Smokers in Biological News

Fruits, vegetables and teas may protect smokers from lung cancer, UCLA researchers report

Tobacco smokers who eat three servings of fruits and vegetables per day and drink green or black tea may be protecting themselves from lung cancer, according to a first-of-its-kind study by UCLA cancer researchers. UCLA researchers found that smokers who ingested high levels of natural chemica...

Vitamin E may increase tuberculosis risk in male smokers with high vitamin C intake

Six-year vitamin E supplementation increased tuberculosis risk by 72% in male smokers who had high dietary vitamin C intake, but vitamin E had no effect on those who had low dietary vitamin C intake, according to a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition. Previous studies had sugges...

Genetic irregularities linked to higher risk of COPD among smokers

DURHAM, N.C. Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have discovered two genetic markers that appear to put some smokers at significantly higher risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The findings come from the first-ever genome-wide association study of COPD an...

Alzheimer's starts earlier for heavy drinkers, smokers

CHICAGO Heavy drinkers and heavy smokers develop Alzheimers disease years earlier than people with Alzheimers who do not drink or smoke heavily, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 1219, 2008. These...

Children of smokers have more than 5 times higher levels of a nicotine toxin

Children who have at least one parent who smokes have 5.5 times higher levels of cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine, in their urine, according to a study by researchers from Warwick Medical School at the the University of Warwick, and the University of Leicester, published online ahead of print in...

PET imaging shows young smokers quick benefit of quitting

The early stages of coronary artery disease in young smokers can be reversed quickly if they choose to put out their cigarettes for good, according to a positron emission tomography (PET) imaging study in the December Journal of Nuclear Medicine. "I believe this is the first PET study that shows...

Many smokers fail to quit after cancer diagnosis

A new report says despite a growing body of evidence that continued smoking after a cancer diagnosis has substantial adverse effects on treatment effectiveness, overall survival, risk of other cancers, and quality of life, up to one-half of cancer patients who smoke continue to do so or relapse aft...

Brain Scan Study of Smokers Reveals Signature of Craving

Not all smokers are alike when it comes to cravings, and a new study conducted by researchers at Duke University Medical Center suggests the difference may lie in their brains' sensitivity to drug cues. The researchers found that smokers who report a greater urge to smoke after a period of abstinen...

$2 million grant aids study of lung cancer in people who never smoked

...ations, and clinical and demographic profiles than smokers with lung cancer. In 2005 Dr. Gazdar and his co...ts who have never smoked are much more likely than smokers to harbor one of three mutations in the epidermal ...est to screen both nonsmokers and long-term former smokers before the onset of symptoms. "About 10 to 15 ...

Allergy season: Cigarettes to the rescue?

...d can even affect how the body fights infections. Along with many harmful effects, smoking cigarettes has a surprising benefit: cigarettes can protect smokers from certain types of allergies. Now, a study recommended by Neil Thomson, a member of Faculty of 1000 Biology and leading expert in the field of res...

Skin color clue to nicotine dependence

...n skin and hair -- may be placing darker pigmented smokers at increased susceptibility to nicotine dependence...e addictive agent in melanin-containing tissues of smokers with greater amounts of skin pigmentation. "The...e researchers recruited 150 adult African American smokers from three sites in inner city Harrisburg during s...

New early detection studies of lung cancer in non-smokers launched today

...ure, gene mutations, and demographic profiles than smokers with lung cancer. "Efforts to study the disease i...to smoking. "If you consider lung cancer in never smokers as a separate category, it ranks as the seventh mo...cts with Lung Cancer Arising in Current, and Never smokers (Principal Investigator (PI): Hanash) Genome anal...

New mediator of smoking recruits

... cell recruitment in smokers, Prasse et al compared osteopontin levels from smokers with different types of lung diseases, healthy smokers, and healthy non-smo...ntin expression in patients with interstitial lung disease, whereas healthy smokers had lower levels, and healthy non-smokers produced no osteopontin. Osteopo...

Health choices predict cancer survival, U-M study finds

... after that. Smoking was the biggest predictor of survival, with current smokers having the shortest survival. Problem drinking and low fruit intake were al...ters is that many of these health behaviors are inter-related. For example, smokers might also be heavy drinkers, making it more difficult to quit. It's not en...

For old or young dialysis patients, AV fistulas remain pure gold

...cted information about the patients' other medical conditionssuch as whether they had peripheral arterial disease (PAD) or diabetes, whether they were smokers and whether they used anticoagulant medicationsto see how this information would play in the big picture. Elderly patients were more likely to be affe...

1 drug may help people both lay down the drink and put out the cigarette

...will consume, a new Yale School of Medicine study has found. Heavy-drinking smokers in a laboratory setting were much less likely to drink after taking the dru... psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and lead author of the study. smokers are more likely to drink alcohol and to consume greater quantities of alcoh...

Brupbacher prize to Nubia Munoz and Sir Richard Peto

... lung cancer is more than 20 times higher for male smokers than for non-smokers. In a famous epidemiological ... over five decades (1951-2001) and determined that smokers have a life expectancy that is shortened by 10 yea...gnificant reduction of the risk. Even longstanding smokers who only quit when they are 50 years old can lengt...

Selenium may prevent high risk-bladder cancer

...n inverse association between selenium and bladder cancer among women, some smokers and those with p53 positive bladder cancer. In the entire study populati...ation between selenium and bladder cancer, but women (34 percent), moderate smokers (39 percent) and those with p53 positive cancer (43 percent) had significan...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Dec. 3, 2008

...early detection of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). That condition, which causes severe difficulty in breathing most often in cigarette smokers affects 12 million people in the United States. In an article scheduled for the December 5 issue of ACS' Journal of Proteome Research , a monthly...

AACR to host Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research

...tnership with the Avon/Love Army of Women that will recruit one million healthy women for clinical trials. How DNA methylation may explain why some smokers get lung cancer while others do not. Why family history may affect the risk of breast cancer associated with BRCA1/BRCA2 genetic mutations. How c...

Indiana University research at American Public Health Association meeting

... A growing amount of research is finding that smoke-free air laws help smokers quit or reduce the amount that they smoke. Rather than changing smokers' ow...ble, and were more likely to report that people in their city believed that smokers should take measures to not smoke. Macy said that while researchers are awa...

Red wine may lower lung cancer risk

... average a two percent lower lung cancer risk associated with each glass of red wine consumed per month. The most substantial risk reduction was among smokers who drank one to two glasses of red wine per day. The researchers reported a 60 percent reduced lung cancer risk in these men. Researchers warned men...

NIH's Genes, Environment and Health Initiative adds 6 studies

...sis (Blood Clots in Veins). Braxton Mitchell, Ph.D., University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore; $1.1 million. Genetic Risk to Stroke in smokers and Nonsmokers in Two Ethnic Groups. Louis Pasquale, M.D., Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, Boston, $850,000. Genes an...

Key component of debilitating lung disease identified

... that expression of the regulating gene NRF2 was significantly decreased in smokers with advanced COPD compared to smokers without COPD. The study is published in the September 15, 2008, edition of ...

COPD? Eat your veggies

...leading cause of death in the U.S. and affects more than 16 million Americans. In this study, researchers examined tissue samples from the lungs of smokers with and without COPD to determine if there were differences in measured levels of NRF2 expression and the level of its biochemical regulators, includ...

African-Americans have unique lung cancer risks from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

...with whites, smoking was a significant risk factor for lung cancer. Current smokers had a more than sixfold increased risk of lung cancer, and former smokers had a more than threefold increased risk. This decreased risk was confined ...

Infection blocks lung's protective response against tobacco smoke

...nd Immunity, suggest one mechanism that may cause smokers to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. ...ctive pulmonary disease (COPD), only 20 percent of smokers develop the disease," said Brian Day, senior autho...llows people to smoke," said Day. "Without it, all smokers would suffer significantly more lung damage." P...

If your first cigarette gave you a buzz and you now smoke, a gene may be to blame

...ves, and never formed a smoking habit. The regular smokers had smoked at least five cigarettes a day for at least the past five years. The regular smokers in the study were far more likely than the never-s...alled a single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP. smokers were also eight times as likely to report that the...

Alcohol is associated with risk of perennial allergic rhinitis

... examine gender differences in the possible effects of alcohol on the development of rhinitis." "Another interesting finding of this study was that smokers were found to have a decreased risk of seasonal AR, with no change to the risk of perennial AR," said Tolstrup. "We also found that if one or both par...

August 2008 Geology and GSA Today media highlights

...men, Germany. Pages 615-618. Volcanic activity on mid-ocean ridges produces very hot fluids circulating in the oceanic crust and emanating as black smokers at the seafloor. Koschinsky et al. document results from recent research cruises at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, revealing the hottest fluids ever found, w...

Genetic mutation associated with increased risk of lung cancer

...ng those who had never smoked, 1ATD carrier status was associated with a 2.2-fold higher risk of lung cancer, with a 2-fold increased risk among light smokers and a 2.3-fold increased risk among moderate to heavy smokers. Patients with a family history of lung cancer or other cancers in their first-degree re...

Cigarette after Valentine snuggle deadlier for some

... common defect in a gene significantly increases a smokers risk of an early heart attack. Researchers say tha...ch to smokers: In a recent published study, heavy smokers with this common gene variant experienced a heart ...pped dead from a heart attack. Why is it that some smokers seem unaffected by their habit and even outlive th...

'Swish-and-spit' test accurate for cancer

...heir new study of a mouth rinse that captures genetic signatures common to the disease holds promise for screening those at high risk, including heavy smokers and alcohol drinkers. Lead investigator Joseph Califano, M.D., says his group at Johns Hopkins asked 211 head and neck cancer patients and 527 indivi...

Cigarette smoke, alcohol damage hearts worse as combo

...nd ate a normal solid diet. Artery lesions are a common problem in heavy smokers and a key sign of advancing cardiovascular disease. The results are publish...s commonly thought to be cardioprotective, these findings are important for smokers and non-smokers alike in terms of what you should and should not do to prot...

Cigarette smoking may accelerate disability in those with MS

...s are based on magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of smokers and nonsmokers in 368 MS patients treated in UBs J...rences in MRI characteristics between MS cigarette smokers and MS nonsmokers, he said. The study included ...hort, 128 had a history of smoking: 96 were active smokers who had smoked more than 10 cigarettes-per-day in ...

Naturally-occurring apple compounds reduce risk of pancreatic cancer

...ancer. Although the overall risk was reduced among the study participants, smokers who consumed foods rich in flavonols had a significantly greater risk reduc...ng pancreatic cancer. The most significant finding was among smokers. smokers with the lowest intake of flavonols presented with the most pancreatic canc...

New genetic research into nicotine addiction shows promise for personalized treatment

...etics at CAMH and lead researcher on the study, adding that the results would have to be replicated. Tyndale and colleagues performed genotyping on smokers for CYP2B6, a gene known to be highly variable and whose enzyme metabolizes bupropion, nicotine and serotonin. Participants were then provided with e...

Nicotine may accelerate atherosclerosis, may be as dangerous as tar

...dictive than conventional cigarettes. Quest cigarettes purportedly provide smokers the opportunity to taper their nicotine consumption by progressively moving... seems to suggest that low-nicotine cigarettes are safer, we also know that smokers adjust their smoking habits to maintain their level of nicotine. In other w...

Girls who begin dieting twice as likely to start smoking

...rs, new dieters, former dieters and consistent dieters, who said they were dieting both times they were surveyed. They excluded teens who were already smokers and those who admitted to taking diet pills, vomiting and using other unhealthy weight-loss tactics. That group (of teens who were beginning to die...

Smoking turns on genes -- permanently

...journal BMC Genomics could help explain why former smokers are still more susceptible to lung cancer than tho...king cessation may provide insight into why former smokers still maintain a risk of developing lung cancer," ...ccounts for 85 percent of lung cancers, and former smokers account for half of those newly diagnosed with the...