Groundbreaking research could provide key to kicking smoking habit for good
Quitting smoking tops many New Year's resolution lists, but a nicotine addiction is hard to curb.
Jan 12, 2021
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Quitting smoking tops many New Year's resolution lists, but a nicotine addiction is hard to curb.
Jan 12, 2021
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Cardiologists have issued a stark warning about the dangers of e-cigarettes, particularly for young people, as results of new research show the damage they cause to the brain, heart, blood vessels and lungs.
Nov 13, 2019
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A new paper in Biology Methods & Protocols investigates risk factors and protections against contracting COVID-19, and also for suffering from severe COVID. Researchers have identified several characteristics—including ...
Dec 15, 2022
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Head and neck cancers account for nearly 4% of all cancers in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute. These cancers are more than twice as common among men as women, and are diagnosed more often among people ...
May 3, 2022
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People who strongly adhere to a set of cardiovascular health metrics may live close to a decade longer than those who don't, new research suggests.
Apr 11, 2023
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Despite public health advances, tobacco use remains one of the most common, preventable and costly health problems in the United States and worldwide. In the U.S., more deaths—an estimated 480,000 each year—are attributable ...
Feb 8, 2022
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Many physicians incorrectly believe all tobacco products are equally harmful and thus are less likely to recommend e-cigarettes for people seeking to quit smoking or those being treated for a tobacco-caused disease, according ...
Apr 15, 2022
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What drives a person to smoke cigarettes—and keeps one out of six U.S. adults addicted to tobacco use, at a cost of 480,000 premature deaths each year despite decades of anti-smoking campaigns? What role do emotions play ...
Jan 9, 2020
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Vapers experience DNA changes, according to a recent paper published in Nature, and the changes are similar to those seen in smokers—although much less pronounced.
Dec 6, 2021
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As cannabis use has become legal in many U.S. states for medical or recreational use, Americans' views on the drug may have gotten rosier.
Aug 14, 2023
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Smoking is a practice where a substance, most commonly tobacco, is burned and the smoke tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them available for absorption through the lungs. It can also be done as a part of rituals, to induce trances and spiritual enlightenment. The most common method of smoking today is through cigarettes, primarily industrially manufactured but also hand-rolled from loose tobacco and rolling paper. Other smoking tools includes pipes, cigars, hookahs and bongs.
Smoking is one of the most common forms of recreational drug use. Tobacco smoking is today by far the most popular form of smoking and is practiced by over one billion people in the majority of all human societies. Less common drugs for smoking include cannabis and opium. Most drugs that are smoked are considered to be addictive. Some of the substances are classified as hard narcotics, like heroin and crack cocaine, but the use of these is very limited as they are often not commercially available.
The history of smoking can be dated to as early as 5000 BC, and has been recorded in many different cultures across the world. Early smoking evolved in association with religious ceremonies; as offerings to deities, in cleansing rituals or to allow shamans and priests to alter their minds for purposes of divination or spiritual enlightenment. After the European exploration and conquest of the Americas, the practice of smoking tobacco quickly spread to the rest of the world. In regions like India and Subsaharan Africa, it merged with existing practices of smoking (mostly of cannabis). In Europe, it introduced a new type of social activity and a form of drug intake which previously had been unknown.
Perception surrounding smoking has varied over time and from one place to another; holy and sinful, sophisticated and vulgar, a panacea and deadly health hazard. Only recently, and primarily in industrialized Western countries, has smoking come to be viewed in a decidedly negative light. Today medical studies have proven that smoking tobacco is among the leading causes of many diseases such as lung cancer, heart attacks and can also lead to birth defects. The well-proven health hazards of smoking have caused many countries to institute high taxes on tobacco products and anti-smoking campaigns are launched every year in an attempt to curb tobacco smoking.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA