The study further showed that those who are combined heavy smokers and heavy alcohol consumers are put at more extreme risk. Those individuals who smoked and drank heavily were by far the highest cancer risk for UADT cancer. The cancer risk was highest for those who only drank liquors and lowest for beer and wine drinkers, according to Medical News Today.

The group of scientists performing the study gathered their research from seven different centers in Argentina, Brazil and Cuba and focused on groups where these types of cancer frequently occurred. The risk was greater for those who were smokers versus non-smokers and lower for alcohol consumers alone.

Over time the risks associated with the cancer decreased steadily the longer the person went without smoking or drinking. The researchers noted that most of these types of cancers could easily be prevented if the individuals quit either of these two habits, drinking or smoking tobacco.

For those who had never smoked, alcohol barely contributed to a risk for these kinds of cancers. None of the links between the two vices were statistically significant.

Heavy Alcohol and Cigarette Use Contributes to Risk of Cancer is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Researchers looked at the smoking habits, use of other tobacco products, alcohol, and drugs (as well as exposure to second-hand smoke) in 2,620 Aboriginal youth who lived off-reserve and 26,223 non-Aboriginal youth. All the participants were in grades 9-12 and had participated in the 2008-2009 Youth Smoking Survey.

The study found that 24.9 percent of the Aboriginal participants were regular smokers, 2.6 percent were former smokers, and 72.4 percent were non-smokers. Of the non-Aboriginal participants, 10.4 percent were current smokers, 1.5 percent were former smokers, and 88 percent were non-smokers. Aboriginal youth were more likely to be exposed to second-hand smoke than non-Aboriginal youths.

The majority of the respondents (88.5 percent of Aboriginal and 84.2 percent of non-Aboriginal youth) said they had tried alcohol, and the average age at which they first tried alcohol was significantly lower among Aboriginal youth. Of those who had tried alcohol, 91.9 percent of Aboriginal youth had engaged in binge drinking, compared to 85.2 percent of non-Aboriginals. Aboriginal youth were also more likely than non-Aboriginal youth to use marijuana (62 percent compared to 41 percent) and other illicit drugs (34.8 percent compared to 20.6 percent).

The study also found that Aboriginal females had higher rates of using tobacco, marijuana, and other illicit drugs than male Aboriginals.

Dr. Tara Elton-Marshall of the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact, University of Waterloo, said that the high prevalence of smoking and substance abuse among Aboriginal youth living off-reserve underscores the need for prevention programs that target Aboriginal youth.

The researchers noted that most of the Aboriginal youth who currently smoke (especially females) said they had tried to quit at least once. This suggests that Aboriginal youth are interested in quitting but may require additional support to stop smoking.

The researchers concluded that their study highlights the need for culturally appropriate prevention and treatment methods and programs for Aboriginal youths living off-reserve.

Source: Medical News Today, Aboriginal Youth Use Tobacco, Illicit Drugs and Alcohol More Than Non-Aboriginal Youth, May 9, 2011

Aboriginal Youth Living Off-Reserve More Likely to Smoke, Use Drugs and Alcohol is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Dr. Reuven Dar of Tel Aviv University’s psychology department conducted two studies. In the latest study, he and his colleagues looked at the smoking habits and cravings of flight attendants working for the Israeli airline El Al. They monitored each attendant on two flights—one was 10 to 13 hours and the other 3 to 5 hours. The participants were asked questions about their cravings at points throughout the flights.

They found that the length of the flight didn’t significantly impact their craving levels, as their cravings were about the same on both the longer and shorter flights. Cravings were actually higher at the end of the shorter flights than the longer ones, suggesting that the cravings increased as the flight came to an end. 

In the earlier 2005 study, the researchers studied Jewish smokers who were forbidden to smoke on the Sabbath. He interviewed the participants three days a week at the end of the day—on the Sabbath, on a regular weekday, and on a weekday when they were asked to refrain from smoking.

Dr. Dar found that cravings were very low on the morning of the Sabbath, when participants knew they couldn’t smoke. Cravings increased toward the end of the day, when smokers anticipated the next day. Cravings on the normal weekday were just as high as the day they refrained from smoking, suggesting that smoking doesn’t have very much to do with being deprived of nicotine.

After taking both of these studies into consideration, the researchers believe that while nicotine affects people physiologically, it doesn’t create biological withdrawal symptoms as heroin does. Instead of the body “needing” nicotine, people continue smoking because a habit has been established, and they crave cigarettes in response to cues that are associated with smoking.

Looking at smoking as “mind over matter” could help provide more efficient treatments for quitting smoking that focus on the psychological aspects of smoking rather than the physical elements.

Source: Science Daily, Smoking Mind Over Smoking Matter: Surprising New Study Shows Cigarette Cravings Result from Habit, Not Addiction, July 13, 2010

Study Finds Smoking More Psychological than Physical Addiction is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

With funding from NHS Nottingham City, the researchers plan to challenge the social acceptance of smoking in Nottingham’s Aspley ward, which has the third highest rate in England. Fifty-three percent of Aspely residents smoke, compared to the national average of twenty-one percent. Smoking is a main reason for premature death in Aspley.

Professor Ann McNeill, of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies at the University, and her colleagues wanted to find out why so many people in Aspley smoke, and to study the effect of social challenges—such as high unemployment rates and low incomes—on smoking rates in the community.

The researchers hope to use this information to develop a community-lead approach to reducing smoking in Aspley, creating a positive environment where young people don’t start smoking and people who want to quit smoking are given the support they need.

They interviewed 100 people on the street and held focus groups consisting of current smokers, former smokers, and non-smokers of all ages to discuss the differing attitudes toward smoking.

From these interviews and focus groups, they found that smoking was the social norm, and was strongly associated with unemployment, boredom, and stress. It was also seen as a social activity, allowing people in the community to identify with one another.

They found that there was a general lack of health awareness in regard to healthy eating, alcohol consumption, and smoking, but residents had a great amount of sympathy for people who were seen as disadvantaged and addicted to smoking.

People seemed to accept the negative consequences of smoking, but dismissed government warnings for the most part. They also generally believed that there needs to be more education about the dangers of smoking for children, which should begin in elementary school.

Many smokers and non-smokers considered cigarettes a “little luxury” that disadvantaged people could enjoy. While most smokers wanted to quit smoking, it was often put off until the timing or mental state was right.

Finally, most people thought that smoking cessation services needed to be more flexible and accessible to those in poorer areas.

Professor McNeill said that they also identified a strong sense of community, which could be used to promote their anti-smoking efforts. The researchers felt that they would have more success by allowing problems to be addressed at a local level.

Marilyn Antoniak, a fellow researcher, said that by working with community members, they hope to send positive messages to smokers to encourage them to use the local support to help them cut down and eventually stop smoking. The two-year project is an example of “action research,” where researchers use the local community to address social issues.

Dr. Jeanelle de Gruchy, Deputy Director of Public Health at NHS Nottingham City, said that this kind of research is important in understanding why the smoking rate is so high in some communities. Once more is understood about the reasons behind smoking, researchers can more effectively provide an environment that prevents smoking and helps people quit.

Source: Science Daily, A Community Approach to Kicking the Habit, June 29, 2010

Researchers Plan to Use Community to Help Reduce Smoking in Nottingham is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Astrid Milde-Busch, Ph.D. and colleagues at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany, were the first to examine modifiable risk factors for different types of headaches among adolescents. Their study appears online in Headache, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell.

While modifiable risk factors such as alcohol consumption, coffee drinking, and cigarette smoking, have been associated with headaches in adults, they haven’t been thoroughly examined among youths. Previous studies have found that adolescents frequently complain of headaches: 5 to 15 percent of adolescents suffer from migraines, and 15 to 25 percent experience tension headaches.

The researchers surveyed 1,260 students from ages 14-20, asking them questions about headaches and lifestyle. If they said they had headaches during the last seven days, three months, or six months, they were classified as headache sufferers. They differentiated between migraine and tension headaches through reported symptoms, and they also asked about diet and lifestyle, including questions about coffee, cigarettes, and alcohol.

The results found that 83.1% had headaches at least during the last six months, with 10.2% suffering from migraine, 48.7% suffering tension headaches, and 19.8% with both migraine and tension headaches. As for diet, 28.4% of students never ate breakfast, 16.5% didn’t eat a daily snack, and only 24.0% had lunch daily. It was found that 22.3% drank less than 1 liter of non-alcoholic beverages per day. However, alcohol consumption was prevalent: 38.5%, 18.6%, and 25.3% drank beer, wine, and cocktails at least once per week (respectively). Of the students, 73.3% said they didn’t smoke and 43.4% students said they didn’t drink coffee.

The authors found a strong association between drinking alcohol and coffee, smoking, and lack of physical activity and migraines plus tension headaches. Those who drank caffeine and had little physical activity were far more likely to experience migraines.

The study suggests that adolescents who suffer from headaches could benefit from regular exercise and abstaining from alcohol. Teens who experience migraines should keep coffee drinking to a minimum.

Source: Science Daily, Alcohol Use and Smoking Are Associated with Headaches in High Schoolers, June 9, 2010. 

Drinking and Smoking Linked to Migraines in High-School Students is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

“Several studies have shown that specific health behaviors, including cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, higher alcohol intake and, to a lesser extent, diets low in fruits and vegetables, are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and premature mortality [death]," the authors write as background information in the article. Most studies that examine the effects of these behaviors control for other unhealthy behaviors to identify independent effects. However, several poor lifestyle choices may coexist in the same individual.

"To fully understand the public health impact of these behaviors, it is necessary to examine both their individual and combined impact on health outcomes," write Elisabeth Kvaavik, Ph.D., of University of Oslo, Norway, and colleagues. The researchers interviewed 4,886 individuals age 18 or older in 1984 to 1985. "A health behavior score was calculated, allocating one point for each poor behavior: smoking; fruits and vegetables consumed less than three times daily; less than two hours physical activity per week; and weekly consumption of more than 14 units [one unit equals 8 grams, or about 0.3 ounces] of alcohol (in women) and more than 21 units (in men)."

During an average of 20 years of follow-up, 1,080 participants died — 431 from cardiovascular disease, 318 from cancer and 331 from other causes. When compared with participants who had no poor health behaviors, the risk of death from all causes and from each cause increased with each additional behavior.

Individuals with four compared with zero poor health behaviors had about three times the risk of dying of cardiovascular disease or cancer, four times the risk of dying from other causes and an overall death risk equivalent to being 12 years older.

"Modest but achievable adjustments to lifestyle behaviors are likely to have a considerable impact at both the individual and population level," the authors conclude. "Developing more efficacious methods by which to promote healthy diets and lifestyles across the population should be an important priority of public health policy."

Smoking and Alcohol Consumption Contribute to Increase Risk of Death is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

The research team assessed the number of on-screen smoking/tobacco occurrences in 572 top grossing films in the UK, which included 546 screened in the US plus 26 high earning films released only in the UK.

They then divided the total box office earnings of each film by the year’s average ticket price, to calculate the estimated number of ‘tobacco impressions’ delivered to cinema going audiences for each film.

A ‘tobacco impression’ is defined as one person seeing an occurrence of smoking or tobacco on one occasion, with the cumulative number of impressions a measure of how much the film encourages smoking.

Among the 572 films assessed, more than two thirds (69%) featured tobacco. Of these, more than nine out of 10 were classified as suitable for adolescents (’15′ or ’12A’) under the UK ratings system.

In all, 5.07 billion tobacco impressions were delivered to UK cinema going audiences during the period under study, of which 4.49 billion (89%) were delivered in ’15′ and ’12A’ rated films.

Because 79% of the films rated only for adults in the US (‘R’) were classified as suitable for young people in the UK, this meant that young Britons were exposed to 28% more smoking impressions in ’15′ or ’12A’ rated movies than their US peers, calculate the authors.

Although UK produced films contained more instances of smoking, on average, than US produced films, the market dominance of the latter meant that Hollywood was responsible for most of the tobacco impressions delivered to UK audiences in 2001-6, say the authors.

Evidence from several countries, including the US, suggests that the more smoking young people are exposed to in movies, the more likely they are to start smoking themselves. Those who see the most are around three times more likely to take it up than those who see the least, say the authors.

Awarding an ’18′ rating to films that contain smoking "would create an economic incentive for motion picture producers to simply leave smoking out of films developed for the youth market," say the authors.

When they compared total box office sales of a random sample of 40 films rated suitable for children and 40 rated ’18′, they calculated that films targeted at young people grossed 1.75 times as much as those targeting adult audiences.

"The decision to classify a film as appropriate for youths clearly has economic benefits for the film industry," they say.

And they conclude: "A film classification policy that keeps on-screen smoking out of films rated suitable for youths…would reduce this exposure for people under 18 years of age and probably lead to a substantial reduction in youth smoking."

Young Britons See More Smoking in Movies than American Peers is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Science Daily reports that only 15 percent of those committed to never smoking at the start of a longitudinal study experimented with cigarettes over three years of follow-up. Over the same time, 45 percent of those who were deemed susceptible at first went on to experiment.

"Susceptibility to smoking is a measurable characteristic that predicts transition to smoking. Our results suggest that prevention efforts tailored to an adolescent’s susceptibility status may be more effective among Mexican-American youth," said senior author Anna Wilkinson, Ph.D., assistant professor in M.D. Anderson’s Department of Epidemiology.

Research shows that Mexican-American adolescents are more inclined to experiment than other groups, and experimentation is likely to lead to a permanent habit, so the authors note that understanding susceptibility offers an opportunity for early intervention.

Susceptibility reflects the lack of a firm commitment to not smoke in the future assessed by a positive answer to at least one of three questions: whether they expect to try a cigarette soon, if they would smoke a cigarette offered by a friend, and whether they expect to be smoking in a year.

Wilkinson and colleagues followed 964 Mexican-origin girls and boys ages 11 to 13 from the Houston metro area who had never smoked for three years after initial assessment.
Without baseline susceptibility taken into account, the study identified significant predictors of experimentation, including being male, 13 years old, having low subjective social status, having some positive expectations about smoking, at least one school detention, and living with someone who smokes.

When the researchers added the adolescents’ baseline susceptibility status to the model, it became the strongest predictor of experimentation, causing a 2.6-fold increase in risk, and all other influences accept age and living with a smoker were no longer statistically significant.

While previous studies had demonstrated the importance of susceptibility among other ethnic groups, this study was the first to examine its role leading to experimentation among Mexican-American youth. The study’s findings are consistent with those of other ethnic groups. "Our results suggest that being susceptible to smoking is not ethnic-specific," Wilkinson said.

Future studies need to focus on understanding and targeting risk factors for susceptibility to prevent experimentation and habitual smoking, the authors note.

Separate approaches need to be considered for those who are committed to never smoking, because 15 percent of them go on to experiment. Culturally sensitive approaches that rely more on peer influence might work well for this group, Wilkinson said.

The longitudinal study was made possible by the Mexican-American Cohort Study, an effort that has recruited more than 12,000 families to better understand factors that influence Mexican-American health over time. The cohort is funded by Texas Tobacco Settlement funds and M. D. Anderson.

This research was funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute, the Duncan Family Institute for Cancer Prevention and Risk Assessment at M. D. Anderson and by the Caroline W. Law Fund for Cancer Prevention.

Co-authors with Wilkinson are first author Amy Spelman, Margaret Spitz, M.D., and Melissa Bondy, Ph.D., all of M. D. Anderson’s Department of Epidemiology; Alexander Prokhorov, M.D., Ph.D., of M. D. Anderson’s Department of Behavioral Science; Steven Kelder, Ph.D., of the Division Epidemiology at The University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston; and Ralph Frankowski, Ph.D., of the Division of Biostatistics, also at the UT School of Public Health.

Initial Attitude Predicts Smoking among Mexican-American Youth is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Science Daily reports that in the past eight to ten years, smoking tobacco with a waterpipe, also called a hookah or shisha, has grown in popularity in the United States, especially among adults aged 18 to 24. The belief among some waterpipe users is that this method of smoking tobacco delivers less tar and nicotine than regular cigarette smoking and has fewer adverse health effects.

“The results are important because they provide concrete, scientific evidence that contradicts the oft-repeated myth that waterpipe tobacco smoking does not involve users inhaling the same harmful chemicals that cigarette smokers do,” said principal investigator Thomas Eissenberg, Ph.D., professor in the VCU Department of Psychology.

“We hope that these results will be used by physicians and public health officials to inform waterpipe tobacco smokers that they risk tobacco-induced nicotine addiction and cardiovascular disease,” he said.

According to Eissenberg, no previous single study has compared the human toxicant exposure associated with waterpipe and cigarette smoking under controlled, laboratory conditions.

Between 2008 and 2009, Eissenberg, together with Alan Shihadeh, Sc.D., associate professor at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, compared the toxicant exposure associated with waterpipe smoking and cigarette smoking among 31 participants between the ages of 18 and 50. Each participant completed two 45-minute sessions, one in which they smoked tobacco using a waterpipe and the other in which they smoked a single cigarette. The level of nicotine and carbon monoxide in the participants’ blood was measured, as was heart rate, puff number, and puff volume.

They found that on average, the levels of carbon monoxide to which participants were exposed were higher when they were smoking a waterpipe than when they were smoking a cigarette. Specifically, the peak waterpipe COHb level—amount of carbon monoxide found bound to red blood cells—was three times that observed for cigarettes. However, they observed that the peak nicotine levels did not differ, but there was exposure to nicotine through both methods of tobacco smoke. Examining the number and volume of each puff showed that compared with smoking a cigarette, waterpipe tobacco smoking involved inhalation of about 48 times more smoke.

In previous work, Shihadeh had conducted studies that demonstrated that waterpipe tobacco smoke contains compounds that cause cancer and other disease, so the large amount of smoke inhaled when using a waterpipe was a concern for the research team.

Eissenberg, who is director of the VCU Clinical Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory and a researcher with the VCU Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, and Shihadeh, who is director of the American University of Beirut Aerosol Research Laboratory, are continuing their laboratory studies of waterpipe tobacco smoking to examine what other dangerous chemicals are inhaled when individuals and groups engage in this behavior.

They hope that future large-scale studies of the health effects of tobacco use will examine waterpipe smokers separately, to determine the extent to which waterpipe tobacco smoking can be linked to tobacco-caused disease.

This work was supported by grants from the U.S. Public Health Service.

Smoking Tobacco through Waterpipe Just as Harmful as Cigarettes is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment