Smoking Push

A research, appearing in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at plans that tie physician pay to the quality of care. The main measure was clinics’ referrals of patients in Minnesota to a tobacco quit line. Scientists compared clinics that were paid bonuses for making such referrals – $5,000 for 50 referrals and $25 for each referral beyond the initial 50 – to clinics that didn’t have a financial motive.

Paying providers of health care to refer patients for help in giving up smoking really makes a difference.

As it found out that the clinics that were in the pay-for-performance program made 1,483 referrals to the giving up line, an average of 11.4% of their patients who were smokers. Those that didn’t have the chance to earn extra money made 441 referrals, an average of 4.2% of their smokers. The scientists, led by Lawrence An of the University of Minnesota, noted some important factors for success beyond cold cash. For one, Minnesota health programs collaborated to make the referral process easy for the clinics. The clinics were also rewarded regardless of what health plan their patients belonged to, meaning that they could make the same recommendation to all smokers.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, which funded the payments and study to the clinics with money from a tobacco settlement, decided along with a number of other Minnesota health plans to continue with the around smoking stop, although with lower financial awards.

Cigarette packs will carry new graphic warnings of smoking risks

Among the other images smokers will see: a corpse in a morgue, rotting lungs and a body cut open during surgery. Graphic pictures of rotting teeth and throat cancer are to appear on cigarette packs to illustrate the health risks of smoking.

The photos will appear on the back of packs with a written health warning.

The images replace the previous warnings introduced in January 2003, although the messages “Smoking seriously harms you and others around you” and “Smoking kills” will continue to appear on the front of packs. The Department of Health said new figures showed written warnings had motivated more than 90,000 smokers to call the NHS Smoking Helpline.

But, smoking is still the biggest killer in England where it is the reason of the premature death of more than 87,000 people each year. The photos are considered to be more effective than text, and research suggested that warnings should be changed from time to time to maintain their effectiveness.

The smokers’ lobby group Forest criticized the new warnings as “gratuitously offensive” and “unnecessarily intrusive”. Forest director Simon Clark said: “We support measures that educate people about the health risks of smoking, but these pictures are designed not just to educate but to shock and coerce people to give up a legal product. They are unnecessarily intrusive, gratuitously offensive, and yet another example of smokers being singled out for special attention.”

Which is more detrimental Smoking or Obesity?

Researchers reported in a study that heart attacks are hitting the overweight more than a decade sooner than "normal" weight people. "The leading theory in cardiology right now is that the fat tissue is actually producing factors that precipitate heart attacks," said lead author Dr. Peter McCullough, consultant cardiologist and chief of nutrition and prevention medicine at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan.

A study of more than 111,000 people showed that obesity is more dangerous to the heart than smoking. Why? Researchers found the answer of this question, they found that cholesterol builds up in the coronary arteries and inflammatory or other chemicals produced by fat cells trigger the plaque to suddenly rupture, causing a blood clot to form and unleashing an acute heart attack.

Until now, researchers didn't have enough studies whether obesity is associated with premature heart attacks, added McCullough. McCullough and his team analyzed data from a nationwide U.S. registry of people hospitalized for heart attack and unstable angina, or chest pain, from 2001 to 2007.

In the final analysis were included a total of 111,847 men and women who had experienced a first heart attack. They were grouped according to their body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on height and weight. According to these studies researchers found at least that, the heavier the person, the younger the age of a first heart attack.

The most obese people had their heart attacks on average when they were 59. In a study were compared to about 75 for the leanest group (average body weight 47 kilograms, or about 103 pounds, meaning they were actually considered underweight), and 71 for people of "normal" weight, where the average weight is 65 kilograms, or about 142 pounds. According to this study researchers found that most obese group had a BMI of 40 or more and weighed on average 127 kilograms, or 280 pounds.

The rate of diabetes was 17 percent in the leanest group, and 49 per cent in the most obese. All the patients, regardless of body size, had about the same level of LDL cholesterol, the so-called bad cholesterol thought to be a major risk factor for heart attacks. That means the excess fat is causing heart disease in other ways, McCullough says.

The people at the highest body weight on average lost 12 years of life before their first heart attack, but smokers lost just 10 years of life before a first heart attack. This is really the first study that shows now that some factors are more powerful than smoking in terms of the prematurely of myocardial infarction.

Mobile phones are more harmful than smoking

Brain experts warn of huge rise in tumours and call on manufacturers to take immediate steps to reduce radiation. Mobile phones could kill more people than smoking. They say people should avoid using them wherever possible. The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the devastating indictment published of the health risks.

Using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer.

Earlier this year, the French authority warned against the use of mobile phones, especially by children. Germany and the European Environment Agency also advise its people to minimize handset use.

Professor Khurana, a top neurosurgeon who has received 14 awards over the past 16 years, reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones. He admits that mobiles can save lives in emergencies, but is sure that “there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours”. He thinks this will be “definitively proven” in the next decade. He adds: “We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation.”

He fears that “unless the industry and governments take immediate and decisive steps”, the incidence of malignant brain tumours and associated death level will be observed to rise globally within a decade from now, Professor Khurana, who told that three billion people now use the phones worldwide, three times as many as smoke, says: “It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking.” Tobacco products kill some five million worldwide each year, and exposure to asbestos is responsible for as many deaths in Britain as road accidents.

The Mobile Operators Association dismissed Khurana’s study as “a selective discussion of scientific literature by one individual”. He “does not present a balanced analysis” of the published science, and “reaches opposite conclusions to the WHO and more than 30 other independent expert scientific reviews”.

Information Provided by: US Cigarettes

Smoke if You can.

No really, if you smoke, then do smoke. Any break - on day, week, month, followed by smoking again causes greater harm than constant smoking. Therefore, if quit smoking, it must be "smart".

A group of researchers analyzed the lung function of 1116 men and women (from 35 to 68 years). Volunteers were divided into three groups: constant smokers, those who tried to quit and those who never smoked.

It turned out that those who began smoking a year later, inhaled air volume decreased by 5%. For those who never tried to quit smoking: inhaled air volume decreased by 3%. Professor concluded that those who had not been able to live without cigarettes, lost a protective function of the body from tobacco smoke.

It remains to add: a man - a measure of all things. In general, if you smoke - smoke good tobacco, if not - do not disturb people who smoke good tobacco. If quit smoking - do it once.