Tobacco.org

Star Scientific plans to introduce a new product 

Star Scientific Inc. plans to introduce a nutraceutical in 2010 that would help adult smokers maintain a nicotine-free metabolism.

The Petersburg-based company announced today that CigRx, developed by its subsidiary Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals, will be marketed and sold in partnership with inVentiv Health, Inc. . . .

The product, a dietary supplement, does not contain nicotine. It would be taken orally like a throat lozenge, dissolved and swallowed, according to Sara Machir, Star's vice president of communications and investor relations. CigRX would be directed at people who are trying to quit or who already are abstaining from smoking, she said.

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• Smoking, obesity 'grow as world threat' 

Tobacco and obesity are overtaking hunger and infectious disease as leading causes of death and illness across the developing world, an Australian expert has warned.

As globalisation had lifted millions of people out of poverty, Dr Paul Kowal said free trade agreements had allowed the rapid movement of processed food and tobacco products into the world's poorest nations.

Many developing countries now faced new and mounting health threats from the expanding availability of fast food, soft drinks and cigarettes, he said.

"To increase development in a country, they are forced to open up to transnational corporations including tobacco corporations," Dr Kowal said of the trend emerging in the world's developing nations.

"And there is a clear correlation between the local presence of a tobacco company and increasing tobacco uptake."

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When Cigarette Ads Had Balls 

In five years, will you be a wheezing, blackened mess? Or--conversely--will you have five more years of tobacco byproducts in your lungs? Well. You have to admire their "Lie big or lie dead" attitude. Click to enlarge. [Copyranter]

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• The Guilt-Trip Casserole - Dinner and the Busy Family  

"I DON'T need family-dinner studies to guilt-trip me," said Shannon Rubio, a mother of three teenage boys from Spring, Tex. "I do it to myself."

But just in case, Mrs. Rubio, here is the latest, from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University:

Teenagers who eat with their families less than three times a week are more likely to turn to alcohol, tobacco and drugs than those who dine with their families five times a week. , , ,

Since the first CASA study in 1996 saw an association between the frequency of family dinners and rates of adolescent substance abuse, numerous other studies have pointed to the importance of the family dinner. They suggest that family dinners have a positive impact on nutrition, verbal abilities, mental health and workers' stress. The news media passionately presses the cause; it's a cornerstone of the slow-parenting movement. . . .

family dinner has become a red-hot item on the good-parent scorecard, by which mothers in particular judge one another and themselves, a tinderbox for networks like Twittermoms.com. (According to the NPD Group, a market research firm, women are responsible for about 80 percent of meals in the home.)

So it's not surprising that many parents, especially mothers, who work night shifts or long hours, or who, like Mrs. Rubio, have teenagers running every which way to activities, are painfully aware that nightly dinners 'round the table are something other families get to do.

Nor is it surprising that many others do veritable back flips to ensure that dinner and diners convene under the same roof, at the same time.

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Life expectancy in relation to cardiovascular risk factors: 38 year follow-up of 19 000 men in the Whitehall study (PDF) 

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ON THIS TOPIC

There has been uncertainty about the limits of life expectancy and the relevance of cardiovascular risk factors for prediction of life expectancy

WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS

Despite substantial variability within individuals in levels of cardiovascular risk factors, the presence of three major risk factors (smoking, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol concentration) recorded on a single occasion in middle aged men was associated with a 10 year shorter life span from age 50 (23.7 v 33.3 years) compared men with none of them

More extreme categorisation of these risk factors including BMI, diabetes mellitus/glucose intolerance, and employment grade was associated with a 15 year difference in life expectancy from age 50 (20.2 v 35.4 years)

Continued public health strategies to lower these risk factors could result in further improvements in life expectancy major risk factors throughout the population to achieve improvements in life expectancy.22 We have also shown that a greater proportion of older people in the UK are surviving to very old age. Continued public health strategies to lower mean levels of the three main cardiovascular risk factors, together with more intensive medical treatment for “high risk” sub- groups, including use of medication to lower blood pressure23 24 and cholesterol concentration,25 that have proved efficacy could result in further improve- ments in life expectancy.26

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Male habits knock decade off life  

“Cigarettes and alcohol will take 10 years off your life,” announces The Independent. The newspaper reported that for the first time doctors have quantified the effects of smoking, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, described as “the three major killers of middle-aged men”. Failing to give up smoking or to control blood pressure and cholesterol were reported to reduce life expectancy by 10 to 15 years.

The Whitehall study that provided the data set for this new publication is a large cohort study that started in 1967. It provides over 30 years of follow-up data for cause-specific mortality in a large population of civil servants. This study found that there has been a clear improvement in rates of cardiovascular deaths across the decades, and also an improvement in the control of high blood pressure and high cholesterol, in addition to a reduction in smoking rates. However, despite this, those with the combined risk factors of smoking, high cholesterol and high blood pressure when aged 50 were found live an average of 10 years less than those without. The study has only been conducted in a specific population of men but the findings concur with the numerous other health studies demonstrating the impact of smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol upon health and mortality. The study did not specifically assess alcohol use.

Where did the story come from?

This research was conducted by Robert Clarke and colleagues of University of Oxford, University College London Medical School and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation and Medical Research Council, and was published in the British Medical Journal.

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Cigarettes and alcohol will take 10 years off your life 

Doctors have for the first time quantified the effect of the three major killers of middle-aged men: smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Men who smoke and fail to give up, or to control their blood pressure and cholesterol (where necessary) are sacrificing 10 to 15 years of their lives.

Results from the 40-year Whitehall study, landmark research into 19,000 civil servants begun in the late 1960s, shows that men who reached the age of 50 with all three risk factors lived on average to the age of 73, while those without any of the risks lived till 83. When other risks were included, such as diabetes and obesity, they found the least healthy lived until 70 on average, while the most healthy lived till 85.

Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), which helped fund the research published in the British Medical Journal, said: "This important study puts a figure on the life-limiting effects of smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. It provides a stark illustration of how these risk factors in middle age can reduce life expectancy."

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Life expectancy in relation to cardiovascular risk factors: 38 year follow-up of 19 000 men in the Whitehall study 

Results At entry, 42% of the men were current smokers, 39% had high blood pressure, and 51% had high cholesterol. At the re-examination, about two thirds of the previously "current" smokers had quit smoking shortly after entry and the mean differences in levels of those with high and low levels of blood pressure and cholesterol were attenuated by two thirds. Compared with men without any baseline risk factors, the presence of all three risk factors at entry was associated with a 10 year shorter life expectancy from age 50 (23.7 v 33.3 years). Compared with men in the lowest 5% of a risk score based on smoking, diabetes, employment grade, and continuous levels of blood pressure, cholesterol concentration, and body mass index (BMI), men in the highest 5% had a 15 year shorter life expectancy from age 50 (20.2 v 35.4 years).

Conclusion Despite substantial changes in these risk factors over time, baseline differences in risk factors were associated with 10 to 15 year shorter life expectancy from age 50. . . .

Conclusions and policy implications

Previous studies in the UK4 20 and US21 showed that about half of the reduction in coronary deaths between 1980 and 2000 could be attributable to reductions in major risk factors and about half to improvements in medical treatment of people with established vascular disease. Our results provide support for the public health policies aimed at achieving modest changes in major risk factors throughout the population to achieve improvements in life expectancy.22 We have also shown that a greater proportion of older people in the UK are surviving to very old age. Continued public health strategies to lower mean levels of the three main cardiovascular risk factors, together with more intensive medical treatment for "high risk" subgroups, including use of medication to lower blood pressure23 24 and cholesterol concentration,25 that have proved efficacy could result in further improvements in life expectancy.26

What is already known on this topic

There has been uncertainty about the limits of life expectancy and the relevance of cardiovascular risk factors for prediction of life expectancy

What this study adds

Despite substantial variability within individuals in levels of cardiovascular risk factors, the presence of three major risk factors (smoking, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol concentration) recorded on a single occasion in middle aged men was associated with a 10 year shorter life span from age 50 (23.7 v 33.3 years) compared men with none of them More extreme categorisation of these risk factors including BMI, diabetes mellitus/glucose intolerance, and employment grade was associated with a 15 year difference in life expectancy from age 50 (20.2 v 35.4 years) Continued public health strategies to lower these risk factors could result in further improvements in life expectancy

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Middle Aged Men Lose 10 To 15 Years Of Life If They Smoke, Have High Blood Pressure And Cholesterol, Large Study 

Middle aged men who smoke, have high blood pressure and high cholesterol can expect to live 10 to 15 years less than their healthy counterparts, according to a large UK study that followed nearly 19,000 men for 38 years.

These are the conclusions of a study published 17 September in the British Medical Journal, BMJ. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) sponsored the study, which was led by the University of Oxford.

The findings come from the "Whitehall" study which has been following 19,000 men aged 40 to 69 employed in the civil service in London since they enrolled in 1967-70 when they underwent initial medical exams. The BHF funded the follow up exams and health records.

The researchers found that the presence of three heart disease risk factors in men aged 50 could result in a reduced life expectancy of 10 to 15 years. The three key heart disease risk factors are: smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

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Middle-aged people could die 15 years earlier because of lifestyle, study says 

Middle-aged people who are overweight, smoke and have raised blood pressure and high cholesterol will die on average 15 years sooner than those without such problems, research suggests.

A study of 19,000 men has calculated the impact of different risk factors on life expectancy, and how many years are lost once a person is past the age of 50.

It concludes that a combination of smoking, high cholesterol and high blood pressure reduces life expectancy by ten years, while those with other added health worries, such as being overweight, may die 15 years earlier.

The research, published online in the British Medical Journal, comes as a report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the health regulator, suggests greater efforts to prevent cardiovascular disease.

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Men’s Lost Decade: How Smoke and Cholesterol Shorten Life Span 

Men who smoke and let fat clog their arteries die a decade earlier than those who don’t.

Scientists looking for a connection between life expectancy and cardiovascular risk factors combed through the Whitehall study, a survey of 19,019 male civil servants that started in London in the late 1960s.

They found that those who had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoked in middle age died about 10 years earlier than the others after reaching age 50. The findings are published in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal. The reduction in life expectancy was even greater when the researchers factored in body mass index and diabetes.

“Our results provide support for the public health policies aimed at achieving modest changes in major risk factors throughout the population to achieve improvements in life expectancy,” wrote the authors, led by Robert Clarke of the University of Oxford.

In the study, the researchers found smoking shortened life by about six years

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Triple heart threat cuts decade off lifespan: study 

Middle-aged male smokers with high cholesterol and blood pressure die, on average, a decade sooner than peers without any of these heart disease risk factors, according to a study published Friday.

Many studies have shown that not smoking, eating healthily and exercising cut heart disease rates.

But few have tackled the problem from the other end: to what extend is life expectancy shortened by having these heart disease risk factors?

To find out, researchers led by Robert Clark from the University of Oxford sifted through data from 19,000 male British civil servants who were examined in the late 1960s . . .

In the United States, for example, uncontrolled hypertension has fallen since 1999 by only 16 percent, high blood cholesterol by 19 percent, and tobacco use by just over 15 percent, says the American Heart Association.

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• Take Care New York 2012: A Policy for a Healthier New York City (PDF) 

2NYC Aims to… Be Tobacco Free . . .

DOHMH will advocate for city, state and federal tax increases on cigarettes and other tobacco products to reduce smoking among youth and adults, and support the enforcement of existing laws and the passage of new laws to minimize or eliminate the distribution of non-taxed and low-taxed cigarettes.

Advocate for the regulation of tobacco industry marketing practices.

DOHMH will advocate for the adoption of local laws and regulations to reduce the impact of tobacco advertising and other marketing practices, and introduce anti-tobacco messages in retail locations.

Reduce the availability and social acceptance of tobacco.

DOHMH will urge organizations and businesses in New York City to reject tobacco industry products, placement, funding and sponsorship.

Limit exposure to second-hand smoke.

The health department will continue to enforce New York City’s 2002 Smoke-Free Air Act and will work with the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation and other entities to expand smoke-free spaces to include city parks and public beaches.

II. Prevention, Quality and Access Expand access to, and use of, smoking cessation services.

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Editorial - The Eeuww! Ads 

Since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took on the smoking culture seven years ago, city health officials have been figuring out how best to steer people away from unhealthy behavior.

But so far, neither Mayor Bloomberg nor Gov. David Paterson is ready to make the best move when it comes to soft drinks -- a tax on sodas and other sugary beverages. . .

So, the city's health department has gone the yuck route, which officials say worked well with cigarette ads. Smoking in the city went down after television commercials showed a man with a hole in his throat and a woman with missing fingers.

But the bigger decreases in smoking followed -- that's right -- big increases in the tax on cigarettes.

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Oklahoma smokers willing to try to quit, diet concurrently 

Oklahomans are willing to tackle giving up smoking and losing weight at the same time, according to preliminary results of a survey of smokers using the state's tobacco help line.

"People have weight concerns related to quitting smoking, but they're still willing to call and get help," said Laura Beebe, director of the Oklahoma Tobacco Research Center, which conducted the study. "People do want to address both of those concerns at the same time."

Beebe gave results Thursday to the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund's board of directors, which helped fund the study.

"In the past there's been some mixed literature that had said, 'No, if you're going to treat people for tobacco addiction don't address weight control,'" Beebe said.

The average weight gain after a person quits smoking is five to 10 pounds, Beebe said.

"We find now obesity is more of a problem in the general population and weight gain after smoking is also inching up there," Beebe said.

Results are still being developed from the 18-month study, Beebe said. Follow-up work was completed in June.

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