Hot MedFax

As if you needed another reason to quit smoking. . . Now there's definitive proof it's linked to oral cancer. According to newswise.com, researchers have found a link between tobacco and the virus that causes this kind of cancer. Johns Hopkins scientists have shown a strong association between tobacco use or exposure and infection with oral human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16), the sexually transmitted virus responsible for mouth and throat cancers worldwide. The numbers of such cancers have increased 225 percent in the United States over the past two decades.   HPV16 is found in 80 percent of cancers located in the back of the throat and is transmitted through oral sex.   Remember Michael Douglas? “The practice of oral sex is common, but this cancer is rare. So there must be cofactors in the process that explain why some people develop persistent HPV16 infections and HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancers when most other people don’t,” says Gypsyamber D’So...

Is there a "type" of person who smokes e-cigarettes? According to a new study , yes.  Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that people living with depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions are twice as likely to have tried e-cigarettes and three times as likely to be current users of the controversial battery-powered nicotine-delivery devices, as people without mental health disorders, newswise.com reports. They are also more susceptible to trying e-cigarettes in the future in the belief that doing so will help them quit, scientists said. The FDA has not approved e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid. The jury is still out on whether these nicotine-vapor-producing items are harmful.  In the beginning many thought they were much less dangerous -- or cancer-causing -- than regular cigarettes, since you weren't inhaling nicotene into your lungs. But new studies are finding that some of the flavors these e-cigs co...

I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise.  But a new study has found that e-cigarettes may promote the growth of cancer much like their tobacco-laced predecessors. According to Barry Meier at The New York Times, "T he nicotine-laced vapor generated by an electronic cigarette promoted the development of cancer in certain types of human cells much in the same way that tobacco smoke does." The studies did not involve humans, just specially treated lung cells in the lab. But the findings were disturbing enough that some experts are rethinking their positions that e-cigarettes are less deadly than the original ones, simply  because they do not burn tobacco, a major source of carcinogens . The scientists reported that the cells exposed to e-cigarette vapor, like those exposed to tobacco smoke, exhibited changes associated with cancer. Meier reports that t he Food and Drug Administration, which has oversight over tobacco, "is expected to soon issue rules laying out ...

Just when we thought it was safe to eat again, now it's turning out to be a conspiracy. According to today's New York Times, saturated fat may not be the killer we once thought it was.  But just as we're about to enjoy our bacon-wrapped, butter-filled chicken-fried steak wrap, we're hearing that Big Food is becoming the next Big Tobacco. "At its core, the notion of treating ‘Big Food’ like ‘Big Tobacco’ means bringing litigation against large food companies in an attempt to hold them financially liable for obesity and other food-related health issues, much in the way that lawsuits in the 1990s and the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement forced tobacco companies to contribute financially to tobacco-related illnesses and health costs, as well as change labeling and marketing strategies," writes P.K. Read for the Christian Science Monitor. Why?  Read posits that because medical costs due to obesity are causing the U.S. so much money -- $210 billion a...

So you cut back on smoking, went from a pack a day to just two or three, a dozen years ago.  Here's the really bad news.  It won't help you live longer. According to a story by Linda Searling, a new report has found that, while cutting down on the number of cigarettes you smoke is better than staying at the same level, or increasing it, in the end it's not going to add to your longevity. Over 5,200 smokers -- ages 40 to 65, at the start -- participated in the study.  Over the next 30 years, of the people who continued to smoke, a shocking 84 percent died, Searling reports. If they quit smoking altogether, however, those in the study were more likely to live to at least age 75. Searling adds in the story that they also "were 25 to 35 percent less likely than the others to have died." But, and here's the truly scary part, "There was essentially no difference in the mortality rate for people who had reduced the number of cigarettes ...

Here's an interesting fact.   Meatless cafeterias save as many lives as smokeless ones.  Or so According to Neal Barnard, M.D., "Mounting evidence demonstrates that consumption—sometimes as little as one serving a day—of meat and other animal products is associated with increased risk of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic diseases."  The good news is that meat consumption declined by more than 12 percent between 2007 and 2012—"an unprecedented drop," Barnard writes. Kathy Freston writes at The Huffington Post that our country's t hree biggest killers -- heart disease, cancer, and stroke -- "are linked to excessive animal product consumption."  She notes also that vegetarians have much lower risks of all three. People who live on fruits and veggies also have incredibly lower rates of diabetes and obesity than the general population.  So meat is shaping up as a close second to the dangers tobacco can present to your health. ...

When was the last time you saw someone smoking in a movie?  Used to be that everyone smoked on-screen.  But today it seems only the bad guys are the ones who smoke, almost as if that's another reason we shouldn't like them. But alcohol, on the other hand, has become much more visible at the movies, according to a story by Reuters, as reported by Fox News. Movie characters smoke less since 1998 regulations that stopped tobacco companies from buying on-screen brand placements, according to a new study. But the number of times alcohol brands appear has exploded in movies rated PG-13 and below, while the amount of time characters spend drinking hasn't changed. I love "Two and a Half Men," at least, when Charlie Sheen was on, and there was never a scene where he didn't have some kind of glass in his hand. A lot of people see this as a real problem.  "In movie reality, it seems like every occasion is right for a drink," David Jernigan, head of t...

A new study has just found that, on average, smoking clips 10 years off your life, according to a story today in The New York Times.  My mother smoked when I was a child and I remember seeing a film when I was in 5th grade showing a smoker's lungs, all black and scarred from smoking. I raced home to ask her to please, please stop smoking, and she assured me she was "checked" every year and was fine.  She continued to smoke for over 20 more years -- even going so far as to pretend she had quit, then begging to take the garbage out at a party I threw at my apartment, only to come back the dumpster smelling of smoke. My mom died a little more than a year ago of congestive heart failue at 84 so I guess she was one of the lucky ones.  Maybe because of her, I never ever picked up a cigarette.  The study also goes on to say that if you can quit by 40, you have almost a full life expectancy.  I have friends who smoked to lose weight, or keep it off, and others ...