Tobacco.org

• Cardiovascular safety concerns over smoking-cessation drug misleading 

A popular smoking cessation medication has been under a cloud of suspicion ever since the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) published a study in July 2011 reporting "risk of serious adverse cardiovascular events associated with varenicline." Varenicline, also known as Chantix, blocks the pleasant effects of nicotine on the smoker's brain and lessens nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

UCSF researchers, however, question the way the previous study was conducted, and their new analysis, scheduled to be published May 4 in BMJ, reaches a very different conclusion.

"We found no clinically or statistically significant increase in serious adverse cardiovascular events associated with using varenicline," said lead author Judith J. Prochaska, PhD, MPH, an associate professor in UCSF's Department of Psychiatry and researcher with the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. "The findings from 22 trials with more than 9,200 participants indicate a difference in risk of only 0.27 percent between those on varenicline versus placebo, or about a quarter of one percent."

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• Stress levels and smoking: Why your dad's bad habits may have wrecked your genes 

But medicine is increasingly pointing the finger specifically at fathers, with studies showing how male genes and even men's diets and stress levels can create serious health problems for their offspring, including diabetes, depression and obesity.

This latest finding is part of a larger picture where scientists are starting to discover diseases passed from man to boy through the Y chromosome

It seems that the Bible warning holds true for health: the sins of the fathers really do plague their children -- and this effect may pass on to their grandchildren, too.

The latest evidence in this newly emerging jigsaw comes from research that shows a common genetic flaw may increase a son's risk of heart disease by 50 per cent. . . .

'You can reduce your risk if you mitigate the effects of other dangers, such as your weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels,' says Ms Bloomer.

This latest finding is part of a larger picture where scientists are starting to discover diseases passed from man to boy through the Y chromosome. . . .

Scientists are also learning how the bad effects of men's lifestyle habits, such as their diet, stress levels, weight and smoking, can be transmitted through the genes in their sperm.

Just as disturbingly, it seems that men can pass on addictive behaviours and stress-related depression.

Here, it is not only sons who are affected but daughters, too, because these problems are passed on through genes that are not on the Y sex chromosome. . . .

Even smoking when very young can affect men's sperm -- and surprisingly, this may make their sons prone to becoming overweight.

The discovery was made using survey results from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children -- an investigation into the health of 14,000 mothers and their children in the Bristol area.

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Smoking Linked to Worse Outcomes in Joint Replacement 

Two studies presented at the 2012 annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeon highlight the dangers that smoking poses to patients receiving total knee or hip implants.

The first study looked at more than 600 total knee replacements (in patients with an average age of 62), performed between 2005 and 2009 at the Center for Joint Preservation and Replacement at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, and the Bonutti Clinic of Effingham, Illinois. Among the patients, approximately 115 were smokers.

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Lives Lost Due To Global Ignorance Of Tobacco's Harm To Cardiovascular Health  

Air Pollution Sickens Seniors  

• Heart Attack Grill Customer Collapses While Eating Double Bypass Burger, Smoking 

Not this again. A Las Vegas woman in her 40s collapsed at the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas while dining on a double bypass burger, smoking cigarettes and drinking a margarita. She was found unconscious at the restaurant and during resuscitation.

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Japan Tobacco, Torii report positive top-line results from Phase III Zerenex study  

Omega-3s shown to help protect against harmful effects of smoking: scientists  

• Omega-3 fatty acids may help to reduce the physical harm caused by smoking 

The study, carried out in Greece, assessed the effect of four-week oral treatment with 2 g/day of omega-3 fatty acids on the arterial wall properties of cigarette smokers. The results showed that short-term treatment with omega-3 fatty acids improves arterial stiffness and moderates the acute smoking-induced impairment of vascular elastic properties in smokers.

"These findings suggest that omega-3 fatty acids inhibit the detrimental effects of smoking on arterial function, which is an independent prognostic marker of cardiovascular risk," said Dr. Gerasimos Siasos, University of Athens Medical School, 1st Department of Cardiology, "Hippokration" Hospital. "The cardioprotective effects of omega-3 fatty acids appear to be due to a synergism between multiple, intricate mechanisms involving anti-inflammatory and anti-atherosclerotic effects. Furthermore, AHA recommends that people without documented history of coronary heart disease should consume a variety of fish (preferably oily - rich in omega-3 fatty acids) at least twice per week."

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50% Indian smokers don’t know it can kill  

Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Help to Reduce the Physical Harm Caused by Smoking 

Summary:The results showed that short-term treatment with omega-3 fatty acids improves arterial stiffness and moderates the acute smoking-induced impairment of vascular elastic properties in smokers.

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138m Indian smokers unaware that puff causes stroke 

Of the 275 millions Indians who consume tobacco, nearly 138 million do not know that smoking causes stroke.

As many as 92 million aren't aware that tobacco causes heart disease. According to a report released by the World Heart Federation (WHF) on Friday, half of all Chinese smokers and one-third of Indian smokers are unaware of the risks tobacco pose to our heart. Awareness of the risk of secondhand smoke is even lower.

According to WHF, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the world's leading cause of death, killing 17.3 million people every year. Around 80% of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries like India, which are increasingly being targeted by the tobacco industry.

Tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure causes about 1/10th of global deaths from CVD.

Secondhand smoke exposure increases the risk of heart disease by 25% and more than

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Lung cancer? Yep, but smokers, globally, are less aware of CVD risks 

An international study is confirming what many cardiologists have known for a while—many smokers around the globe know that smoking can cause lung cancer, but far fewer are aware that their habit has adverse effects on the heart. Even more striking, smokers were largely unaware that secondhand smoke increases the risk of heart disease and stroke among nonsmokers.

The new numbers, unveiled by Dr Geoffrey T Fong (University of Waterloo, ON) at the World Congress of Cardiology (WCC) 2012, come from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Policy Evaluation and the Global Tobacco Surveillance System (GTSS). Both, Fong noted to heartwire, provide strikingly similar snapshots of smokers' perceptions of their own disease risk.

"We know the science—that smoking or tobacco use and secondhand smoke are significant causes of CVD, as well as lung cancer and other forms of cancer—and then the question becomes, do people know the facts about the relationship between tobacco use, secondhand smoke, and CVD, and to what extent does this differ across different countries?" Fong told heartwire. "This is important because well-informed people are more capable of making a decision about tobacco use: for those who don't use it, will they start? or for those who are using tobacco, would it give them reason to quit?"

Smokers, Fong points out, are much more likely to die of heart disease than they are from lung cancer.

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• Significant gaps in public awareness about cardiovascular risks from tobacco use, secondhand smoke 

A report released today at the World Heart Federation World Congress of Cardiology in Dubai reveals significant gaps in public awareness regarding the cardiovascular risks of tobacco use and secondhand smoke. The report, entitled "Cardiovascular harms from tobacco use and secondhand smoke", was commissioned by the World Heart Federation and written by the International Tobacco Control Project (ITC Project), in collaboration with the Tobacco Free Initiative at the World Health Organization.

According to the report, half of all Chinese smokers and one-third of Indian and Vietnamese smokers are unaware that smoking causes heart disease. Across a wide range of countries, including India, Uruguay, South Korea and Poland, around half of all smokers - and over 70 per cent of all Chinese smokers - do not know that smoking causes stroke. Awareness of the risk of secondhand smoke is even lower. In Vietnam, nearly 90 per cent of smokers and non-smokers are unaware that secondhand smoke causes heart disease. In China, 57 per cent of smokers and non-smokers are unaware of the link. Even in countries with well-developed health systems and tobacco control regulation - such as Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia - between a third and a half of smokers do not know that secondhand smoke can damage cardiovascular health.

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Smokers unaware of tobacco's impact on heart, stroke risk