Chain Smoking Doubles Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia Risk

Heavy smoking in midlife is associated with a 157 percent increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and a 172 percent increased risk of developing vascular dementia, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

This is the first study to look at the long-term consequences of heavy smoking on dementia.

Researchers followed an ethnically diverse population of 21,123 men and women from midlife onward for an average of 23 years. Compared with non-smokers, those who had smoked more than two packs of cigarettes a day had more than a 157 percent increased in risk of Alzheimer's disease and 172 percent increased risk of vascular dementia during the mean follow-up period of 23 years.

Vascular dementia, the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease, is a group of dementia syndromes caused by conditions affecting the blood supply to the brain.

"This study shows that the brain is not immune to the long-term consequences of heavy smoking," said the study's principal investigator, Rachel A. Whitmer, Ph.D., a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif. "We know smoking compromises the vascular system by affecting blood pressure and elevates blood clotting factors, and we know vascular health plays a role in risk of Alzheimer's disease."

Researchers analyzed prospective data from of 21,123 Kaiser Permanente Northern California members who participated in a survey between 1978 and 1985. Diagnoses of dementia, Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia made in internal medicine, neurology, and neuropsychology were collected from 1994 to 2008. The researchers adjusted for age, sex, education, race, marital status, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, body mass index, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and alcohol use.

"While we don't know for sure, we think the mechanisms between smoking and Alzheimer's and vascular dementia are complex, including possible deleterious effects to brain blood vessels as well as brain cells," said study co-author Minna Rusanen, MD, of the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital in Finland.

This study is the latest in a series of published Kaiser Permanente research to better understand the modifiable risk factors for dementia. This ongoing body of research adds to evidence base that what is good for the heart is good for the brain, and that midlife is not too soon to begin preventing dementia with good health.

The other studies led by Whitmer found that a large abdomen in midlife increases risk of late-life dementia, elevated cholesterol levels in midlife increase risk of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, and low blood-sugar events in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes increase dementia risk. Another Kaiser Permanente study led by Valerie Crooks of Kaiser Permanente in Southern California found that having a strong social network of friends and family appears to decrease risk for dementia.

source: prnewswire

How long does cannabis stay in the body after smoking?

Cannabis contains an active chemical called Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) can stay in a person's body for as long as 3 to 90 days after smoking or being ingested orally.

There are many determining factors for how long drug toxins stay in a person’s body which vary from person to person, such as the analytical method used, your health, your body weight, metabolism, fluid intake, the type of drug toxin, and the degree of exposure to the drug toxin.

source: mdinfo

Dangerous effect of second hand smoking on kids and adults

Passive smoking or second hand smoking is the involuntary inhalation of smoke. It happens when tobacco smoke infuses any environment, causing its inhalation by people within the environment.

Passive smoking has been linked to many serious health risks.

It is linked to breast cancer. One report from California Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 said that the secondhand smoke acts like it could be a cause of breast cancer in women.

It is also linked to premature deaths and diseases in children and adults who do not smoke.

Children exposed are at increased risk of SIDS, respiratory infections, ear problems, and severe asthma. Smoking by parents causes breathing problems and reduces lung growth in their children.

Secondhand smoke affects the heart and blood circulation in a harmful way. Over a long period of time, it also causes heart disease and lung cancer.

The scientific evidence explains that there is no safe level of contact to secondhand smoke.

source: mdinfo

Types of foods that can minimize the effect of smoking

Typically, smokers have low levels of vital nutrients such as vitamin C and E, zinc, calcium, folate and omega 3 fatty acids so you better make sure that you get enough of these nutrients to help keep the damages of smoking to a minimum.

Sources of vitamin C are present in fruits such as oranges, apricots, grapefruits, mangoes and strawberries. Other nutrients such as zinc and folate can be found in a wide variety of green leafy vegetables available in the market.

Omega 3 fatty acids can be obtained by eating fishes like salmon, mackarel and tuna. Vitamin E is also important because of it's anti oxidant properties which prevent cholesterol from changing in it's harmful way.

Sources of vitamin E can be found in sunflower seeds, almonds, olives and oils made from these food products. Spinach also contains a healthy amount of vitamin E as well.

There are lots of foods that you can take that will help minimize the effect of smoking.

Below are the lists of foods:

1. Fresh vegetables. It’s good to eat several leafy green salads daily.
2. Fresh fruits
3. Vegetable sticks, celery and carrot
4. Drink vitamins and fresh juices. Snack on fruits like grapes and apple
5. Water
6. Minerals,vitamins and herbs
7. Herbal teas
8. Nonfat milk with hot cocoa
9. Yogurt that are fat free
10. A sunflower seed in the shell
11. Seeds and nuts
12. Hard candies to suck on
13. 94% fat free pop corn
14. Whole unsalted organic eating fish more than twice weekly
15. Avoid sugar,caffeine,alcohol and junk foods
16. Eat foods that are rich in fiber
17. Take vitamin C because it builds healthy tissue and eliminates toxins.

Smoking raises the risk for blindness in old age

Smoking is counted as the second most risk factor for blindness in old age. According to a US research team, smoking can increase macular degeneration in old age. A research report of UCLA's research team for the American Journal of Ophthalmology showed about 11 percent higher rates of this macular degeneration in women who smoked in comparison to women of same age.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes a gradual destruction in sharp, central vision (needed to see objects clearly and for activities for reading and driving). AMD occurs in two forms mainly, wet and dry. The most common symptom for dry AMD is blurred vision and straight lines appearing crooked in case of wet AMD.

Smoking tends to increase AMD as it reduces serum antioxidant levels, which alters the blood flow to the eyes and decreases retinal pigments. However, AMD can be prevented by giving up this addiction. Cigarettes contain approximately 4,000 chemicals in a cigarette, most of which is extremely harmful. Smoking causes cancers of all types, including kidney and bladder, respiratory disorders like COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) damaging the lungs, and chronic bronchitis (inflammation of the bronchi or large airways), and also increases risk of heart attacks.

According to the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), an estimated 72 million women in India above 15 are smokers. Smoking can have an adverse effect on the overall health and giving up the habit can help lead a healthy life.

source: bolohealth

Kids exposed to smoke more prone to emphysema

Regular exposure to tobacco smoke at home places young children at an increased risk of developing emphysema in adulthood, a new study finds.

Previous studies had linked exposure to secondhand smoke during childhood to various health conditions.

"Some known harmful effects of tobacco smoke are short term, and this new research suggests that effects of tobacco smoke on the lungs may also persist for decades," said lead researcher Gina Lovasi.

According to the study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, early-life exposure to tobacco smoke may cause permanent and irreversible damage to the lungs, leading to emphysema in the long run.

Despite the considerable emphysema-related changes in the lungs of the studied children, no evidence of declined lung function was reported in this group.

Considering the high prevalence of asthma and other respiratory diseases in children exposed to tobacco smoke at home, scientists urged parents and family members to quit smoking in order to protect their children against the damage caused by tobacco.

source: presstv.ir

Women Who Smoke Risk Having Seizures

Women who smoke may have a higher risk of developing seizures than non-smokers do, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among more than 100,000 U.S. women in a long-running health study, current smokers were between two and three times more likely than non-smokers to suffer a seizure over 16 years.

Current smokers did not clearly show a higher risk of developing epilepsy, a disorder marked by recurrent seizures that are not provoked by a specific cause, such as a reaction to a drug.

However, epilepsy risk was somewhat elevated among former smokers, who had a 46 percent higher risk than women who had never smoked.

Dr. Barbara Dworetzky and colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston report the findings in the journal Epilepsia.

Seizures arise from an episode of abnormal electrical activity in the brain -- with symptoms ranging from a brief staring "spell" or change in vision or sensations in the skin to convulsions and loss of consciousness. Epilepsy is diagnosed when a person suffers at least two unprovoked seizures.

In some cases, seizures and epilepsy have an identifiable cause, such as head trauma or brain damage from a stroke. But more often, no specific cause can be found.

Little is known about how seizures can be prevented, according to Dworetzky's team, but if the current findings are correct, avoiding smoking may be one way.

The idea that smoking could be a risk factor does have physiological evidence to back it up, the researchers point out. High levels of nicotine, for instance, have been found to trigger convulsions in both animals and humans.

Smoking also diminishes the oxygen supply to body tissues and, via the stimulating effects of nicotine, can trigger sleep problems, both of which may contribute to seizures.

Dworetzky and her colleagues based their findings on data from the Nurses' Health Study II, which began following more than 116,000 U.S. nurses between the ages of 25 and 42 in 1989. Over 16 years, 95 women suffered a seizure, and 151 were newly diagnosed with epilepsy.

Smokers were at greater risk of having an isolated seizure than non-smokers, even when other risk factors, including history of stroke, were taken into account.

Research has suggested that, as with nicotine, high alcohol or caffeine intake may also contribute to seizures. But in this study, women's drinking and caffeine habits were unrelated to the risks of seizure or epilepsy.

"Because there is little knowledge of modifiable risk factors for seizures or epilepsy," Dworetzky and her colleagues conclude, "more prospective studies are needed to find ways to possibly prevent their occurrence."

SOURCES: Epilepsia, online November 18, 2009.
reuters

Depression May Up Death Risk to That of Smoking

Expert says findings support link between mental and physical health

Being depressed might take as many years off your life as smoking does, a new study suggests.

However, a combination of depression and anxiety appears to be better for longevity than just depression.

Researchers came to their conclusions after analyzing death records and a survey of more than 60,000 people. During the four years after the survey, the death rate was higher among those who'd appeared to be depressed, based on the survey findings, than among the others. The increase was about as high as that among smokers.

"Unlike smoking, we don't know how causal the association with depression is, but it does suggest that more attention should be paid to this link because the association persisted after adjusting for many other factors," lead researcher Dr. Robert Stewart, of Kings College London, said in a news release from the college.

The researchers also found that people who were depressed were more likely to die during the study period than those who were both depressed and anxious.

"It appears that we're talking about two risk groups here," Stewart said. "People with very high levels of anxiety symptoms may be naturally more vulnerable due to stress, for example through the effects stress has on cardiovascular outcomes. On the other hand, people who score very low on anxiety measures, i.e. those who deny any symptoms at all, may be people who also tend not to seek help for physical conditions or they may be people who tend to take risks. This would explain the higher mortality."

The findings fit with other research that suggests a link between mental and physical health, according to the researchers.

"The physical health of people with current or previous mental disorder needs a lot more attention than it gets at the moment," Stewart said.

The study was published in a recent issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.

SOURCE: health.usnews