If more women quit smoking before they became pregnant, it would save infant lives, concludes a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Despite a decline over the past decade in the number of women who smoke during pregnancy, smoking is still a major cause of newborn deaths, early births and babies born with low birth weight.

“We know about half of women quit when they find out that they are pregnant, but a lot of women are still smoking during pregnancy,” said Patricia Dietz, DrPh, lead study investigator.

The study appears online and in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Dietz and co-investigators examined data from the US Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set, which included all 3.3 million births of single babies that occurred in the United States (with the exception of California) during 2002. About 11.5 percent of babies, or 386,000, had mothers who smoked during pregnancy.

Researchers determined that prenatal smoking caused 5 percent to 8 percent of premature births and 13 percent to 19 percent of cases of low birth weight in babies carried to full term. Of infants who died, 5 percent to 7 percent of preterm-related deaths and 23 percent to 34 percent of deaths caused by sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) might have been preventable if the mother had not smoked before pregnancy.

In addition, the researchers wrote that if all women quit smoking during pregnancy, it could cut health care costs by about $232 million every year – and improve overall health for both mothers and children.

“The percentage of SIDS deaths that might be avoided with smoking cessation is a significant number,” said Diane Ashton, M.D., deputy medical director of the March of Dimes. “For women who smoke and are considering pregnancy, we strongly recommend that they get preconception counseling for smoking cessation.”

Given these sobering statistics, why do some women continue to smoke during pregnancy?

“Studies have shown that these women may be dealing with a lot of stress, such as economic hardship, or they might be dealing with depression or other mental health issues,” Dietz said. “Most of them are living with other smokers that make it difficult to quit. They may be living in communities where it’s acceptable to smoke – where everyone is smoking. So it’s really complex.”

“This is an addiction,” Ashton said. “If pregnancy could cure addiction then none of these issues would be a problem. During pregnancy, women tend to be a little more highly motivated to address their addictions, but a lot of it depends on the level of readiness of the individual.”

source: www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/191126.php

If you needed another reason to cut the cigarette habit: Smokers, especially younger smokers, are more likely to report low back pain than people who have never smoked, according to a new analysis.

After examining existing research, Finnish researchers concluded smoking is “modestly” associated with the risk of low back pain and the effects may be “at least partly reversible.” Their findings are published in the January issue of the American Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Rahman Shiri of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and colleagues wanted to know if smoking increases the risk of low back pain, a problem that affects an estimated 8 in 10 adults during some point in their lives.

Previous analysis of the existing research came to different conclusions, with one study suggesting an association between smoking and low back pain and the other reporting “unclear findings.”

The Finnish researchers identified and reviewed 81 studies from around the world involving smokers, former smokers, or never-smokers and low back pain conducted between 1966 and 2009. Of those, 40 studies involving more than 300,000 adults and adolescents met the standards for the analysis.

The Finnish team subjected the data of the individual studies to further statistical analysis to tease out the strength of relationships even as the studies reported various outcomes.

They determined that even though the data did not prove smoking leads to low back pain, the analysis of previous the literature suggested a “fairly modest” association between smoking and low back pain.

“Current smokers (adolescents or adults) are at only 31% higher risk of low back pain compared with never smokers but this estimate is only for low back pain for one day or more during the past 12 months,” Shiri told Reuters Health in an email.

The smoking/low back pain association was strongest for “chronic or disabling low back pain” but, Shiri cautioned, none of the studies were designed to determine if there was a cause and effect relationship.

Scientists don’t know why smoking may be associated with lower back pain, although there are a number of possible explanations, including reduced blood supply to the spine, increased risk of osteoporosis, and the increased circulation of pain conducting chemicals in the blood from smoking.

The research suggests the young “might be more vulnerable to the effects of smoking than adults” because the low back pain/smoking association was stronger in adolescent smokers than adult smokers. Another explanation, the authors said, may be that it’s easier to identify and study true rate of low back pain in young people than in adults.

The research does suggest “the effects of smoking may be at least partially reversible,” since former smokers were less likely to seek care for low back pain than current smokers. More research into former smokers will be needed to make a more definitive claim, the authors said.

SOURCE: The American Journal of Medicine, January 2010.

Although diabetes natural remedies may help curb the severity of the disease, smokers may be at a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

A new study adds onto the previous notion that smokers are more likely to develop the illness. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine suggest that quitting smoking may increase a patient’s chances of developing type 2 diabetes even more.

The scientists found that individuals who quit smoking had a 70 percent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the first six years without cigarettes compared to patients who had never smoked. Lead author Dr. Hsin-Chieh “Jessica” Yeh revealed that the easiest way to avoid the ailment is to simply never pick up smoking.

Researchers also indicated that those who smoked the most and gained the largest amount of weight post-cigarettes were the most likely to develop the disease.

On average, participants of the study who quit smoking gained an average of 8.4 pounds during the first three years of the research.

New research done by US researchers had found that even after the age of 80, smoking increased a person’s risk of developing AMD, age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among Americans aged 65 and over, suggesting it is never too late to give up the habit.

The study was the work of lead author Dr Anne Coleman, professor of ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and colleagues, and is published in the January issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

AMD causes a darkening and/or blurring of central vision, and prevents you from being able to read, drive and recognize people you know. It is a progressive degeneration of the macula, the centre of the retina, the part of the membrane inside the back of the eye that allows us to see fine details.

Advanced AMD with loss of vision affects about 1.75 million Americans: this figure is expected to rise to just under 3 million by 2020.

Smoking is the second most common risk factor for AMD: age is the first. Coleman and colleagues wanted to find out whether age was linked to the effect of smoking on AMD risk.

Coleman told the press that age was the strongest predictor for AMD, yet most of the research done on the disease only looked at people aged 75 and under.

“Our population was considerably older than those previously studied,” said Coleman.

“This research provides the first accurate snapshot of how smoking affects AMD risk later in life,” she added.

For the study, Coleman and her team compared the retinal photographs of nearly 2,000 women taken at age 78 and 83, looked for signs of AMD and then did logistical regression statistical tests to find out whether smoking affected the women’s risk of developing the disease.

The women were already taking part in a study called the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures, where 45 degree stereoscopic fundus retinal photographs were part of the observations taken at clinic follow ups in year 10 and 15 of the study.

They found that:

• Overall, the smokers had 11 per cent higher rates of AMD than the non-smokers of the same age.
• But among the over 80s, the smokers were 5.5 times more likely to develop AMD than the non-smokers.

The authors concluded that:

“The magnitude of the greater-than-additive effect of smoking on the age-adjusted risk of AMD reinforces recommendations to quit smoking even for older individuals.”

“The take-home message is that it’s never too late to quit smoking,” said Coleman.

“We found that even older people’s eyes will benefit from kicking the habit,” she added.

Speculating on the underlying biological reasons for this link, the authors said there is a theory that smoking increases AMD risk by reducing levels of antioxidants in the blood, changing the blood flow to the eyes and reducing the amount of pigmentation in the retina.

Dr Paul Sieving, director of the National Eye Institute, which funded the research with the National Institute on Aging, said this study gives:

“Yet another compelling reason to stop smoking and suggests that it is never too late to quit.”

Researchers had found that smoking is a risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a new analysis of 16 studies confirms.

The effect is especially strong in men and heavy smokers, the researchers found. And men who tested positive for rheumatoid factor (RF), a self-attacking antibody found in about 80 percent of RA patients, were at even higher risk if they smoked.

Research over the past two decades has linked smoking to RA, especially in men, Dr. S. Kumagai of Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine in Kobe, Japan and his colleagues write. But findings on smoking and RA in women have been “inconsistent.”

The researchers conducted the first systematic analysis of research on RA risk and smoking, looking at 16 studies in all.

Men who were current smokers were at nearly double the risk of RA, Kumagai and colleagues found, and the effect was roughly the same in ever- and past smokers. When the researchers looked at RF-positive RA, they found male smokers were at nearly four-fold risk of the disease, while risk was tripled in ever-smokers and about 2.5 times greater for past smokers.

Smoking also increased RA risk in women, but to a lesser degree. Female current, ever- and ex-smokers had a 1.2 to 1.3 times greater likelihood of developing RA, whether or not they were RF-positive.

The men who had logged at least 20 pack years — meaning they had smoked at least 20 cigarettes a day for 20 years — were 2.3 times more likely to develop RA, while for women risk was increased 1.75-fold.

Smoking has been linked to RF production, the researchers note. The relationship among RF, RA, and smoking may be different for women, they add, due to hormonal factors.

“Any type of smoking constitutes a significant risk factor for the development of RA,” Kumagai and colleagues write. “Because RA is associated with a poor quality of life and life prognosis, we recommend cessation of smoking for current smokers, especially heavy smokers to prevent or reduce the risk of developing RA.

Smokers who light up on waking display higher levels of nicotine than those who wait, regardless of the number of cigarettes smoked, US research shows.

Scientists measured smokers’ levels of cotinine, a by-product of nicotine which has been shown to reflect the risk of developing lung cancer.

Waiting until you had eaten breakfast reduced the amount of this chemical.

The team from Penn State College says their study suggests the earlier smokers may need more help to give up.

The reasons for the differing levels were unclear, but are thought likely to reflect a more intense way of smoking among those who light up first thing – as their need may be greater than those who can wait.

More than 250 healthy people who smoked every day were included in the study, which was published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Waking desire

Among smokers who consumed 20 cigarettes each day, cotinine levels varied dramatically – with the top levels nearly 75 times higher than the lowest levels.

The highest levels were seen among those who lit up within 30 minutes of waking – categorised as high dependency.

“These people may require a more intensive intervention than other smokers to help them quit smoking on a sustained or permanent basis,” said report author Joshua Muscat, professor of public health at Penn State College of Medicine.

“Not all smokers are the same and approaches to smoking reduction may need to account for individual smoking behaviours such as the intensity and frequency of puffing, cravings, and physiological symptoms.”

A spokesperson for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation welcomed the research, which it said would help further understanding of smoking habits and addiction to tobacco.

“It is however a small study (252 participants), and therefore the findings should be taken with caution, and we are not entirely sure that any major conclusions on the future of smoking cessation can be made from this.

“We concur with the authors that more research is needed in this area.”

Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, they say the problems can be evident in children as young as three years old.

They believe smoking in pregnancy may damage the developing structure of the baby’s brain.

One expert said it was another strong reason for mothers to give up smoking.

The researchers from the universities of York, Hull and Illinois looked at more than 14,000 mother and child pairs who were taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study.

This covers UK children born between 2000 and 2001.

The mothers were categorised as light or heavy smokers depending on how many cigarettes they smoked every day during pregnancy.

They were asked to score their three-year-old children’s behaviour using a questionnaire called Strengths and Difficulties, which focuses on behaviour problems and hyperactivity, or attention deficit disorders.

Findings

They took into account factors likely to influence the results, including the mother’s age at the child’s birth, her level of education and socioeconomic status, family stability and problematic parenting.

Mothers who were light smokers were 44% more likely to have boys who had problems with their conduct.

Heavy smokers were 80% more likely to have boys with these problems.

Both heavy and light smokers were also significantly more likely to have boys who were hyperactive or had attention deficit disorders.

For three-year-old girls, light and heavy smoking in pregnancy were significantly associated with conduct problems but not with hyperactivity and attention deficit behaviours.

Foetal development

Professor Kate Pickett, who lead the research, said their findings were consistent with previous research in older age groups.

She said: “Smoking in pregnancy may have direct effects on the foetal development of brain structure and functioning which has been shown in studies of rats.

“Or it may be a marker for the transmission of processes between the generations that are associated with both smoking in pregnancy and behaviour problems in children.”

Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the Faculty of Public Health, said: “This is another reason why mothers should make every effort to give up smoking – ideally before they get pregnant.

“There are four thousand toxic substances in cigarette smoke and many of these will pass into the brain of the foetus and it is possible that they could have an effect on how the brain chemistry works.”