Posted by Neill Abayon

Many people say they smoke because it helps to take the edge off and reduce their stress levels. But new research has found that smoking induces an opposite effect, increasing stress levels over time rather than calming the nerves.

A team of researchers from the London School of Medicine and Dentistry recently evaluated a group of nearly 500 people who attempted to stop smoking after being hospitalized for heart disease. At the beginning of the study, all participants generally had similar stress levels and believed that smoking helped to reduce stress.

But after a year, those who continued to smoke saw no improvement in perceived stress levels, while those who abstained actually experienced a 20 percent drop in stress levels. According to the study paper, those who remained faithful by not smoking had "a significantly larger decrease in perceived stress".

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Cigarettes Are Deadlier Than They Used to Be

Posted by Neill Abayon

It may be riskier for your lungs to smoke cigarettes today than it was a few decades ago, at least in the U.S. New research that blames changes in cigarette design for fueling a certain type of lung cancer. Up to half of the nation's lung cancer cases may be due to those changes.

Smokers once tended to get a form of lung cancer called squamous cell carcinoma, which strikes cells in larger air tubes. Then doctors noticed a jump in adenocarcinoma, which grows in small air sacs far deeper in the lung.

Initial studies blamed the introduction of filtered, lower-tar cigarettes. When smokers switched, they began inhaling more deeply to get their nicotine jolt, pushing the smoke deeper than before.

The new study found an additional wrinkle to the problem -- the increase in a kind of lung tumor called adenocarcinoma was higher in the U.S. than in Australia, even though both switched to lower-tar cigarettes around the same time. The most likely explanation is a change in the cigarette; cigarettes sold in Australia contain lower levels of nitrosamines, a known carcinogen, than those sold in the U.S.

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New Cigarette Hazard: 'Third-Hand Smoke'

Posted by Neill Abayon

Parents who smoke often open a window or turn on a fan to clear the air for their children, but experts now have identified a related threat to children’s health that isn’t as easy to get rid of: third-hand smoke.

That’s the term being used to describe the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention cushions and carpeting, that lingers long after second-hand smoke has cleared from a room. The residue includes heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials that young children can get on their hands and ingest, especially if they’re crawling or playing on the floor.

Doctors from Mass General Hospital for Children in Boston coined the term “third-hand smoke” to describe these chemicals in a new study that focused on the risks they pose to infants and children. The study was published in this month’s issue of the journal Pediatrics.

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SMOKING LINKED TO BLINDNESS

Posted by Neill Abayon

British researchers said that smokers are up to four-times as likely to become blind

in later life from age-related mascular degenaration.
Unfortunately,many smokers remain largely unaware of this risk, the researchers said

in the British Medical Journal.
AMD is the most common cause of adult blindness, which results in severe

irreversible loss of of central vision. As many as one in five cases of AMD might be linked

to smoking. Evidence also shows that quitting smoking slower the development of AMD, while

continued smoking can affect the long-term response to treatments such as laser therapy.