Tobacco & Marijuana
Gene therapy reduces cocaine use in rats
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Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have shown that increasing the brain level of receptors for dopamine, a pleasure-related chemical, can reduce use of cocaine by 75 percent in rats trained to self-administer it. Earlier research by this team had similar findings for alcohol intake. Treatments that increase levels of these chemicals - dopamine D2 receptors—may prove useful in treating addiction, according to the authors. The study will be published online April 16 and will appear in the July 2008 issue of Synapse.
“By increasing dopamine D2 receptor levels, we saw a dramatic drop in these rats’ interest in cocaine,” said lead author Panayotis (Peter) Thanos, a neuroscientist with Brookhaven Lab and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Laboratory of Neuroimaging. “This provides new evidence that low levels of dopamine D2 receptors may play an important role in not just alcoholism but in cocaine abuse as well. It also shows a potential direction for addiction therapies.”
Mayo-led study finds smoking related to subset of colorectal cancers
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Smoking puts older women at significant risk for loss of DNA repair proteins that are critical for defending against development of some colorectal cancers, according to research from a team led by Mayo Clinic scientists.
In a study being presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the researchers found that women who smoked were at increased risk for developing colorectal tumors that lacked some or all of four proteins, known as DNA mismatch repair (MMR) proteins. These proteins keep cells lining the colon and rectum healthy because they recognize and repair genetic damage as well as mistakes that occur during cell division.
Researchers believe that, in this study population, few if any of the four proteins were absent because of an inherited genetic alteration. “We think that smoking induces a condition within intestinal cells that does not allow MMR genes to express their associated proteins, and this loss leads to formation of tumors in some women,” says the study’s lead author, Mayo gastroenterologist Paul Limburg, M.D.
Scientists smoke out genes behind lung cancer
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Scientists have found important genetic differences between people that may help explain why some smokers get lung cancer and others do not.
Three teams from France, Iceland and the United States said on Wednesday they had pinpointed a region of the genome containing genes that can put smokers at even greater risk of contracting the killer disease.
In all three studies, nicotine appears a major culprit.
Physically Active Smokers More Likely to Kick the Habit
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Physically active smokers might have greater success quitting smoking than those who are more sedentary, according to a new study from the University of Toronto in Canada.
The study, which appears in the May issue of American Journal of Public Health, looked at the demographics of nearly 23,000 Canadian smokers. Physically active men were 36 percent more likely to have tried to quit smoking within the past year and women were 37 percent more likely to do so than their less-active peers were.
“Previous studies have suggested that participating in one healthy behavior, such as physical activity, may lead to the adoption or maintenance of another positive behavior, such as smoking cessation,” said lead author Wayne deRuiter.
Doctors urged to ask heart patients about cocaine
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Two standard heart attack treatments can be dangerous for people who have used cocaine, and certain patients with chest pain should be asked if they have used the drug, a leading medical group said on Monday.
Younger patients and those without obvious heart disease risk factors should be asked when they arrive at hospital emergency rooms if they have used cocaine, the American Heart Association said in a statement in its journal Circulation.
Clot-busting drugs and beta-blockers—treatments often given to patients who have suffered a heart attack—can be perilous for cocaine users, the group said.
Toddlers affected most by secondhand smoke exposure at home
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Secondhand smoke in the home appears to induce markers for heart disease as early as the toddler years, researchers reported at the American Heart Association’s 48th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.
It has long been known that many forms of cardiovascular disease in adults are initiated and progress silently during childhood. Now researchers have found a young child’s response to smoke may not just affect the respiratory system, but the cardiovascular system as well.
“This is the first study that looks at the response of a young child’s cardiovascular system to secondhand smoke,” said Judith Groner, M.D., lead author of the study, pediatrician and ambulatory care physician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Research Institute in Columbus, Ohio.
If pregnant women stop smoking, babies are happier
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Mothers who stop smoking while pregnant tend to have cheerier, more adaptable babies, British researchers reported on Wednesday.
Babies of women who continued to smoke while pregnant were notably grumpy, and the researchers believe that mothers who can muster the effort to kick the habit are also caring more for their babies in other ways.
Babies of non-smokers also are more temperamental than babies born to quitters, the researchers found—which they said suggested that mothers who suspend smoking are doing something special.
Emotional ‘bummer’ of cocaine addiction mimicked in animals
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Cocaine addicts often suffer a downward emotional spiral that is a key to their craving and chronic relapse. While researchers have developed animal models of the reward of cocaine, they have not been able to model this emotional impact, until now.
Regina Carelli and colleagues report experiments with rats in which they have mimicked the negative affect of cocaine addiction and even how it drives greater cocaine use. They said their animal model could enable better understanding of the emotional motivations of cocaine addiction and how to ameliorate them.
The researchers reported their findings in the March 13, 2008, issue of the journal Neuron, published by Cell Press.
Strong link between smoking and stroke in Chinese men
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One in seven strokes among Chinese men is due to cigarette smoking, researchers in China and the United States said citing a large-scale study that identified the habit as a major risk factor.
Stroke is the second leading cause of death and the top cause of long-term disability worldwide. And in China, the world’s leading producer and consumer of cigarettes, stroke is a major public health problem, they said.
In an article published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, the researchers said prevention and kicking the smoking habit could reduce stroke deaths by almost 5 percent in the country.
Quitting smoking—it’s never too late
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Many people spend a lifetime trying to give up smoking, but there is good news for older smokers from research carried out at the Peninsula Medical School in South West England.
A study by Dr. Iain Lang and his colleagues has revealed that the point of retirement is one of the most effective times to try to give up smoking. The study followed 1712 smokers aged 50 years and older over a six-year period, taking into account their work status (whether an individual was working or retired) and smoking status (whether a non-smoker or smoker).
The research showed that a total of 42.5 per cent of those who had recently retired had quit smoking, compared with 29.3 per cent of those in employment and 30.2 per cent for those who were already retired. The results indicate those who undergo the transition into retirement are more likely to quit smoking than those who do not.
Depression, anxiety tied to unhealthy habits
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Depression and anxiety are associated with obesity and poor health behaviors like smoking, drinking, and inactivity, new research indicates.
“Depression and anxiety are serious mental health conditions and without treatment may assume a chronic course,” Dr. Tara W. Strine who led the study told Reuters Health. “Given this, it is important to take depression and anxiety seriously and to seek medical care when needed.”
Strine, from the division of adult and community health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta and colleagues analyzed data from 217,379 U.S. adults who took part in the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System—a large telephone survey that monitors the prevalence of key health behaviors.
Should Doctors Advocate Alternative Sources of Nicotine?
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Should doctors suggest alternative sources of nicotine to people who are unable to give up cigarettes, asks this week’s BMJ?
Smoking currently kills over 100,000 UK citizens each year, predominantly from lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, writes John Britton, Professor of Epidemiology at City Hospital, Nottingham. Currently 77% of UK smokers want to quit, and 78% have tried and failed, mainly because of nicotine addiction.
He argues that health professionals should strongly advise smokers to quit all nicotine use, and do all they can to support this. However, for those who try repeatedly and fail, or for those who are not ready to stop using nicotine, switching to a medicinal nicotine product is the logical best option.
Cigarette after Valentine snuggle deadlier for some
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The proverbial cigarette after a Valentine’s Day snuggle can prematurely end a love affair, as new evidence emerges that a common defect in a gene significantly increases a smoker’s risk of an early heart attack. Researchers say that as much as 60 to 70 percent of the population has a gene defect that delivers a one-two punch to smokers: In a recent published study, heavy smokers with this common gene variant experienced a heart attack around the age of 52.
“We’ve all heard the stories: Someone’s great-uncle has smoked three packs of cigarettes since he was 14, and now, at the age of 88, he’s living a fine, healthy life,” said Arthur Moss, M.D., director of the Heart Research Follow-up Program at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “Contrast that with the 52-year old neighbor, who also was a heavy smoker, and just last week, dropped dead from a heart attack. Why is it that some smokers seem unaffected by their habit and even outlive the healthiest individuals, while many other smokers suffer significant cardiac events at a relatively young age? We think we now know why.”
Cannabis Indicated as Possible Risk for Gum Disease in Young People
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Young people who are heavy smokers of cannabis may be putting themselves at significant risk for periodontal disease, according to new research.
The study, published in the Feb. 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, is believed to be the first to explore whether or not smoking a substance other than tobacco – in this case, marijuana more than other cannabis products – may be a risk factor for gum disease.
After controlling for tobacco smoking, gender, socioeconomic status and infrequent trips to the dentist by one-third of the participants, the study reported a “strong association between cannabis use and periodontitis experience by age 32.”
Number of Russian women smokers has doubled since Soviet collapse
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In 1992, seven per cent of women smoked, compared to almost 15 per cent by 2003. In the same period, the number of men who smoke has risen from 57 per cent to 63 per cent.
The researchers behind the study, published in the journal Tobacco Control, blame the privatisation of the previously state owned tobacco industry and the behaviour of the transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) for what they describe as a “very worrying increase”.
Between 1992 and 2000, TTCs such as Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International invested approximately US$1.7 billion to gain a 60 per cent share of the privatised Russian tobacco market.
