 38 states, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company agreed to end the sale of candy, fruit, and alcohol-flavored cigarettes.
Unfortunately, many companies throughout the world are now flavoring tobacco products of all kinds with chocolate, mint, fruit and candy flavors. In addition, online companies pushing hookah smoking use their use of flavors to elicit sales. I can’t help but wonder what Sean Marsee would say about these actions.
Snuff, a finely ground or shredded tobacco, is packaged as dry, moist, or in sachets (tea bag–like pouches). Typically, the user places a pinch or dip between the cheek and gum.
Chewing tobacco is available in loose leaf, plug (plug–firm and plug–moist), or twist forms, with the user putting a wad of tobacco inside the cheek. Smokeless tobacco is sometimes called "spit" or "spitting" tobacco because people spit out the tobacco juices and saliva that build up in the mouth.
Who Uses Snuff or Spit Tobacco?
In the United States, the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, which was conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, reported the following statistics:
An estimated 7.6 million Americans age 12 and older (3.4 percent) had used smokeless tobacco in the past month.
Smokeless tobacco use was most common among young adults ages 18 to 25.
Men were 10 times more likely than women to report using smokeless tobacco (6.5 percent of men age 12 and older compared with 0.5 percent of women).
In 1986, one surprising dental related study conducted by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control found that 17 percent of five-year-old girls and 10 percent of five-year-old boys in Alaska used smokeless tobacco. Further, they had been using it for an average of about a year. At that time, about 14 states still permitted children to buy snuff or spit tobacco.
In 1998, a legal settlement between the states and the tobacco companies included language which prohibited tobacco companies from taking “any action, directly or indirectly, to target youth . . . in the advertising, promotion or marketing of tobacco products." However, since the settlement, the tobacco companies have increased their cigarette marketing expenditures by 125 percent to a record $15.1 billion a year, or $41.5 million a day, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Much of this marketing is said to be targeted at kids.
On November 16, 2004, Matthew L. Myers President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, spoke out against the tobacco industries’ latest marketing ploys he says are meant to enlist youth to use their newly designed candy and coffee flavored tobacco products. He emphasized how and where the new youth-appealing tobacco products are being marketed.
“In the latest versions of its candy-flavored cigarettes, R.J. Reynolds has introduced Camel “Winter Blends” with flavors including “Warm Winter Toffee” and “Winter Mocha Mint.” Ads for these cigarettes are appearing in magazines with significant youth readership such as Rolling Stone, Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Elle,” Mr. Myers said.
“RJR’s online ads urge visitors to “Celebrate the wonder of Camel’s Winter Blends. Whether you’re skiing down the slopes or cuddling in a cabin.” In fact, it would be more accurate to describe these candy-flavored cigarettes as an invitation to “cuddle up with cancer,” said Mr. Myers.
The U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company was then marketing spit tobacco with flavors including berry blend, mint, wintergreen, apple blend, vanilla and cherry.
The company’s defense? Lots of adults like tobacco with flavoring in it.
Now let’s fast forward to 2005 and 2006.
In 2005, a Harvard School of Public Health found that tobacco companies had not given up recruiting youth as their new smokers, snuff and spit tobacco users; they had just changed tactics.
“Internal research by the tobacco industry showed manufacturers that they could capitalize on youths' attraction to candy flavors. They used innovative product technology, such as a flavor pellet embedded in one company's cigarette filters, to deliver fruit and liqueur flavors. . . . Fruit and candy flavors were also added to smokeless tobacco products, cigars and cigarette rolling papers,” said the study.
Carrie Carpenter, lead author of the study and a research analyst at HSPH, stated, "Flavored cigarettes can promote youth smoking initiation and help young occasional smokers to become daily smokers by reducing or masking the natural harshness and taste of tobacco smoke and increasing the acceptability of a toxic product."
Finally, in 2006, Massachusetts complained to the attorney general about flavored cigarettes violating the earlier Master Settlement --- the first state to do so. Its complaint was supported by the Harvard School of Public Health Study.
On October 11, 2006, in a settlement with the Attorney Generals of 38 states, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company agreed to end the sale of candy, fruit, and alcohol-flavored cigarettes.
Unfortunately, many companies throughout the world are now flavoring tobacco products of all kinds with chocolate, mint, fruit and candy flavors. In addition, online companies pushing hookah smoking use their use of flavors to elicit sales. I can’t help but wonder what Sean Marsee would say about these actions.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Cigar Smoking: HOBBY, NOT HABIT?
Today, many people view cigar smoking as more "civilized" and "glamorous," as well as less dangerous than cigarette smoking. Yet a single large cigar can contain as much tobacco as an entire pack of cigarettes. In addition, most of the same cancer-causing substances found in cigarettes are found in cigars. Most cigars have as much nicotine as several cigarettes and a single large cigar can contain as much tobacco as an entire pack of cigarettes.
Recent increased publicity of cigar use by celebrities, the introduction of cigar bars, and the sub-culture of cigar paraphernalia such as humidors and clippers have combined to create a glamorous aura around a deadly product. According to estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, over 5 billion cigars were consumed in 2006.1
By 1996, an estimated six million 14-19 year-olds (26.7 percent of people in this age group) reported having smoked a cigar in the previous year.
An estimated 14.0% of students in grades 9–12 in the United States are current cigar smokers. Cigar smoking is more common among males (19.2%) than females (8.7%) in these grades.
An estimated 5.3% of middle school students in the United States are current cigar smokers.
Estimates are higher for middle school boys (6.7%) than girls (3.8%).
Marketing efforts have promoted cigars as symbols of a luxuriant and successful lifestyle.
Endorsements by celebrities, development of cigar-friendly magazines (e.g., Cigar Aficionado), features of highly visible women smoking cigars, and product placement in movies have contributed to the increased visibility of cigar smoking in society.
When someone like Governor Schwarzenegger, the Terminator himself, appears on the cover of Cigar Aficionado, what does that say to youngsters? Would you think that makes cigar smoking by kids “in” or “out”?
Since 1993, studies have reported high rates of cigar use among teen-agers and preteens, according to the National Institutes of Health. Surprisingly, the NIH also has reported that cigar smoking has gone up among adolescent females.
In 2005, cigar sales in the United States rose 15.3% and generated more than $2.9 billion in retail sales. Large cigars, cigarillos, and little cigars are the three major types of cigars sold in the United States.
But cigar smokers don’t inhale. Or do they?
While almost all cigarette smokers inhale, most cigar smokers do not. Therefore, the risk of lung cancer is lower for cigar smokers than cigarette smokers. However, the risk increases with the more frequent cigar smoking and depth of inhalation. When a smoker who first uses cigarettes, then adds cigars to their smoking habit, they usually transfer their habit of inhaling to the cigars, thereby making them far more dangerous to their health.
Studies show that men who smoke at least five cigars a day and report moderate inhalation, experience lung cancer deaths at about two-thirds the rate of men who smoke one pack of cigarettes a day.
Cigar smokers experience higher rates of lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic obstructive lung disease than nonsmokers. Studies show that men who smoke at least three cigars a day are two to three times more likely to die of lung cancer than non-smokers.
Cigar smoking has similar consequences to cigarette smoking including four to ten times the risk of dying from oral, esophageal, or laryngeal cancer in comparison to nonsmokers.
Cigars contain the same toxic and carcinogenic compounds found in cigarettes and are not a safe alternative to cigarettes.
In June of 2000, the Federal Trade commission and seven of the USA’s largest cigar producers made a deal to require warnings on cigar packages and in advertisements.
Recent increased publicity of cigar use by celebrities, the introduction of cigar bars, and the sub-culture of cigar paraphernalia such as humidors and clippers have combined to create a glamorous aura around a deadly product. According to estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, over 5 billion cigars were consumed in 2006.1
By 1996, an estimated six million 14-19 year-olds (26.7 percent of people in this age group) reported having smoked a cigar in the previous year.
An estimated 14.0% of students in grades 9–12 in the United States are current cigar smokers. Cigar smoking is more common among males (19.2%) than females (8.7%) in these grades.
An estimated 5.3% of middle school students in the United States are current cigar smokers.
Estimates are higher for middle school boys (6.7%) than girls (3.8%).
Marketing efforts have promoted cigars as symbols of a luxuriant and successful lifestyle.
Endorsements by celebrities, development of cigar-friendly magazines (e.g., Cigar Aficionado), features of highly visible women smoking cigars, and product placement in movies have contributed to the increased visibility of cigar smoking in society.
When someone like Governor Schwarzenegger, the Terminator himself, appears on the cover of Cigar Aficionado, what does that say to youngsters? Would you think that makes cigar smoking by kids “in” or “out”?
Since 1993, studies have reported high rates of cigar use among teen-agers and preteens, according to the National Institutes of Health. Surprisingly, the NIH also has reported that cigar smoking has gone up among adolescent females.
In 2005, cigar sales in the United States rose 15.3% and generated more than $2.9 billion in retail sales. Large cigars, cigarillos, and little cigars are the three major types of cigars sold in the United States.
But cigar smokers don’t inhale. Or do they?
While almost all cigarette smokers inhale, most cigar smokers do not. Therefore, the risk of lung cancer is lower for cigar smokers than cigarette smokers. However, the risk increases with the more frequent cigar smoking and depth of inhalation. When a smoker who first uses cigarettes, then adds cigars to their smoking habit, they usually transfer their habit of inhaling to the cigars, thereby making them far more dangerous to their health.
Studies show that men who smoke at least five cigars a day and report moderate inhalation, experience lung cancer deaths at about two-thirds the rate of men who smoke one pack of cigarettes a day.
Cigar smokers experience higher rates of lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic obstructive lung disease than nonsmokers. Studies show that men who smoke at least three cigars a day are two to three times more likely to die of lung cancer than non-smokers.
Cigar smoking has similar consequences to cigarette smoking including four to ten times the risk of dying from oral, esophageal, or laryngeal cancer in comparison to nonsmokers.
Cigars contain the same toxic and carcinogenic compounds found in cigarettes and are not a safe alternative to cigarettes.
In June of 2000, the Federal Trade commission and seven of the USA’s largest cigar producers made a deal to require warnings on cigar packages and in advertisements.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Pipes: The Smoking “Hobby” of the Seventeenth Century
"Pipe smoking is the most protracted of all forms of tobacco consumption. It may explain why pipe smokers are generally regarded as patient men--and philosophers." -Jerome E. Brooks, from The Mighty Leaf, Tobacco Through the Centuries
It is true; pipe smoking has a different social aura than another form of smoking. For example, in the Western world, tobacco pipe smoking has sometimes been seen as genteel or dignified and has given rise to a variety of customized accessories and even clothing. In early films, smoking a pipe indicated not only a patient man; it also signaled that he was an elite intellectual – an “egghead.” No one was better at creating this impression while smoking a pipe than the late actor Gregory Peck. He would puff slowly, light his pipe again, and visibly think.
In those unwary times, pipe smoking was a culture, a hobby, considered a manly art. It was a ritual to fill a pipe, tamp down the tobacco, to light a pipe and to keep it lit, and then to do it all over again. All that fussing around needed constant attention. Men who smoked a pipe were considered “deep thinkers” because they were distracted from their company as they did all these little things. I wonder if they were just doing all these things in order to be distracted from others.
Pipe smoking uses a different type of tobacco; some have scents that remind one of fruit. They are pungent scents that can be recognized from afar. Upper class Victorian homes had smoking rooms; men changed their clothing before smoking because the scent of tobacco clung to their usual clothing. So, prior to lighting up and possibly offending someone, they put on their favorite smoking jackets. They also prominently displayed their expensive pipe tobacco humidors and intricate pipe lighters.
Albert Einstein was a pipe smoker; Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the fictional detective Sherlock Homes have all been pictured with pipe in hand, smoke curling over their heads.
However, they all lived before the day when information about what tobacco does to the human body slowly found its way out of the tobacco companies public relations created closet.
Decades ago, doctors began to notice high rates of tongue cancer in pipe smokers. Since then, pipe smoking has been shown to cause cancer of the mouth, lip, tongue, throat, larynx, and lung.
According to government studies, pipe smokers may also increase their risk of contracting other cancers that plague cigarette smokers: cancer of the pancreas, kidney, bladder, colon, and cervix as well as leukemia and diseases such as chronic obstructive lung disease, stroke, and coronary heart disease.
A 2004 American Cancer Society study followed 138,307 men -- more than 15,000 of whom smoked pipes -- over a period of 18 years. The study found that pipe smoking was associated with increased mortality caused by lung, oropharynx, esophageal, larynx, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers, as well as cardiovascular disease, when compared to the nonsmokers in the study. The researchers reported, “Pipe smoking confers a risk of tobacco-associated disease similar to cigar smoking.”
Hookah pipes
For hundreds of years, Middle Eastern men have smoked hookah pipes. Now, this form of smoking is becoming popular in the U.S., especially among young people and women. A hookah is a water pipe that holds tobacco. The water is often mixed with honey, molasses, or dried fruit to give flavor to the smoke. When a person inhales on a hose attached to the hookah, the smoke is filtered through water in the base.
Popular myth suggests that hookah smoking is considered to be safer than other forms of smoking because it is passed through water. However, water is not effective for removing all relevant toxins, e.g. the carcinogenic aromatic hydrocarbons are not water-soluble. In fact, hookah smoke contains levels of nicotine, carbon monoxide, and tar that are as high as or higher than those found in the smoke from many filtered cigarettes. Several types of cancer, as well as gum disease, have been linked to hookah smoking. Another hazard is contagious diseases which can be passed from one user to another since hookahs are designed for “companion smoking.”
The World Health Organization recently submitted a seven page report outlining the many dangers of hookah smoking. Among others, it claims that a smoker can inhale 100 times more smoke in one hookah session than he or she can smoke in one cigarette. One hundred times more.
One advertisement for hookahs I read this week says the heated water “purifies” the tobacco. Again, water does not purify tobacco nor remove nicotine and other toxic ingredients from tobacco. That, folks, is smoke and mirrors.
The Good News is the popularity of pipe smoking in Western countries has declined in recent years.
However, The Bad News is pipe smoking has also enjoyed a resurgence of late among younger and middle aged smokers who find its contemplative nature and age-transcendent status as "hobby not habit" to be enjoyable and stress-relieving. Due to the wide availability of high quality mass-produced and custom smoking pipes as well as a myriad of pipe tobaccos to suit any taste, the hobby is likely to persist for years to come despite growing anti-smoking sentiment.
And the worse news of all. Hookah pipe smoking is increasing as I type this. Check out the Internet; hookah pipes are a major sales offering. They entice the young and curious with promises of new taste thrills and the exotic image of the Middle East. The only thing they can’t promise is a legitimate claim of safety.
It is true; pipe smoking has a different social aura than another form of smoking. For example, in the Western world, tobacco pipe smoking has sometimes been seen as genteel or dignified and has given rise to a variety of customized accessories and even clothing. In early films, smoking a pipe indicated not only a patient man; it also signaled that he was an elite intellectual – an “egghead.” No one was better at creating this impression while smoking a pipe than the late actor Gregory Peck. He would puff slowly, light his pipe again, and visibly think.
In those unwary times, pipe smoking was a culture, a hobby, considered a manly art. It was a ritual to fill a pipe, tamp down the tobacco, to light a pipe and to keep it lit, and then to do it all over again. All that fussing around needed constant attention. Men who smoked a pipe were considered “deep thinkers” because they were distracted from their company as they did all these little things. I wonder if they were just doing all these things in order to be distracted from others.
Pipe smoking uses a different type of tobacco; some have scents that remind one of fruit. They are pungent scents that can be recognized from afar. Upper class Victorian homes had smoking rooms; men changed their clothing before smoking because the scent of tobacco clung to their usual clothing. So, prior to lighting up and possibly offending someone, they put on their favorite smoking jackets. They also prominently displayed their expensive pipe tobacco humidors and intricate pipe lighters.
Albert Einstein was a pipe smoker; Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the fictional detective Sherlock Homes have all been pictured with pipe in hand, smoke curling over their heads.
However, they all lived before the day when information about what tobacco does to the human body slowly found its way out of the tobacco companies public relations created closet.
Decades ago, doctors began to notice high rates of tongue cancer in pipe smokers. Since then, pipe smoking has been shown to cause cancer of the mouth, lip, tongue, throat, larynx, and lung.
According to government studies, pipe smokers may also increase their risk of contracting other cancers that plague cigarette smokers: cancer of the pancreas, kidney, bladder, colon, and cervix as well as leukemia and diseases such as chronic obstructive lung disease, stroke, and coronary heart disease.
A 2004 American Cancer Society study followed 138,307 men -- more than 15,000 of whom smoked pipes -- over a period of 18 years. The study found that pipe smoking was associated with increased mortality caused by lung, oropharynx, esophageal, larynx, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers, as well as cardiovascular disease, when compared to the nonsmokers in the study. The researchers reported, “Pipe smoking confers a risk of tobacco-associated disease similar to cigar smoking.”
Hookah pipes
For hundreds of years, Middle Eastern men have smoked hookah pipes. Now, this form of smoking is becoming popular in the U.S., especially among young people and women. A hookah is a water pipe that holds tobacco. The water is often mixed with honey, molasses, or dried fruit to give flavor to the smoke. When a person inhales on a hose attached to the hookah, the smoke is filtered through water in the base.
Popular myth suggests that hookah smoking is considered to be safer than other forms of smoking because it is passed through water. However, water is not effective for removing all relevant toxins, e.g. the carcinogenic aromatic hydrocarbons are not water-soluble. In fact, hookah smoke contains levels of nicotine, carbon monoxide, and tar that are as high as or higher than those found in the smoke from many filtered cigarettes. Several types of cancer, as well as gum disease, have been linked to hookah smoking. Another hazard is contagious diseases which can be passed from one user to another since hookahs are designed for “companion smoking.”
The World Health Organization recently submitted a seven page report outlining the many dangers of hookah smoking. Among others, it claims that a smoker can inhale 100 times more smoke in one hookah session than he or she can smoke in one cigarette. One hundred times more.
One advertisement for hookahs I read this week says the heated water “purifies” the tobacco. Again, water does not purify tobacco nor remove nicotine and other toxic ingredients from tobacco. That, folks, is smoke and mirrors.
The Good News is the popularity of pipe smoking in Western countries has declined in recent years.
However, The Bad News is pipe smoking has also enjoyed a resurgence of late among younger and middle aged smokers who find its contemplative nature and age-transcendent status as "hobby not habit" to be enjoyable and stress-relieving. Due to the wide availability of high quality mass-produced and custom smoking pipes as well as a myriad of pipe tobaccos to suit any taste, the hobby is likely to persist for years to come despite growing anti-smoking sentiment.
And the worse news of all. Hookah pipe smoking is increasing as I type this. Check out the Internet; hookah pipes are a major sales offering. They entice the young and curious with promises of new taste thrills and the exotic image of the Middle East. The only thing they can’t promise is a legitimate claim of safety.
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