February 7th, 2010 by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Research
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The journal Tobacco Control has on its website a list of the top 10 most read articles each month. One paper that has been near the top ever since it was published in 2005, was written by Dr Kjell Bjartveit and his colleague Dr Tverdal, on “Health consequences of smoking 1-4 cigrettes per day.”
The study included 23,521 men and 19,201 women, aged 35–49 years when they were initially screened for cardiovascular disease risk factors in the mid 1970s and followed them up to 2002. The researchers calculated the total risks of death and relative risks adjusted for confounding variables, of dying from ischaemic heart disease, all cancer, lung cancer, and from all causes, and examined the effects of regular smoking of only a few cigarettes per day. Read more »
This post, Classic Study: There’s No Safe Threshold For Cigarette Smoking, was originally published on
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February 4th, 2010 by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, News, Research
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Most smokers dread lung cancer. They are aware that by continuing to smoke the chances of developing lung cancer are increased 20 times, and that once it has developed the treatment is unpleasant and prognosis poor. Many patients (and unfortunately many clinicians) assume that once you have lung cancer it is too late to quit.
This week a new report was published in the BMJ, based on a review of the evidence that smoking cessation after diagnosis of a primary lung tumour affects prognosis. The study, by Drs Parsons, Daley and Aveyard at the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, combined the data from 10 studies. They found that those who quit smoking after diagnosis were significantly less likely to develop another tumor and significantly more likely to still be alive 5 years later. Read more »
This post, Once You Have Lung Cancer, Should You Bother To Quit Smoking?, was originally published on
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January 28th, 2010 by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Research
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Professor Robert West, at University College London, has an interesting theory which suggests that glucose tablets can help smokers to quit. It is well known that when smokers quit smoking they put on weight, and that nicotine appears to act like a mild anorectic drug…it dulls the appetite. It has also been noted that smokers often crave high carbohydrate foods when they quit smoking. So it seems as though smoking dulls the hunger for carbohydrates. The glucose theory (or at least one version of it) suggests that when an addicted smoker quits smoking they experience a strong hunger/craving sensation, sometimes located in their stomach. When trying to interpret that sensation they think, “what am I craving? I just gave up cigarettes, it must be that.” Read more »
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January 13th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Bouncing back to the hospital refers to patients who were discharged from the hospital but return during some defined period of time. This will become important as insurance companies, including CMS, stop paying for patients who are readmitted within some defined period for the same condition. In medical circles, we usually refer to this as the 30 day readmission rate.
When hospitalist groups were first coming on the scene and were showing reduced length of stay, many folks falsely believed that hospitalists must have a higher percentage of patients bouncing back into the hospital. I have yet to see any research that indicates such trend every existed. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
January 8th, 2010 by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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Most specialist smoking cessation services advise patients to select a quit date and quit smoking completely on that day (usually along with medication), but many smokers prefer the idea of cutting down gradually. What are the pros and cons?
I theory, cutting down gradually might provide a “softer landing” in that it might spread out the nicotine withdrawal over a longer period, rather than giving the nicotine receptors an abrupt shock of no nicotine. It also seems to fit with common sense that it might be easier to change the behavior gradually rather than all at once. Read more »
This post, Trying To Quit Smoking? Should You Cut Down Or Go Cold Turkey?, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D..
