Healthy Living Newsletter
HEALTH TIP
Is Your New Year’s Resolution Going Up in Smoke?
If you determined to quit smoking in the New Year, and find your resolve failing; here’s some helpful information to keep you on track.
Cut Back on Smoking? Just Quit!
If you’ve tried unsuccessfully to quit smoking, you have probably considered cutting back as an option. Forget it. In one study, subjects who cut their cigarette smoking in half had 2.4 percent more toxins in their blood than heavier smokers. Another study of 51,000 smokers found that those who cut back to half a pack a day over 20 years had the same death rate from heart disease as those who continued to smoke a full pack a day. The authors believe that smokers who cut back simply inhaled more deeply to get the nicotine they wanted.
Source: “Could smoking less be safe?” Women’s Heart Advisor Supplement, April, 2007, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
Early Smoking, Early Heart Disease
Smoking in early life increases the risk for heart disease 15 years later, according to results of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. Among young white and African-American males and females followed for 15 years, those developing the greatest degree of calcium deposits in their coronary arteries had more cigarettes and had higher blood pressure when initially tested. Coronary artery calcium is considered highly predictive of heart disease.
Source: CM Loria, et al, “Early adult risk factor levels and subsequent coronary artery calcification: The CARDIA study.
Tobacco Marketers Are Winners
About 21 percent of Americans smoke. That number hasn’t changed since 2004. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) officials claim this is due to the fact that the tobacco industry spends $3.50 per person to convince Americans to smoke, while federal and state antismoking campaigns allocate less that half that amount. The CDC points out that cigarette smoking remains the number one preventable cause of disease and death, resulting in 438,000 deaths annually. |
