Posts Tagged smoking risks
Smoking Increases Risk of Dying of Prostate Cancer
Posted by Drug Free in Tobacco Abuse on June 27th, 2011
There is another reason for men to quit smoking — it can increase risk of death due to prostate cancer by 61%.
In a study made at the Harvard University, data showed that men who smoke up their chances of dying of prostate cancer and recurrence of prostate cancer. In a feature from the Voice of America, researcher Stacy Kenfield said “We looked at the amounts that current smokers were smoking, and we did see an increase in prostate cancer mortality if you smoked more cigarettes.”
Every year, there are 900,000 prostate cancer cases all over the world, and about a quarter of this figure eventually die of the disease.
The study also relates prostate cancer and former smokers. Those who quit for at least ten years before they were diagnosed to have the illness were performing as people who never smoked did.
Kenfield suggests the probable reasons why smokers are more likely to die of this type of cancer. She says the cancer-causing chemicals in cigarettes are to blame as well as hormones that are disrupted by smoking. “Studies have found an association between current smoking and increased testosterone, which is known to stimulate prostate cancer growth. And other studies have shown that nicotine induces angiogenesis, or the formation of new blood vessels.”
It was also observed that smokers have a more dangerous form of prostate cancer than those who do not smoke.
Smoking While Pregnant Increases Risk of Heart Disease in Children
Posted by Drug Free in Tobacco Abuse on June 23rd, 2011
In a recent study in Australia, researchers found a disturbing relationship between smoking and heart disease. This may be a common fact with thousands of documents in support, but what makes the new study alarming is that smoking is now linked to why children develop serious heart problems even before they reach ten years old.
It was found that smoking decreases the amount of “good cholesterol” in the body making babies born to smoking mothers vulnerable to heart attack or stroke.
Although it isn’t clear how smoking lowers high-density lipoprotein or HDL in the body during pregnancy, data gathered showed that children whose mothers smoked while pregnant had lower levels of HDL compared to those who were not exposed to cigarette smoking by their mothers.
The study, which was published in the June 21 online issue of the European Heart Journal, clearly suggests that exposure to tobacco products while pregnant could result to consequences not only for the mother but to the unborn child as well. Professor of Cardiology at the University of Sydney Dr. David Celermajer says that “maternal smoking ‘imprints’ an unhealthy set of characteristics on children while they are developing in the womb, which may well predispose them to later heart attack and stroke. This imprinting seems to last for at least eight years and probably a lot longer.”
This is why there is a need for children born to smoking mothers to be monitored and regularly checked as they can easily be susceptible to coronary risk factors, like high blood pressure and increased levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) which is not good for the body.
Smoking Pose Higher Risks of Malignancies for Liver Transplant Patients
Posted by Drug Free in Tobacco Abuse on March 31st, 2011
It looks like there’s another reason to stop smoking — this time specifically for patients who have undergone liver transplants.
A report made by Spanish researchers will be published in the April issue of the Liver Transplantation, a journal from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. According to the results of their study, liver transplant patients who stop smoking have lower risks of smoking-related malignancies (SRM) compared to patients who continue their smoking habit despite having undergone liver transplants.
Dr. J. Ignacio Herrera who led the team says that “smoking is related to some of the most frequent causes of post-transplant malignancy. We investigated whether the risks of developing malignancies was different in patients who ceased smoking than in patients who maintained smoking after transplantation.” This they found out by studying liver transplant patients who smoked after they had their procedures done, and those who ceased the activity after. They put risk factors on cancers of the lung, head and neck, kidney, and urinary tract after transplantation in their study.
Having controlled other factors in the population that they studied, it was found out that after an average of 7.5 years, 26 of the 339 liver transplant subjects had 29 smoking-related malignancies. When they analyzed their results further, smoking and higher age did not play any role in the development of SRMs for the general population. But when the group was identified into smoking and non-smoking participants, age and smoking clearly became a factor for SRM in the smoker’s side.
Dr. Herrero then advised that there should be programs for liver transplant patients and survivors to discourage them from smoking. He hopes that screening and intervention programs can somehow lessen the cases of cancer-related mortality in this specific group of patients. It’s about time they think twice before going into the dangerous habit.
Smoking and Obesity Shorten Life Expectancy in the US
Posted by Drug Free in Tobacco Abuse on January 31st, 2011
The life expectancy of most citizens at age 50 has increased, but it is noticeably slower compared to other countries like Australia, Japan, and 21 other countries, as released in reports from the National Research Council, an arm of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
The US is spending more on health care than any other country, and this slowing pace of life expectancy is alarming. Samuel H. Preston, a professor of demography at the University of Pennsylvania says that “We determined the most likely source of our shortfall is cigarette smoking, particularly the heavy amount of smoking done by American women. Obesity also appears to be important, but we are less certain of its role. We are the heaviest country in the Western world.”
Women in the US has a rate of 33.1 years at a life expectancy of 50 years, while in Japan, Australia, Switzerland, and Sweden, it’s at 35.5 on the average.
Americans smoked heavier than their Japanese and European counterparts fifty years ago, and this is why it has affected life expectancy rates in the US today. The effect of smoking on mortality rates takes 30 years to be seen, and as fewer men are smoking in the US for the last 20 years, the life expectancy of men might improve in the coming decades. In the case of women, their smoking peaked later than in men; this would naturally translate to more alarming statistics for the coming years.
Obesity’s role in the life expectancy rate isn’t as clear yet. Some researchers are putting it responsible for one-fifth to one-third of the life expectancy gap between the US and other developed countries. Obesity can also level off the gained years in reduced smoking, reports say. However, recent data gathered shows that the epidemic on obesity is declining and death associated with such conditions will be decreased.
Smoking Responsible for Poor Life Expectancy in Americans
Posted by Drug Free in Tobacco Abuse on January 25th, 2011
Experts have been trying to figure out why the United States does not measure up to other countries in terms of life expectancy – despite the fact that it spends more per capita on health care, and has a population that is relatively wealthy and well-nourished. A feature by Reuters shared a report that explained why.
A report from the National Research Council, which was released on Tuesday, identified smoking as the major factor behind the disparity in lifespan between Americans and citizens of other countries. The panel of experts also mentioned the following in their report: “Other factors, such as obesity, diet, exercise, and economic inequality, also have likely played a role in the current gap and divergence between the United States and other countries.”
Ranked 1st in terms of life expectancy is Japan; the United Nations said that a child born today will most probably live to be 83, on average. The United States, on the other hand, is ranked 36th, with a life expectancy of 78.3.
While it may be true that the number of Americans who smoke has declined over the years, in 1960, more than 40 percent of American adults smoked. The experts wrote further that smoking was more widespread in the United States fifty years ago, when compared to other countries; there were more Americans who were smokers, and who “smoked more intensively” during that time, according to the experts.
“The health consequences of this behavior are still playing out in today’s mortality rates,” they added.
Things are likely to improve, however, given the fact that smoking rates have dropped.
Illnesses Linked to Smoking
Posted by Drug Free in Tobacco Abuse on March 22nd, 2010
No matter how we look at it, smoking is dangerous. Smokers suffer from increased risk of developing certain illnesses, some of which we have outlined below.
Heart Diseases
Smoking significantly increases the risk of coronary heart disease, peripheral arterial disease and stroke. Nicotine is addictive. It allows a certain boost of energy, giving a rush of adrenaline and providing a pleasant feeling. This chemical reaction damages the heart as adrenaline speeds up the heart and tightens the arteries up. This increases the blood pressure and strains the heart. Smoking has a damaging effect to the arteries, blood vessels and the heart itself. This is why smokers are more likely to suffer and die from heart-related diseases.
Lung Cancer
The rise of lung cancer as one of the most common causes of death can be directly attributed to cigarette smoking. Smoking cigarettes is responsible for over 90% of all lung cancer-related deaths. Cigarette smoke introduces about 40 toxic carcinogens to the body. The more a person smokes cigarettes, the more likely he or she is to have lung cancer.
Emphysema
Another one of the most common diseases that come with smoking is emphysema. It is a critical lung disease related with the degradation of the tiny air sacs located in the lungs due to exposure to tobacco smoke.
Other diseases linked to smoking are:
• Bronchitis
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease
• Liver cancer
• Prostate cancer
• Erectile dysfunction in men
• Stomach cancer
• Bladder and kidney cance
• Abdominal aortic aneurysm
• Acute myeloid leukemia
• Cataracts
• Cervical cancer
• Kidney cancer
• Pancreatic cance
• Periodontitis
• Pneumonia
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