Research

Smoking and high blood pressure: Double blow for bleeding stroke risk
It is well-known that smoking and high blood pressure are each risk factors for hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain that occurs when a blood vessel bursts).  A study comparing the effects of both risk factors found that smoking and high blood pressure act synergistically to raise a person’s stroke risk even more than would be expected from adding the effects of each factor individually.  The researchers propose that the increased stroke risk for smokers may be a result of the damage smoking causes to blood vessels that are already under stress from high blood pressure.  Click here for more information.

Depression, anxiety are linked to obesity, unhealthy habits
People with a current or past diagnosis of anxiety or depression have a higher risk for smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, and heavy drinking, according to a recent study.  Not only do these behaviors put people with anxiety and depression at risk for chronic disease, but the lead author of this study also notes that chronic diseases are in turn risk factors for depression.  The study analyzed the results of the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a large national study.  Read a summary of the results here, or click here for the abstract in the March-April issue of the journal General Hospital Psyichiatry.

Gastroesophageal cancer risk increased in Scandinavian moist snuff users
Researchers studied esophageal and stomach cancers among Swedish construction workers who were followed for up to 33 years, and found a link between snus use and cancer.  Nonsmokers who used snus increased their risk of both esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and noncardia stomach cancers.  While the strength of the link is still not certain, the researchers maintain that users of Scandinavian snus do raise their cancer risk.  Find out more here.  The abstract of the article, published in the International Journal of Cancer, is available here.

Can cancer causing compounds be cut from tobacco? Gene 'knockout' floors tobacco carcinogen
Field studies have proven successful in decreasing the amount of carcinogens in cured tobacco leaves.  The new procedure knocks out certain genes in tobacco plants so that nicotine does not decompose during processing into a known precursor of the carcinogen N-nitrosonornicotine (NNN).  Levels of the carcinogen NNN in the genetically modified plants were considerably lower than in normal tobacco plants.  The modified plants also had lower levels of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs), which are chemicals in tobacco linked to many types of cancer.  The researchers are currently working on a way to cultivate plants without the gene for this carcinogen without using genetic engineering.  For more information on these safer tobacco plants, click here.

Nicotine and type 2 diabetes
The development of type 2 diabetes may begin in utero, so the effect of smoking during pregnancy on the subsequent pathology of diabetes is of interest in this article.  Nicotine appears to have an affinity for beta cells in the pancreas, and research has proposed several ways nicotine may cause cell death for these types of cells.  Both prenatal and early postnatal development of beta cells is very rapid, but there are few changes during adulthood to these cells.  Therefore, nicotine exposure during fetal development has great potential to harm a baby’s rapidly developing beta cells.  So, type 2 diabetes may be preventable by decreasing smoking among pregnant mothers.  This review article is published in the April issue of Toxicological Sciences.  Click here for a PDF of the full article.

International

NHS Choices launches interactive smoking calculator
The British National Health Service has launched a smoking calculator that allows smokers to add up the financial and physical costs of smoking.  The calculator can be used to determine how much money a smoker can save after quitting for a year.  The site also describes the health improvements one can achieve by quitting and graphically describes the dangers of continuing to smoke.  Click here for more information on the calculator, and click here to try it.

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