Tag Archives: Nicotine Addiction

5 Things You Should Know About Nicotine

They’ve been marketed as a safe and fun alternative to cigarettes, even a way to help smokers kick the habit, but nicotine-delivery systems such as e-cigarettes and other vaping devices may instead be creating new problems and erasing years of hard-won anti-smoking victories.

Limit Tobacco to Those 21 and Up?

Health officials have long understood that if we’re serious about reducing tobacco use, we must target the young. That’s because the younger the person, the more sensitive they are to nicotine and the more likely they are to become addicted and to have trouble quitting. In fact, 96 percent of those who become cigarette smokers […]

New Anti-Smoking Shock Campaign Unveiled by CDC

Brett quit smoking four years ago, well after losing most of his teeth. By his mid-30s, gum disease from tobacco smoking had ravaged the bones and tissue supporting his teeth — 16 removed in one surgery. At 42, nearly toothless, Brett still smoked. He soberly looks at the viewer in a new “scared straight” television […]

How to Quit Smoking

Smoking cigarettes is linked to one in five deaths in the U.S., including those from exposure to secondhand smoke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is nearly half a million deaths yearly due to nicotine addiction. For every smoking-related death, 30 more people suffer at least one or more chronic or […]

CDC Reports Explosion in E-Cigarette Child Poisoning Calls

Soaring child poisonings from the fluid used in electronic cigarettes — especially in summer months — has prompted warnings about the risks of liquid nicotine exposure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that reports of adverse e-cigarette exposure to U.S. poison control centers climbed from one in September 2010 to 1,351 in […]

Electronic Cigarettes Help Smokers Quit, Study Finds, But Critics Urge Caution

One out of five smokers was able to quit tobacco cigarettes by inhaling on electronic cigarettes, which still deliver nicotine but in smaller doses, a new study out of the United Kingdom has found. Those trying to quit smoking cold turkey or with non-prescription nicotine patches or gum were 60 percent more likely to report succeeding […]

Nicotine Has Tightest Grip on Women

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The importance of understanding the mechanisms of tobacco addiction and those most affected by it can hardly be understated, and a new study from Austria has provided evidence that women are more […]

Third-hand Smoke Affects Lungs, Liver, Healing, New Study Finds

If you can smell cigarette smoke in your house, hotel room, rental car or workplace, you may be damaging your health by exposure to third-hand smoke, a new study has found. Living, working or lodging in houses, offices, hotels and vacation rentals where cigarettes have been smoked may be as dangerous to your health as […]

Positive Psychotherapy Helps Smokers Quit

Positive psychotherapy (PPT) is the name for a type of psychotherapeutic treatment that focuses on increasing and reinforcing a person’s positive emotional states rather than focusing on easing the effects of a person’s negative emotional states. In a study published in January 2014 in the Journal of Positive Psychology, researchers from several U.S. universities investigated […]

I Smoke, But I’m Not a Smoker

Cigarette smoking is a highly addictive activity practiced by millions of U.S. adults and teenagers. Doctors and public health officials commonly try to identify smokers as part of an ongoing effort to prevent the severe health complications that often accompany cigarette use and nicotine addiction. However, according to the results of a study published in […]

Mom Stresses, Daughter Smokes

A new study published in the online journal Biological Psychiatry provides the first evidence that prenatal exposure to the stress hormones glucocorticoids predicts smoking and nicotine dependence later in life among women. The study confirmed previous research on prenatal smoking, and suggested that this increased risk of nicotine addiction is the result of exposure to […]

Landmark Anti-Smoking Campaign Scares 100,000 Into Quitting

You may have seen Terrie Hall and struggled to watch her talk. Hall was once a competitive cheerleader, but now her mouth sags on one side and she’s lost her voice to smoking. In her halting YouTube account seen by millions, the North Carolina ex-smoker still fighting cancer makes a suggestion to those who’ve yet […]

Study of Smokers’ Genes Reveals Which Teens Are Most Vulnerable to Addiction

Ninety percent of lung cancer cases in America can be directly attributed to smoking. It’s one of the country’s foremost legal addictions—you can head down to the store and load up on dangerous and addictive substances without attracting attention from the law. Tobacco addiction causes more deaths than HIV, illicit drug use, alcohol use, suicides, […]

Depression May Stand in Way of Smoking Cessation Success

A new study has found that smokers who suffer from depression want to quit smoking as much as non-depressed smokers do, but their depression may stand in the way of their success. Researchers from the University of California at San Diego found that 24 percent of people who called the California Smokers’ Helpline currently suffered […]

Dispelling the Myth of “Light” Cigarettes

With more than 46 million smokers in America, nicotine addiction is the most common form of chemical dependency in the U.S., according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Not only does nicotine cause serious health risks and premature mortality in smokers, but the psychoactive stimulant is as addictive as alcohol, cocaine, or […]

Federal Stimulus Grant to Study Anti-Nicotine Vaccine

An American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant of 10-million dollars funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse was awarded to Nabi Biopharmaceuticals for the first pivotal phase II trial of NicVAX, a vaccine that may help people quit smoking and prevent relapse. NicVAX was given fast-track designation by the United States Food and Drug […]

Using Nicotine Patch before Quitting Smoking Doubles Success Rate

Duke University Medical Center researchers recently found that using a nicotine patch before quitting smoking can double success rates. They say their findings should be printed on nicotine patch labeling. Currently, the nicotine patch is only recommended for use after the quit date, explained Jed Rose, director of the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking […]