Most of Pennsylvania’s high school and middle school students are tobacco-free, but the use of cigarettes and their digital counterpart, e-cigarettes, is still a cause for concern, according to Penn State researchers.
Analyzing the genetics and smoking habits of more than half a million people has shed new light on the complexities of controlling blood pressure, according to a study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
There are medications available to help people who drink excessive amounts of alcohol reduce or stop their drinking. One such medication is the opioid antagonist naltrexone, which has been approved for treatment of alcohol dependence by the Food and Drug Administration. Although naltrexone can reduce alcohol craving and help promote recovery for some individuals, it does not work for everyone. Prior research suggested that nicotine use/smoking status and genetic differences were predictors of response to naltrexone. This study further investigated the impact of nicotine use/smoking status and variation in the mu opioid receptor gene (OPRM1), specifically, an A118G single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP, or DNA sequence variation), on the effects of naltrexone on a range of drinking outcomes.
Michigan Tech researchers contend that tobacco farmers could increase profits by converting their land to solar farms, which in turn provides renewable energy generation.
Researchers found that adolescents not susceptible to smoking cigarettes and who thought e-cigarettes were less harmful were more likely to use e-cigarettes. This UNC study found that 26 percent of those surveyed were at high risk for future e-cigarette use.
Doctors ask patients about smoking habits for the same reason they check weight, blood pressure, breathing and heart beat during a visit.
Today, 17 deans at schools of public health in the U.S. and Canada have issued a joint statement on the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.
In a six-month study recently concluded, a research unit affiliated with two hospital institutions and a university in Ottawa found that a reduction in the number of cigarettes smoked daily also reduced a smoker’s dependence on opioids.
Smoking is an issue that has been at the heart of public health concerns for decades, with many efforts to restrict tobacco sales, tax cigarettes and sometimes hard-hitting campaigns to get people to quit smoking. But if the tobacco control community has long agreed on the harms of smoking, the place of reducing, rather than eliminating, harm has been hotly contested.
Nonsmoking adolescents who use e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco or tobacco water pipes are more likely to start smoking conventional cigarettes within a year, according to new research by UC San Francisco.
A new article publishing in the forthcoming volume of the Annual Review of Public Health focuses on harm minimization and smoking cessation, with alternative nicotine products like e-cigarettes emerging as a promising avenue for people who want to quit smoking.
A new study from Duke Health has found pregnant women experienced less secondhand smoke exposure since the 2009 passage of the ‘smoking ban’ in North Carolina, which outlawed smoking inside public places such as bars and restaurants.
Alcohol, marijuana, and ecstasy each have very different sexual effects, from attraction and desire to sensitivity to sexual dysfunction, finds a study by the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) at NYU Meyers College of Nursing.
Tobacco shops, also known as smoke shops, may represent potential “nuisance properties” in urban communities of color, a study led by a researcher at the University of California, Riverside has found. Nuisance properties are properties where unsafe activities affecting public health and safety occur repeatedly. Past research has shown that alcohol outlets such as liquor or corner stores may promote nuisance activities like robberies, drug use, or other crimes in urban communities, rendering them unsafe for residents to walk by or visit. Other examples of nuisance properties are motels, payday lenders, and vacant homes and lots. Add to this list now tobacco shops.
Deciding to stop smoking is one of the most common, beneficial and difficult New Year’s resolutions. Smoking reminders are abundant, nicotine withdrawal is difficult and the resolution process itself is flawed.
A study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found the natural decline in lung function over a 10-year period was slower among former smokers with a diet high in tomatoes and fruits, especially apples, suggesting certain components in these foods might help restore lung damage caused by smoking.
Pharmaceutical interventions are routinely prescribed to help people quit smoking. However, a new study by University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers suggests that, despite promising results in clinical trials, smoking cessation drugs alone may not be improving the chances of successful quitting among smokers in general.
Are you trying to quit smoking in the New Year? According to The Tobacco Dependence Program at Rutgers University, most people who smoke regret having started and want to stop. However, quitting can be hard to do. Rutgers outlines the top ten things smokers and their families should know when going through the quitting smoking process--right in time for New Year’s resolutions.
Varenicline, one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for helping people quit smoking, may put them at higher risk for a cardiovascular event, according to new research published online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
An online survey of 900 consumers of three of the United States’ most popular cigarette brands suggests that adopting standardized cigarette packing may reduce consumers’ misconceptions that some cigarettes are less harmful than others, reports a team of researchers led by University of California San Diego School of Medicine and published in BMJ Tobacco Control.
When a targetable genetic alteration is present, matching the alteration with the appropriate targeted therapy is associated with a survival benefit of 1.5 years, regardless of smoking history.
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have found a genetic signature for delay discounting — the tendency to undervalue future rewards — that overlaps with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), smoking and weight.
Young adults who use electronic cigarettes are more than four times as likely to begin smoking tobacco cigarettes within 18 months as their peers who do not vape, according to new University of Pittsburgh research. The findings demonstrate that e-cigarettes are serving as a gateway to traditional smoking, contrary to their purported value as a smoking cessation tool. The study is the first nationally representative survey that followed for more than a year people 18 to 30 years old who were initially nonsmokers.
Remember when your mom always told you “what you do now will catch up with you when you’re older?” She wasn’t lying. Lung cancer is a disease that mostly affects the elderly, with 83 percent of those living with cancer being 60-years-of-age or older, but reducing your risk of getting lung cancer starts when you’re young.
Latest Research Highlights from ACSM
Cannabis use in youth is linked to bipolar symptoms in young adults, finds new research by the University of Warwick.
Though most “low molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons” (LMW PAHs) have not been shown to cause cancer alone, the study shows that in common combinations, these chemicals can help to spark the disease.
Perspective of moral psychology helps inform why tobacco control debates are often so vitriolic and yet so often based on limited science, Lynn Kozlowski writes in new paper.
Regular exercise may protect smokers from some of the negative effects associated with smoking, such as muscle loss and inflammation, according to a new study.
As an institution dedicated to ending cancer, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is committed to promoting cancer prevention and therefore supports the ‘corrective statements’ published by tobacco companies as a result of a 2006 judgment by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler. The mandated advertisements, which began appearing this week, will be a significant step toward informing Americans about the addictive power of cigarettes and the harms of tobacco use.
A simple blood test is allowing Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) researchers to determine which patients should be prescribed varenicline (Chantix) to stop smoking and which patients could do just as well, and avoid side effects, by using a nicotine patch.
Educating the public about the dangers of tobacco addiction has long been a priority for the American Thoracic Society, which provides scientifically-supported arguments to counter Big Tobacco’s marketing and lobbying efforts. Now, the ATS is debuting a new video in which children help to highlight the dangers associated with candy-flavored tobacco, which experts fear will induce kids to use tobacco, leading to a lifetime of addiction.
A new treatment program that combines the power of technology with tried and true methods to help cancer patients overcome their addiction to tobacco is ready to enroll its first patients at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center. As part of the program, doctors are alerted about a patient’s tobacco use through the electronic medical record. At that point, an automated referral is made for the patient to Penn’s Tobacco Use Treatment Service (TUTS), which then directly provides patients with state-of-the-science tobacco use treatment in an effort to get them to quit for good and assist with their medical treatment and recovery.
Many proponents of vaping argue that it's a healthy alternative to tobacco cigarettes; however, when it coming to surgery and interacting with anesthesia, neither is safe.
The court-ordered publication of “corrective statements” by major U.S. tobacco companies later this month should serve as a reminder that tobacco addiction remains a major health problem in the country and that Big Tobacco has a long history of marketing practices aimed at hooking a new generation on a lethal product, according to an editorial published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
New research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine suggests that the system for choosing transplant recipients in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may underestimate how long a person might survive without a lung transplant and therefore, may mislead clinicians.
When low-income adults were newly covered by Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), they were more likely to quit smoking cigarettes than their counterparts in states that did not offer Medicaid expansion. The findings support a policy-driven approach to reduce high smoking rates among low-income adults by giving greater access to smoking cessation programs.
Two studies by UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers reveal trends in the marketing practices, pricing, delivery methods and other features of online e-cigarette vendors.
A national survey of more than 200 pediatric primary care physicians found that while over three-quarters addressed at least one parental health issue, such as maternal depression or parental tobacco use, during child health visits and a majority recognized the impact of such issues on children’s health, fewer felt responsible for addressing them.
There is a general perception among the public that e-cigarettes or vaping products are safer than conventional cigarettes. While smoking has fallen significantly, public health questions arise about vaping, especially about youth usage and other vulnerable populations. New research presented at the 2017 Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) Annual Conference suggests a link between VPN use, now a $3.5 billion industry, and neurotoxicity, immune cell suppression, and cardiovascular disease.
Rural counties continue to rank lowest among counties across the U.S., in terms of health outcomes. A group of national organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National 4-H Council are leading the way to close the rural health gap.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute found that a previously dismissed genetic mechanism may contribute to nicotine dependence, and to the withdrawal effects that can make quitting smoking so difficult.
New research presented today at APHA’s 2017 Annual Meeting and Expo examined the effect of marijuana use and dependence on life achievement in young adults.
Online social networks designed to help smokers kick the tobacco habit are effective, especially if users are active participants, according to a new study from the University of Iowa and the Truth Initiative, a nonprofit anti-tobacco organization.
Many people who smoke or chew tobacco can’t seem to escape nicotine’s addictive properties. Studies show that women in particular seem to have a harder time quitting, even with assistance, when compared to men. Now, scientists report in a mouse study published in ACS’ journal Chemical Research in Toxicology that the difference in gender smoking patterns and smoking’s effects could be due to how nicotine impacts the brain-gut relationship.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is one of 29 sites participating in a national study to determine whether a daily transdermal nicotine patch will have a positive effect on attention and early memory impairment in older adults diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Paul Newhouse, M.D., director of the Center for Cognitive Medicine at VUMC is the national director of the study.
As more states consider legalizing recreational marijuana, University of Colorado researchers are launching a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to examine the impact legalization has on career fulfillment, family life, and substance use.
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