Health A-Z

Helping Smokers Quit, or Not Start in the First Place

“Even 50 years after the first surgeon general’s report on smoking and health, we’re still finding out new ways that tobacco kills and maims people,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently told me. “It’s astonishing how bad it is.”

Dr. Frieden and public health specialists everywhere are seeking better ways to help the 44 million Americans who still smoke to quit and to keep young people from getting hooked on cigarettes. “Fewer than 2 percent of doctors smoke. Why can’t we get to that rate in society as a whole?” he wondered.

One reason: Smoking rates are highest among the poor, poorly educated and people with mental illness, populations hard to reach with educational messages and quit-smoking aids.

But when I mentioned to Dr. Frieden, a former New York City health commissioner, that the city’s streets are filled with young adult smokers who appear to be well educated and well dressed, he said television seems to have had an outsize influence.

Focus groups of white girls in New York private schools have suggested a “Sex in the City” effect, he said: Girls think smoking makes them look sexy. In the last two years, middle-aged men, too, have begun smoking in increasing numbers after a half-century decline. Dr. Frieden cited “Mad Men,” the popular TV series featuring admen in the early 1960s, when well over half of American men smoked.

Dr. Frieden said that an antismoking effort begun in 2008 by the World Health Organization “can make a huge difference in curbing smoking, and we should fully implement what we know works.” The program is called Mpower:

M stands for monitoring tobacco use and the effectiveness of prevention programs like antismoking videos on YouTube.

P for protecting people from secondhand smoke. Half the country still lacks laws mandating smoke-free public places. The latest national health survey found that about half of children from nonsmoking households have metabolites of tobacco in their blood, Dr. Frieden said.

O for offering help to the 70 percent of smokers who say they would like to quit. “Tobacco use remains egregiously undertreated in health care settings,” Dr. Helene M. Cole, associate editor of JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and Dr. Michael C. Fiore, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin, wrote this month in the journal.

Medical aids for quitting smoking, which can triple the likelihood of success, should become available, without a co-pay, to many more people under the Affordable Care Act, Dr. Frieden said.

W for warning about smoking hazards through larger and more graphic messages on cigarette packs and paid advertising on radio and television.

E for enforcing bans on tobacco marketing, advertising, promotion and sponsorships. In bodegas throughout the country, Dr. Frieden said, “tobacco ads are used as wallpaper.” Smoking is freely depicted in movies and popular TV shows.

R for raising taxes, which studies have shown is the single most effective way to reduce smoking in the population, especially among teens.

“A higher cigarette tax is not a regressive tax, because it would help poor people even more than the well-to-do,” Dr. Frieden noted. President Obama has proposed an additional 94-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes, which would yield $80 billion to fund universal prekindergarten.

Smokers ready to quit can choose from among a cornucopia of aids as wide-ranging as nicotine substitutes, low-dose antidepressants, hypnosis and acupuncture. While none by itself has a high rate of success, different methods have proved effective for different people. Many former smokers required several attempts before they managed to quit for good.

But quitting smoking does not necessarily require assistance. As two public health specialists, Andrea L. Smith and Simon Chapman at the University of Sydney in Australia, have pointed out, “The vast majority of quitters do so unaided.” A Gallup Poll conducted last year in the United States found that “only 8 percent of ex-smokers attributed their success to [nicotine replacement therapy] patches, gum or prescribed drugs,” these experts noted. “In contrast, 48 percent attributed their success to quitting ‘cold turkey’ and 8 percent to willpower, commitment or ‘mind over matter’.”

They added, “For many smokers, having a reason to quit (a why) was more important than having a method to quit (a how).”

For my husband, who smoked a pack a day for 50 years, the “why” was his distress at seeing two beautiful young nieces smoking; he made a pact with them to quit if they would, and he followed through.

Techniques that can help people trying to quit when troubled by the urge to smoke include waiting 10 minutes and distracting yourself; avoiding situations you associate with smoking, at least until you have become a committed ex-smoker; using stress reducers like physical activity, yoga, deep breathing, muscle relaxation and self-hypnosis; seeking moral support from a nonsmoking friend, family member or online stop-smoking program; and oral distractions like chewing sugarless gum or raw vegetables.

Electronic cigarettes are being promoted by some as a way to resist the real thing. E-cigarettes, invented in 2003 by a Chinese pharmacist, contain liquid nicotine that is heated to produce a vapor, not smoke. More than 200 brands are now on the market; they combine nicotine with flavorings like chocolate and tobacco.

But their contents are not regulated, and their long-term safety has not been established. In one study, 30 percent were found to produce known carcinogens. Dr. Frieden said that while e-cigarettes “have the potential to help some people quit,” the method would backfire “if it gets kids to start smoking, gets smokers who would have quit to continue to smoke, gets ex-smokers to go back to smoking, or re-glamorizes smoking.”

Nearly two million children in American middle and high schools have already used e-cigarettes, Dr. Frieden said. In an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal last year, Dr. Matthew B. Stanbrook, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, suggested that fruit-flavored e-cigarettes and endorsements by movie stars could lure teens who would not otherwise smoke into acquiring a nicotine habit.

A survey in 2011 of 75,643 South Korean youths in grades 7 through 12 by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, revealed that four of five e-cigarette users also smoked tobacco. It could happen here: Stanton A. Glantz, the study’s senior author and a professor of medicine at the university, described e-cigarettes as “a new route to nicotine addiction for kids.”

Source: New York Times

Beijing’s air would be step up for smoggy Delhi

In mid-January, air pollution in Beijing was so bad that the government issued urgent health warnings and closed four major highways, prompting the panicked buying of air filters and donning of face masks. But in New Delhi, where pea-soup smog created what was by some measurements even more dangerous air, there were few signs of alarm in the country’s boisterous news media, or on its effervescent Twittersphere.

Despite Beijing’s widespread reputation as having some of the most polluted air of any major city in the world, an examination of daily pollution figures collected from both cities suggests that New Delhi’s air is more laden with dangerous small particles of pollution more often than Beijing’s. Lately, a very bad air day in Beijing is about an average one in New Delhi.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing sent out warnings in mid-January, when a measure of harmful fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 for the first time this year went above 500, in the upper reaches of the measurement scale. This refers to particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, which are believed to pose the greatest health risk because they penetrate deeply into lungs.

But for the first three weeks of this year, New Delhi’s average daily peak reading of fine particulate matter from Punjabi Bagh, a monitor whose readings are often below those of other city and independent monitors, was 473, more than twice as high as the same average in Beijing of 227. By the time Beijing had its first pollution breach past 500 on the night of Jan. 15, Delhi had already had eight such days. Indeed, only once in three weeks did New Delhi’s daily peak value of fine particles fall below 300, a level more than 12 times the exposure limit recommended by the World Health Organization.

“It’s always puzzled me that the focus is always on China and not India,” said Angel Hsu, director of the environmental performance measurement program at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. “China has realized that it can’t hide behind its usual opacity, whereas India gets no pressure to release better data. So there simply isn’t good public data on India like there is for China.”

Experts have long known that India’s air is among the worst in the world. A recent analysis by Yale researchers found that seven of the 10 countries with the worst air pollution exposures are in South Asia. And evidence is mounting that Indians pay a higher price for air pollution than almost anyone in the world. A recent study showed that Indians have the world’s weakest lungs, with far less capacity than Chinese lungs. Researchers are beginning to suspect that India’s unusual mix of polluted air, poor sanitation and contaminated water may make the country among the most dangerous in the world for lungs.

India has the world’s highest death rate because of chronic respiratory diseases, and it has more deaths from asthma than any other nation, according to the World Health Organization. A recent study found that half of all visits to doctors in India are for respiratory problems, according to Sundeep Salvi, director of the Chest Research Foundation in Pune.

Clean Air Asia, an advocacy group, found that another common measure of pollution known as PM10, for particulate matter less than 10 micrometers in diameter, averaged 117 in Beijing in a six-month period in 2011. In New Delhi, the Center for Science and Environment used government data and found that an average measure of PM10 in 2011 was 281, nearly 2 1/2 times higher.

Perhaps most worrisome, Delhi’s peak daily fine particle pollution levels are 44 percent higher this year than they were last year, when they averaged 328 over the first three weeks of the year. Fine particle pollution has been strongly linked with premature death, heart attacks, strokes and heart failure. In October, the World Health Organization declared that it caused lung cancer.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing posts on Twitter the readings of its air monitor, helping to spur wide awareness of the problem. The readings have more than 35,000 followers. The United States does not release similar readings from its New Delhi embassy, saying the Indian government releases its own figures.

In China, concerns about air quality have transfixed many urban residents, and some government officials say curbing the pollution is a priority.

But in India, Delhi’s newly elected regional government did not mention air pollution among its 18 priorities, and India’s environment minister quit in December amid widespread criticism that she was delaying crucial industrial projects. Her replacement, the government’s petroleum minister, almost immediately approved several projects that could add considerably to pollution. India and China resisted pollution limits in global climate talks in Warsaw in November.

Frank Hammes, chief executive of IQAir, a Swiss-based maker of air filters, said his company’s sales were hundreds of times higher in China than in India.

“In China, people are extremely concerned about the air, especially around small children,” Hammes said. “Why there’s not the same concern in India is puzzling.”

In multiple interviews, Delhiites expressed a mixture of unawareness and despair about the city’s pollution levels. “I don’t think pollution is a major concern for Delhi,” said Akanksha Singh, a 20-year-old engineering student who lives on Delhi’s outskirts in Ghaziabad, adding that he felt that Delhi’s pollution problems were not nearly as bad as those of surrounding towns.

In 1998, India’s Supreme Court ordered that Delhi’s taxis, three-wheelers and buses be converted to compressed natural gas, but the resulting improvements in air quality were short-lived as cars have flooded the roads. In the 1970s, Delhi had about 800,000 vehicles; now it has 7.5 million, with 1,400 more added daily.

“Now the air is far worse than it ever was,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director of the Center for Science and Environment.

Indians’ relatively poor lung function has long been recognized, but researchers assumed for years that the difference was genetic.

Then a 2010 study found that the children of Indian immigrants who were born and raised in the United States had far better lung function than those born and raised in India.

“It’s not genetics; it’s mostly the environment,” said MyLinh Duong, an assistant professor of respirology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

In a study published in October, Duong compared lung tests taken in 38,517 healthy nonsmokers from 17 countries who were matched by height, age and sex. Indians’ lung function was by far the lowest among those tested.

All of this has led some wealthy Indians to consider leaving.

Annat Jain, a private equity investor who returned to India in 2001 after spending 12 years in the United States, said his father had died last year of heart failure worsened by breathing problems. Now his 4-year-old daughter must be given twice-daily breathing treatments.

“But whenever we leave the country, everyone goes back to breathing normally,” he said. “It’s something my wife and I talk about constantly.”

Source: Ndtv news

Pepsi One and Potential Cancer-Causing Chemical

Pepsi One has higher levels of a potential cancer-causing chemical than other soft drinks, according to a study released Thursday by Consumer Reports magazine.

Researchers looked at levels of a chemical called 4-methylimidazole (4-MeI), which is found in artificial caramel coloring used in soft drinks. There are no federal limits on the chemical’s use, but California requires warning labels on foods or beverages that expose consumers to more than 29 micrograms of 4-MeI a day, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Consumer Reports study said that 12-ounce cans of the low-calorie soft drink Pepsi One bought in California contained as much as 43.5 micrograms of 4-MeI, and that a nonalcoholic malt beverage called Malta Goya had as much as 352.5 micrograms of the chemical, the Times reported.

In contrast, cans of Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper contained 4.3 micrograms and 10.1 micrograms, respectively, of 4-MeI, the Times said.

A person would have to drink more than 1,000 cans of soda a day to reach the levels of 4-MeI linking the chemical and cancer in rodents, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the newspaper reported.

In 2012, both Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. promised to reduce the amount of 4-MeI in their drinks, the newspaper said.

“We are concerned about both the levels of 4-MeI we found in many of the soft drinks tested and the variations observed among brands, especially given the widespread consumption of these types of beverages,” said Urvashi Rangan, a toxicologist and executive director of the Consumer Reports Food Safety and Sustainability Center, the Times reported.

Pepsi disputed the study findings. The soda maker said levels of 4-MeI in its drinks did not equal 29 micrograms a day because “the average amount of diet soda consumed by those who drink it is approximately 100 [milliliters] per day, or less than a third of a 12 [ounce] can,” the Times reported. Goya Foods Inc. refused comment, the newspaper said.

Consumer Reports has asked the California attorney general to investigate whether Pepsi One and Malta Goya should have warning labels, the Times reported.

Source: Web md

Biofuel Crops ‘May Amplify Mosquito-Borne Disease’

The expansion of the some biofuel crops may unwittingly increase the risk of mosquito-borne disease by altering the insects’ life cycle, a study suggests.

The so-called first-generation biofuel crops, most notably maize, are increasingly being replaced by second-generation biofuel crops, such as perennial grasses, which require less energy, water, fertilisers and pesticides to thrive.

Yet ecological changes brought about by large-scale biofuel farming may alter the transmission of vector-borne diseases, by affecting vector behaviour, survival and abundance, for example.

In the paper published in this month’s edition of Global Change Biology – Bioenergy, researchers from the University of Illinois, United States, looked at the egg-laying behaviour of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, in water that contained leaves of different types of biofuel crops in laboratory experiments, as may happen in the field.

They show that leaves from different types of biofuel crops can affect the chemical properties of the water in which mosquitoes lay their eggs, as well as the mosquitoes’ preference for where to lay eggs and the survival of those eggs.

The researchers show, for example, that more eggs reached adulthood when they were laid in water that was infused with leaf material from the second-generation biofuel crops, switchgrass and Miscanthus, than that infused with maize leaves.

“It may appear that the transition to second-generation biofuel crops could increase mosquito production and consequently the risk of mosquito-borne disease,” they write.

But they add that these crops are also expected to improve wildlife diversity, which may reduce infection prevalence by redirecting mosquito bites to other hosts.

“We recommend further studies to explore the pathways by which these crops are likely to influence disease risk so that any potential negative impacts on human health can be identified and mitigated,” they conclude.

Nick Hewitt, an atmospheric chemist at Lancaster University, United Kingdom, tells SciDev.Net: “Large-scale land-use change is bound to have unintended consequences. In this study, an important unintended second-order consequence of biofuel crop production is identified: changes in water chemistry may change mosquito breeding patterns and hence may have effects on the prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases.”

The study, he says, highlights the “critical need for full life-cycle and environmental impact assessments of crops and agricultural practices”.

Source: All Africa

Making music videos ‘helps young cancer patients cope’

Music therapy can help teenagers and young people cope better when faced with treatment for cancer, a study in Cancer journal suggests.

American researchers followed the experiences of a group of patients aged 11-24 as they produced a music video over three weeks.

They found the patients gained resilience and improved relationships with family and friends.

All the patients were undergoing high-risk stem-cell transplant treatments.

To produce their music videos, the young patients were asked to write song lyrics, record sounds and collect video images to create their story.

They were guided by a qualified music therapist who helped the patients identify what was important to them and how to communicate their ideas.

When completed, the videos were shared with family and friends through “premieres”.

Positive effect
After the sessions, the researchers found that the group that made music videos reported feeling more resilient and better able to cope with their treatment than another group not offered music therapy.

Also, 100 days after treatment, the same group said they felt communication within their families was better and they were more connected with friends.

These are among several protective factors identified by researchers that they say help teenagers and young adults to cope in the face of cancer treatments.

Lead study author Dr Joan Haase, of Indiana University School of Nursing, said: “These protective factors influence the ways adolescents and young adults cope, gain hope and find meaning in the midst of their cancer journey.

“Adolescents and young people who are resilient have the ability to rise above their illness, gain a sense of mastery and confidence in how they have dealt with their cancer, and demonstrate a desire to reach out and help others.”

When researchers interviewed the patients’ parents, they found that the videos also gave them useful insights into their children’s cancer experiences.

‘Feel connected’
Sheri Robb, a music therapist who worked on the study, explained why music was particularly good at encouraging young people to engage.

She said: “When everything else is so uncertain, songs that are familiar to them are meaningful and make them feel connected.”

Cancer Research UK says music therapy can help people with cancer reduce their anxiety and improve their quality of life. It can also help to reduce some cancer symptoms and side-effects of treatment – but it cannot cure, treat or prevent any type of disease, including cancer.

Previous studies looking at the effects of music therapy on children with cancer found that it could help reduce fear and distress while improving family relationships.

A spokesperson for Teenage Cancer Trust said getting children with cancer to co-operate and communicate was most important.

“Every day in UK, around seven young people aged between 13 and 24 are diagnosed with cancer. We know that being treated alongside others their own age makes a huge difference to their whole experience, especially if it’s in an environment that allows young people with cancer to support each other.”

Source: BBC news

Even Light Exercise Has Health Benefits

Light-intensity activities that get you off the couch may be beneficial to your health, even if you don’t work up a sweat, a new study suggests.

People in the study who spent more time moving around than sitting during the day generally had favorable insulin and triglyceride (blood fat) levels, even if they did not do the amount of exercise that national guidelines recommend.

“These findings demonstrate the importance of minimizing sedentary activities, and replacing some of them with light-intensity activities, such as pacing back and forth when on the phone, standing at your desk periodically instead of sitting and having walking meetings instead of sit-down meetings,” study researcher Paul Loprinzi, an assistant professor at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky., said in a statement.

Other light activities that can reduce sedentary time include leisurely biking, playing Wii Fit, sitting on a balance ball, playing a musical instrument and gardening.

Although these light exercises may not be as beneficial to your health as vigorous activities are, they are still “much better than lying on the couch, watching TV,” said study researcher Bradley Cardinal, co-director of the Sport and Exercise Psychology Program at Oregon State University.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity (such as brisk walking) per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity such as running or swimming laps.

In the study, the researchers analyzed information from more than 5,500 U.S. adults who wore accelerometers to record their movements.

About half of participants engaged in less than 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a week, and spent more time sitting than performing light-intensity activities.

Other recent studies have found that too much time sitting is linked with an increased risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, as well as breast and colon cancers.

The new study was published online Dec. 25 in the journal Preventive Medicine.

Source: livescience

Fresh hope for hay fever sufferers

Researchers are set to discuss and make recommendations on the safety and efficacy of oral tablets used to treat ragweed allergy symptoms, during a public meeting of the Allergenic Products Advisory Committee, organized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

There is more to seasonal allergies than a little congestion and sneezing. If you notice eating watermelon, cantaloupe or avocado make you cough and itch, it may be a symptom of ragweed allergy. But more help might be on the way for some of the 23 million hay fever sufferers.

“The committee is likely to approve these tablets which will mark great improvement in the fight against allergy,” allergist Michael Foggs, MD, president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), said. “Once the committee and then the FDA approve the tablets, allergy sufferers will have another form of treatment available to them.”

If the committee, which granted approval for grass allergy tablets in December, also approves the ragweed allergy tablets, the FDA will then have to approve both the grass and ragweed tablets before they can be made available to allergy sufferers.
Currently, the best treatment for those with moderate-to-severe allergy symptoms is allergy shots, also known as immunotherapy. This treatment requires tiny injections of purified allergen extracts.

A pill a day may seem more appealing than getting shots. So why bother with allergy shots anymore?
Dr. Foggs said that allergy shots can be customized to provide relief to multiple allergens, including tree, grass, weed, mold, house dust, dander, and mold, while offering the assurance of more than 100 years of experience in causing remission, not just symptom relief in allergy.
The researchers think there may be pros and cons of these differing forms of treatments. Board-certified allergists can help patients make good short-term and long-term choices.

Source: Yahoo news

33 new genes behind onset of cancer uncovered

A research team has found many new cancer genes – expanding the list of known genes tied to these cancers by 25 percent.

Moreover, the study shows that many key cancer genes still remain to be discovered. The Broad Institute-led research team’s work, which lays a critical foundation for future cancer drug development, also shows that creating a comprehensive catalog of cancer genes for scores of cancer types is feasible with as few as 100,000 patient samples.

Broad Institute founding director Eric Lander, senior co-author, said that the knowledge of genes and their pathways will highlight new, potential drug targets and help lead the way to effective combination therapy.

Over the past 30 years, scientists had found evidence for about 135 genes that play causal roles in one or more of the 21 tumor types analyzed in the study. The new report not only confirms these genes, but, in one fell swoop, increases the catalog of cancer genes by one-quarter.

It uncovers 33 genes with biological roles in cell death, cell growth, genome stability, immune evasion, as well as other processes.

The result has been published in the journal Nature.

Source: Zee news

‘Morning after pill’ under review for being less effective for overweight women

New findings suggest that “morning after pill” emergency contraceptives may be less effective for overweight and obese women.

Pills that are commonly used in the UK will be included in a review, the European Medicines Agency confirmed, but family planning experts said that women should not be put off seeking contraception and should speak to a professional if they had concerns.

It comes after the French drug company HRA Pharma changed the labelling of its product Norlevo, widely available in France, Ireland and other European countries, after studies showed the pill was less effective in women weighing 75kg or more, and ineffective in women weighting more than 80kg.

The active ingredient of Norlevo, levonorgestrel, is also contained in the most popular emergency contraceptive pill in the UK, Bayer’s Levonelle.

Professor Anna Glasier, a leading expert in reproductive medicine who led research inTO levonorgestrel at the University of Edinburgh, told The Independent it was “highly likely” that other medicines for which it was an active ingredient would be similarly affected.

The UK’s second most common emergency contraceptive, HRA’s EllaOne, which uses a different active ingredient, will also come under review.

Lynn Hearton, from the sexual health charity the Family Planning Association, said that, while the review was being carried out, any woman with a body mass index (BMI) of at least 30 who was concerned should speak to their GP or visit a contraception of sexual health clinic.

Source : DNA India

Cocaine users enjoy social interactions less

Regular cocaine users have difficulties in feeling empathy for others and exhibit less prosocial behavior, scientists say.

Researchers at the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Zurich in Switzerland found that cocaine users have social deficits because social contacts are less rewarding for them.

Chronic cocaine users display worse memory performance, concentration difficulties, and attentional deficits but also their social skills are affected as previous studies at the University of Zurich suggested.

These investigations also found that cocaine users have difficulties to take the mental perspective of others, show less emotional empathy, find it more difficult to recognise emotions from voices, behave in a less prosocial manner in social interactions, and they reported fewer social contacts.

Moreover, worse emotional empathy was correlated with a smaller social network.

The scientists now believe that social cognitive deficits contribute to the development and perpetuation of cocaine addiction.
In the new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, psychologists Katrin Preller and Boris Quednow, Head of the Division of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacopsychology at the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Zurich, concluded that impaired social interaction skills of cocaine users could be explained by a blunted response to social reward.

The research team demonstrated that cocaine users perceived joined attention – the shared attentional focus of two persons on an object after gaze contact – as less rewarding compared to drug-naive healthy controls.

In a subsequent functional imaging experiment they showed that cocaine users showed a blunted activation of a crucial part of the reward system – the so called medial orbitofrontal cortex – during this basal kind of social interaction.

A weaker activation of the medial orbitofrontal cortex during social gaze contact was also associated with fewer social contacts in the past weeks.

“Cocaine users perceive social exchange as less positive and rewarding compared to people who do not use this stimulant,” Quednow said.

Source: Business standard