Varenicline, one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for helping people quit smoking, may put them at higher risk for a cardiovascular event, according to new research published online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
An online survey of 900 consumers of three of the United States’ most popular cigarette brands suggests that adopting standardized cigarette packing may reduce consumers’ misconceptions that some cigarettes are less harmful than others, reports a team of researchers led by University of California San Diego School of Medicine and published in BMJ Tobacco Control.
When a targetable genetic alteration is present, matching the alteration with the appropriate targeted therapy is associated with a survival benefit of 1.5 years, regardless of smoking history.
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have found a genetic signature for delay discounting — the tendency to undervalue future rewards — that overlaps with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), smoking and weight.
Young adults who use electronic cigarettes are more than four times as likely to begin smoking tobacco cigarettes within 18 months as their peers who do not vape, according to new University of Pittsburgh research. The findings demonstrate that e-cigarettes are serving as a gateway to traditional smoking, contrary to their purported value as a smoking cessation tool. The study is the first nationally representative survey that followed for more than a year people 18 to 30 years old who were initially nonsmokers.
Remember when your mom always told you “what you do now will catch up with you when you’re older?” She wasn’t lying. Lung cancer is a disease that mostly affects the elderly, with 83 percent of those living with cancer being 60-years-of-age or older, but reducing your risk of getting lung cancer starts when you’re young.
Though most “low molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons” (LMW PAHs) have not been shown to cause cancer alone, the study shows that in common combinations, these chemicals can help to spark the disease.
Perspective of moral psychology helps inform why tobacco control debates are often so vitriolic and yet so often based on limited science, Lynn Kozlowski writes in new paper.
Regular exercise may protect smokers from some of the negative effects associated with smoking, such as muscle loss and inflammation, according to a new study.
As an institution dedicated to ending cancer, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is committed to promoting cancer prevention and therefore supports the ‘corrective statements’ published by tobacco companies as a result of a 2006 judgment by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler. The mandated advertisements, which began appearing this week, will be a significant step toward informing Americans about the addictive power of cigarettes and the harms of tobacco use.
A simple blood test is allowing Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) researchers to determine which patients should be prescribed varenicline (Chantix) to stop smoking and which patients could do just as well, and avoid side effects, by using a nicotine patch.
Educating the public about the dangers of tobacco addiction has long been a priority for the American Thoracic Society, which provides scientifically-supported arguments to counter Big Tobacco’s marketing and lobbying efforts. Now, the ATS is debuting a new video in which children help to highlight the dangers associated with candy-flavored tobacco, which experts fear will induce kids to use tobacco, leading to a lifetime of addiction.
A new treatment program that combines the power of technology with tried and true methods to help cancer patients overcome their addiction to tobacco is ready to enroll its first patients at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center. As part of the program, doctors are alerted about a patient’s tobacco use through the electronic medical record. At that point, an automated referral is made for the patient to Penn’s Tobacco Use Treatment Service (TUTS), which then directly provides patients with state-of-the-science tobacco use treatment in an effort to get them to quit for good and assist with their medical treatment and recovery.
Many proponents of vaping argue that it's a healthy alternative to tobacco cigarettes; however, when it coming to surgery and interacting with anesthesia, neither is safe.
The court-ordered publication of “corrective statements” by major U.S. tobacco companies later this month should serve as a reminder that tobacco addiction remains a major health problem in the country and that Big Tobacco has a long history of marketing practices aimed at hooking a new generation on a lethal product, according to an editorial published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
New research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine suggests that the system for choosing transplant recipients in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may underestimate how long a person might survive without a lung transplant and therefore, may mislead clinicians.
When low-income adults were newly covered by Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), they were more likely to quit smoking cigarettes than their counterparts in states that did not offer Medicaid expansion. The findings support a policy-driven approach to reduce high smoking rates among low-income adults by giving greater access to smoking cessation programs.