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
Healthine.com by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D..
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 »
This post, Could Sugar Pills Improve Smoking Cessation Rates?, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D..
January 27th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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Have you ever stopped bothering to care about a patient? A doctor sent me his own personal account of the smoking Mr Jones:
Dear Happy. I read your article on bounce backs with great interest, and was astonished by some of the vitriol it elicited. I remember having one COPDer bounce back to me three times within a month at the VA when I was a medicine resident. He would leave, smoke and drink, and then come back and be readmitted to my service with exactly the same course each time. It was like Groundhog Day.
Finally I had a little talk with him and said: “Mr. Jones, each time you come in, you’re on death’s door. So I come down to the ER, stay up with you all night and save your life. But you know, I’m really getting tired of having you come in after drinking and smoking and then working like a dog to save your life. So let me tell you, if you don’t quit smoking, the next time you do this there’s a good chance that I’m not going to bother. Why should I? It doesn’t seem to be doing either of us any good.”
To my complete astonishment, he actually quit smoking and stayed quit for about a year. Then he fell off the wagon, deteriorated too far before getting to the hospital and died. I was frankly proud of him for the effort, but somehow suspect that I’d be shot in a drive-by if I ever told that story in public. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
January 19th, 2010 by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion
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The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 6 that Philip Morris and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., both parts of the Altria Group Inc., wrote to the FDA suggesting that tobacco products be ranked on their harmfulness to health. This would most likely result in smokeless tobacco products being ranked as markedly less harmful than cigarettes. Philip Morris apparently claimed the plan would have “a significant public-health benefit.” (assuming smokers took the rankings at face value and switched from more to less harmful products).
Now at face value, this sounds reasonably sensible. But when we consider that Philip Morris USA makes the vast majority of its profits from cigarette sales, and the plan would apparently reduce those sales as smokers switched to smokeless products, it is reasonable to wonder what they are playing at. Read more »
This post, Why Would Philip Morris Support Smokeless Tobacco Products? To Maintain Dependency On Nicotine?, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D..
January 12th, 2010 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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Every year it happens: people come to me telling of what they are going to be doing different in this fresh new year. People are going to stop smoking, start exercising, and (especially) lose weight. This year, I am among the resolvers.
Every year, most people fail.
Which makes me wonder what it is about us humans that allows us to act against what we know is best. Why is it that educating people is rarely enough to fix a problem? Why should we have an obesity “epidemic” when very few people really want to be obese? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*
