Smoking Cessation News and Research

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All forms of tobacco use or exposure are harmful

All forms of tobacco exposure - smoking, chewing or inhaling second hand smoke - increase the risk of heart attack up to three times, according to an Article in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

17 Aug 2006

Varenicline shown to help 'quit smoking'

A drug recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an aid to smoking cessation appears effective both short- and long-term for smokers trying to quit, according to two reports in the August 14/28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

14 Aug 2006

Smokers who experience significant pain smoke more

Smokers who experience significant pain smoke more cigarettes per day than those who are not regularly in pain, according to a study published by researchers at the University of Kentucky.

3 Aug 2006

Media coverage of obesity outweighs smoking cessation stories

Obesity is grabbing more headlines, but not necessarily crowding out media coverage of the dangers of tobacco use, according to a new study sponsored by a drug company. However obesity made more news while tobacco got less attention, based on an analysis of eight years of medical stories in the media.

5 Jul 2006

Chantix may help smokers quit

Chantix (varenicline) was shown to be effective with a favorable safety profile as an aid to smoking cessation treatment, according to three pivotal studies published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

5 Jul 2006

New anti-smoking drug Varenicline (Chantix) promotes longer-lasting abstinence

Scientists have found that a new anti-smoking drug may be more effective than drugs currently in use to help smokers kick the habit and it has the added advantage of promoting longer-lasting abstinence.

5 Jul 2006

Varenicline effective in helping smokers quit

The drug varenicline shows effectiveness in helping smokers quit and abstain from smoking when compared to placebo and the smoking cessation medication bupropion.

4 Jul 2006

Hospital quality measures do not fully account for the variation in hospital death rates for heart attack patients

Hospital quality measures do not fully account for the variation in hospital death rates for heart attack patients, according to a study in the July 5 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.

4 Jul 2006

A red light for surgeries in supermarkets and a green light for better food labelling

Doctors in Britain are objecting to plans for walk-in clinics to be set up in supermarkets.

28 Jun 2006

Evidence is strong that green tea lowers the risk for a number of chronic diseases

There is a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease and cancer in Asia where people smoke heavily, which may be accounted for by high consumption of tea, particularly green tea, according to a review article published by a Yale School of Medicine researcher.

6 Jun 2006

Smoking cessation messages miss Asian Americans

Cigarettes are a particular problem among Asian-American immigrants, where smoking has been estimated to be more than 10 percent above the national average.

6 Jun 2006

Cigarette smoking and high cholesterol predict different forms of peripheral artery disease

Cigarette smoking and high cholesterol predict risk for some forms of peripheral artery disease (PAD), while diabetes predicts risk for other forms of the disease, researchers reported in a rapid access issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

6 Jun 2006

Canadians get tough with smokers

Today, May 31, 2006, the new Smoke Free Ontario legislation came into effect in Canada.

31 May 2006

Largest U.S. hepatitis C trial yields treatment insights

Community-Based WIN-R Study Shows Significantly Better Outcomes with Weight-Based Dosing

24 May 2006

Chantix new quit smoking drug approved

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given approval for the sale of the first smoking cessation drug in almost ten years.

11 May 2006

Trial of low-dose Isotretinoin for prevention of second primary tumors in head and neck cancer patients

Taking a vitamin A derivative called isotretinoin did not reduce the risk of second primary tumors or improve survival in patients with stage I or II head and neck squamous cell cancers (HNSCC), according to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

13 Apr 2006

Does marketing products as remedies create 'get out of jail free cards'?

Just like a "get out of jail free card" makes going to jail seem like no big deal in Monopoly, a new study in the June issue of the Journal of Consumer Research shows that remedy marketing can undermine risk avoidance messages.

13 Apr 2006

Do older people quit smoking for the wrong reasons?

Research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that elderly women are more likely to quit smoking than elderly men, while results are just the opposite for studies among younger populations.

23 Mar 2006

Telephone support helps smokers quit

University of Minnesota Medical School and Minneapolis VA Medical Center research shows that smokers who receive support over the telephone when trying to quit are more successful in kicking the habit than those who receive help as part of routine medical care.

19 Mar 2006

Smoking interferes with the brain's ability to recover from the effects of chronic alcohol abuse

"This study suggests that for better brain recovery, it may be beneficial for alcoholics in early abstinence to stop smoking as well," concludes Dieter Meyerhoff, Dr.rer.nat., a radiology researcher at SFVAMC and the senior author of the study. Meyerhoff is also a professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco.

19 Mar 2006