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The role of secondhand smoking on the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in elderly men and women living in Mediterranean islands: the MEDIS study  

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• Exposure to secondhand smoke increases risk for Type 2 diabetes 

Chronic secondhand smoke exposure significantly increases the risk for Type 2 diabetes, show results from a study of Greek and Cypriot elderly men and women.

“While active smoking is strongly related to the development of diabetes mellitus, the role of exposure to secondhand smoke in the development of diabetes mellitus is unclear,” write Demosthenes Panagiotakos (Harokopio University, Athens, Greece) and colleagues in the journal Diabetic Medicine.

The researchers recruited 1190 elderly men and women aged 65 years or above from several Greek and Cypriot islands in the Mediterranean during 2005–2007.

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• Smoking ban is re-examined 

The ban on smoking in most bars and cafes is not being adhered to nor applied properly, the government said yesterday, adding that it is launching a review of the law that was passed earlier this year after pressure from the European Union.

Health Minister Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou said that she had noted “great gaps in the application of the smoking ban” and would be re-examining the legal framework supporting it.

At the end of last month, it was revealed that state inspectors had received more than 2,500 complaints about people violating the ban. It also emerged that some 2,200 cafe and bar owners in Athens had applied to turn their venues into all-smoking establishments but that none of the paperwork had been processed by authorities, in most cases because the applications were incomplete.

Xenogiannakopoulou said she wants to address such problems.

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Smoking cessation significantly increases adiponectin levels 

MedWire News: Researchers in Greece have discovered that smoking cessation, aided by the pharmacologic agent buproprion, results in a significant increase in adiponectin levels within 2 months.

“Smoking has been associated with low serum levels of adiponectin, an adipocytokine with insulin-sensitizing, anti-inflammatory, and anti-atherogenic properties,” say Stamatis Efstathiou (Hygeias Melathron, Athens) and colleagues.

“However, no data are available so far in regard to the short-term impact of smoking cessation on serum adiponectin concentration.”

To investigate further, the team recruited 106 apparently healthy Greek smokers without additional cardiovascular risk factors to the study. The participants were prescribed the well-established pharmaceutical aid buproprion 150 mg/twice daily for a period of 9 weeks. . . .

Presenting their results at a poster session at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in Barcelona, Spain, the researchers report that quitters’ adiponectin levels were significantly increased by 1.9 µg/ml compared with baseline by the end of the study.

In contrast, non-quitters’ adiponectin levels remained unchanged at 9 weeks.

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Cigarettes May Dull Taste Buds 

In the study, researchers used electrical stimulation to test the taste threshold of 62 Greek participants. Applying an electrical current to the tongue generates a unique metallic taste. Measuring the amount of current required before a person perceives this taste enables researchers to determine taste sensitivity. The 28 smokers in the study scored worse on this test than the 34 nonsmokers.

The researchers then used endoscopy to measure the number and shape of a type of taste bud called fungiform papillae. They found that the smokers had flatter fungiform papillae, with a reduced blood supply.

The study was published online Aug. 20 in the journal BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders.

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Cigarette Smoke Dulls Taste 

Cigarette smoking not only causes cancer and cardiovascular disease, it also dulls taste, making food less palatable, a new study suggests.

Scientists in Greece enlisted 62 young men of the country’s military forces, about half of whom were smokers, to test for taste sensitivity and to measure the number and shape of taste buds. The average age of the men was 25.

The taste buds on smokers’ tongues were found to be flatter than the buds on the tongues of the nonsmokers, the researchers say. There was no difference in the numbers of taste buds between the two groups.

“Statistically important differences between the taste thresholds of smokers and nonsmokers were detected,” Pavlidis Pavlos, leader of a team of researchers from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, says in a news release. However, a few of the smokers perceived taste similarly to nonsmokers, and researchers say more study is needed to explain why.

Smoking can affect the shape of taste buds and also affect vascularization, or the formation of blood vessels, he says.

“Nicotine may cause functional and morphological alterations” of taste buds "without severely affecting their number," Pavlos and colleagues write.

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Evaluation of young smokers and non-smokers with electrogustometry and contact endoscopy. 

Background

Nicotine has been recognized as capable of inducing changes in taste functionality in conditions of chronic exposure.The objective of this study was the evaluation of taste acuity in smokers and non-smokers and the differences concerning the shape, density and vascularisation of the fungiform papillae (fPap) of their tongue.

Methods

Sixty-two male subjects who served in the Greek Military Forces participated in the study and were randomized chosen. Thirty-four of them were non-smokers and 28 were smokers. All of the smokers used to hold the cigarette on the centre of their lips. Taste thresholds of the participants were measured with Electrogustometry (EGM). The morphology and the density of their fungiform papillae (fPap) on the tongue's tip were examined with Contact Endoscopy (CE). . . .

Conclusion

The majority of smokers showed elevated taste thresholds in comparison to non-smokers. Smoking is an important factor which can lead to decreased taste acuity. The combination of methods, such as EGM and CE, can provide useful information about the vascularisation of taste buds and their functional ability.

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Smokers' Tongues Fail Taste Test 

Smokers have fewer and flatter taste buds. A study of the tongues of 62 Greek soldiers, published in the open access journal BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders, has demonstrated how cigarettes deaden the ability to taste.

Pavlidis Pavlos led a team of researchers from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki who used electrical stimulation to test the taste threshold of the soldiers and endoscopes to measure the number and shape of a kind of taste bud called fungiform papillae. He said: "Statistically important differences between the taste thresholds of smokers and non-smokers were detected. Differences concerning the shape and the vascularisation of fungiform papillae were also observed." . . .

Pavlos concludes: "Nicotine may cause functional and morphological alterations of papillae, at least in young adults."

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Study: Smokers face exclusion 

The chief of a study into the smoking habits of young people has called on authorities to emphasize in forthcoming anti-smoking campaigns the threat of social exclusion, noting that this is more likely to influence youngsters than repeating the health risks associated with nicotine.

“People are looking for a different motive for quitting smoking – that’s the impression I get from the youngsters’ responses,” said Giorgos Anogeianakis, who heads the experimental physiology department of the Aristotle University’s Medical School in Thessaloniki.

According to the study, carried out over a period of one year with a sample of 1,400 secondary school pupils and university students in the northern city, nonsmokers are increasingly shunning smokers. Nonsmokers said they prefer the company of others who do not smoke and smokers tend to spend most of their time with other smokers, Anogeianakis said, noting that this pattern reflects new smoking restrictions which segregate the smoking from the nonsmoking public.

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• Study: Smoking Lessens Taste Over Time  

A new study confirms what has already been likely known to most smokers - cigarettes lessen taste buds' abilities over time.

Greek scientists studied 62 Greek soldiers' tongues using electrical stimulation to test the taste threshold of the men and endoscopes to measure the number and shape of a certain taste bud. . . .The study was published in the journal BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders.

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• Passive smoking in pregnancy linked to asthma risk in children 

Children born to women exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) during pregnancy face an increased risk for asthma symptoms in early life, researchers warn.

“Smoking during pregnancy has been shown to be a considerable risk factor for changes in growth and maturation of the fetal lungs and the later development of wheeze and asthma,” explain Paraskevi Xepapadaki (University of Athens, Greece) and team in the journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

But they add it is not known whether passive smoking in pregnancy is associated with an increased risk for asthma and allergies in offspring.

To investigate, the researchers studied data on 2374 preschool children, aged between 1 and 6 years, from 115 nurseries in five counties of Greece.

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• UPDATE 1-OPAP agents strike, say smoking ban hitting sales  

Agents for Greek betting firm OPAP (OPAr.AT), Europe's biggest, went on strike on Thursday over a tax on winnings and said a new smoking ban in public places in Greece had added to a fall in sales.

"There was already a drop due to the global downturn but with the smoking ban the fall came to 25-30 percent (year on year)," OPAP sales agents union head Kyriakos Toptsidis told Reuters.

The union, which represents about 5,300 retail outlets selling lottery cards and sports betting games across Greece, went on strike to protest a tax on betting winnings.

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New Greek law restricts public smoking _ but gamblers and mental patients exempt 

Europe's most nicotine-addicted nation adopted a new public smoking ban Wednesday in a bid to stub out the Greek habit of lighting up practically everywhere. Exceptions have been made for mental patients and gamblers.

Unrestricted indoor smoking in restaurants, bars, coffee shops and workplaces is now against the law, in the third ban Greece has tried to impose over the past decade.

"We want to change the mentality of many years and adapt our daily habits ... to the practices in effect in all civilized countries," Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos said. "Greek society is ready for this."

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VIDEO: Greece Introduces Smoking Ban 

Greeks are the heaviest smokers in Europe -- over 40 percent of the population smokes.

But those who enjoy a cigarette won't be able to smoke inside public places from July 1.

The tobacco ban includes work places, from offices to airports, trains and taxis.

And most bars, cafes and restaurants have to have separate and clearly marked smoking and non-smoking sections.

But the owner of this restaurant and many other businesses say they don't fully understand the new law.

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Europe stubs out last smoker's refuge 

GREECE, Europe's heaviest-smoking nation, has introduced a tobacco ban in public places from July 1, its third attempt in a decade to stamp out the country's love affair with cigarettes.

But critics fear loopholes in the legislation and its unpopularity mean it could suffer the same fate as previous anti-smoking bids, which proved ineffective.

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