Tobacco & Marijuana
Promising Treatment for Cocaine
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A treatment for cocaine’s effects on the human cardiovascular system has been discovered, according to a report in the August 14 Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center led by Wanpen Vongpatanasin, MD, examined results from 22 healthy adults who reported to have never used cocaine. The researchers administered a small medically approved dose of cocaine nose drops to the subjects, which doubled their sympathetic nerve activity, resulting in increased heart rate, blood pressure, and vascular resistance. Subjects were then either treated with dexmedetomidine, a drug currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for anesthetic purposes, or intravenous saline as a placebo.
Ike Turner’s death ruled cocaine overdose
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The late rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Ike Turner died of a cocaine overdose, the San Diego County medical examiner said on Wednesday.
Turner, 76, was found dead on December 12 at his home in San Marcos near San Diego. He had a history of cocaine addiction stretching back more than 30 years.
The medical examiner said an autopsy showed that a long history of cardiovascular disease and emphysema contributed to Turner’s death.
Smoking Belies Milder Disease but Worse Prognosis for IPF Patients
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Smokers and ex-smokers with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), an untreatable progressive lung disease that usually leads to death within a few years of diagnosis, have a worse prognosis than non-smokers, according to research from London.
Previous research had counter-intuitively suggested that current smokers with IPF might live longer than ex-smokers, but the new study establishes that the data likely reflected a healthy smoker effect.
The study appears in the second issue for January of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
Quit Smoking? Move to California
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Sun. Sand. Surf. And no smoking. California’s attitude toward smoking may be the best recipe for success when trying to quit. New research shows that social pressure plays a key role in getting smokers to quit.
By analyzing the smoking patterns of Asian immigrants from countries where smoking is socially acceptable, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have shown that smokers are far more likely to try to quit when living where smoking is not socially acceptable. And the more these smokers try to quit, the more they succeed.
Daily alcohol use causes changes in sexual behavior, new study reveals
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A team of researchers at Penn Sate has used an animal model to reveal, for the first time, a physiological basis for the effect of alcohol on male sexual behavior, including increased sexual arousal and decreased sexual inhibition. The research, which will be published on 2 January 2008 in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, resulted in four novel findings with broad importance for further addiction research. It is the first study to characterize the effects of chronic alcohol exposure in fruit flies.
“Physiological evidence supporting various theories about the effect of alcoholic drinks has been lacking, so our now having a suitable animal model makes it possible to conduct much-needed laboratory research on this issue,” explains research-team-leader Kyung-An Han, associate professor of biology and a neuroscientist at Penn State. Information from this research can serve as a baseline for similar studies in other animals, including humans.
Study Investigates Cannabis Use Among University Students
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New information published in the Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research explores University students’ motivations for using or not using cannabis and found various factors that might encourage use.
Researchers at Griffith University in Australia administered a survey to students aged 17 to 29 asking about their beliefs about the advantages and disadvantages of using cannabis, their perceptions of what others think they should do in relation to cannabis use, and reasons that might cause them to use or not use.
Smoking Associated With Increased Risk of Diabetes
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A review of previous studies indicates that people who currently smoke have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, compared with non-smokers, according to an article in the December 12 issue of JAMA.
A number of studies have examined the association between smoking and incidence of glucose abnormalities, and have suggested that smoking could be independently associated with glucose intolerance, impaired fasting glucose and type 2 diabetes, which could make smoking a modifiable risk factor for type 2 diabetes. However, it appears the quality and clinical features of these studies have not been fully assessed regarding this possible association.
Novel MRI technique shows secondhand smoke damages lungs
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For the first time, researchers have identified structural damage to the lungs caused by secondhand cigarette smoke.
The results of the study, conducted by researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
New research review shows that your family doctor may be the key to quitting smoking
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Scientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) are defining the most effective ways to treat tobacco dependence, and in an article released in the November issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) they highlight the surprisingly significant role that the health practitioner can play in helping people quit smoking. Many people’s attempts to quit are unsuccessful, so effective interventions are critical for the 4.5 million smokers in Canada alone.
“Advising patients to quit, even just once, helps to double quit rates,” write CAMH researchers Dr. Bernard Le Foll and Dr. Tony George.
Pregnant women pass on the effects of smoking
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Smoking during pregnancy has many adverse effects on fetal development. A new study in mice by Andrea Jurisicova and colleagues at the University of Toronto, Canada, now adds the possibility that smoking before pregnancy or while breast-feeding might substantially decrease the fertility of female offspring to the long list of possible negative outcomes.
Survey reveals drug and alcohol abuse in British teens
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According to a government survey in the UK almost half of all youngsters between the age of 10 and 15 say they have consumed alcohol. This survey on the lifestyles and concerns of children has revealed startling drug and alcohol abuse problems.
The online ‘TellUs2’ survey for watchdog Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) interviewed 111,000 children and teenagers and found that 14 per cent of children in the 12-15 age group said they had experimented with drugs such as cannabis.
Anti-smoking strategy targets fourth-graders, parents in rural and urban Georgia
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A smoking-prevention strategy that targets black fourth-graders and their parents is under study in urban and rural Georgia.
Researchers want to know if they can keep these children from smoking and help smoking parents quit, according to Dr. Martha S. Tingen, nurse researcher at the Medical College of Georgia’s Georgia Prevention Institute, and Interim Program Leader for Cancer Prevention and Control, MCG Cancer Center.
Tobacco deaths to reach 10 mln a year by 2030: group
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Tobacco-related deaths are expected to double to 10 million a year by 2030, with most fatalities in developing countries, a senior World Lung Foundation (WLF) official said on Friday.
Judith Longstaff Mackay, the organization’s global tobacco control program coordinator, said while cigarette markets were getting smaller in advanced economies, the opposite was true for developing states, where the number of smokers and the volume each consumes is growing.
Simple test can catch smokers who fib
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A simple device for detecting carbon monoxide in the blood may help doctors get an honest answer out of patients who smoke, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The device, called a pulse co-oximeter, is typically used to test for carbon monoxide levels in firefighters, but it can also detect carbon monoxide levels in people who smoke, offering a powerful tool for educating patients about the effects of smoking.
Teens with jobs more likely to smoke
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High school students who work at jobs for pay appear to be more likely to start smoking than their peers who don’t work outside of school, researchers report. They also found that youths who work longer hours are more likely to smoke that those who work fewer hours.
Dr. Rajeev Ramchand, a behavioral scientist at RAND Corporation in Arlington, Virginia, and colleagues looked at the relationship between working for pay and the initiation of smoking among nearly 800 urban, predominantly African-American students.
