American Lung Association's Lies About E-Cigarettes are Dangerous and Irresponsible
Earlier this week, I revealed that, ironically, in a campaign attacking e-cigarette companies for lying to the public, the American Heart Association was itselflying to the public by asserting that e-cigarettes cannot help smokers quit.Today I reveal that, not to be outdone, the American Lung Association is lying even more blatantly to the public and in a way that is not only irresponsible but dangerous for the public ' s health.In apress release issued yesterday, the American Lung Association made the following claims:Cigarette smoking is no more hazardous than using e-cigarettes.E-cigarettes cannot help smokers quit.If y...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 5, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Lifestyle changes to lower heart disease risk
Nearly half of all premature deaths may be due to unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as insufficient exercise, poor diet, and smoking. These risk factors increase the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, and stroke.
The good news is that lifestyle changes can make a difference. In a study analyzing over 55,000 people, those with favorable lifestyle habits such as not smoking, not being obese, engaging in regular physical activity, and eating a healthy diet lowered their heart disease risk by nearly 50%.
The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) recently published guide...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 2, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: James Yeh, MD, MPH Tags: Alcohol Diabetes Exercise and Fitness Heart Health Hypertension and Stroke Smoking cessation Source Type: blogs
Vaping: It ’s hard to quit, but help is available
E-cigarettes burst onto the scene in the 2010s and were quickly embraced by the public as a solution to the problem of smoking, even heralded by former Surgeon General Richard Carmona as having “very meaningful harm reduction potential” for adult smokers. Astonishingly, e-cigarette manufacturers were never required to demonstrate that their devices were safe, or even safer than combustible cigarettes — the idea that a product could be more health-harming than tobacco seemed so unfathomable as to be not worthy of serious consideration.
Fast forward a decade and a lot has happened
The e-cigarette industry continually d...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 1, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Sharon Levy, MD, MPH Tags: Addiction Lung disease Smoking cessation Source Type: blogs
American Lung Association Condemns 2.5 Million Ex-Smokers for Using E-Cigarettes to Quit
What do you say to a person who smoked two packs of cigarettes per day for 30 years and then quits completely by switching to vaping?I would say: Congratulations on this amazing and difficult accomplishment. You ' ve saved your life and done a huge service not only to yourself but to your family and friends.The American Lung Association, in contrast, is saying to vapers: Shame on you! You shouldn ' t have done that. You ' re a bad person because you ' re still using a tobacco product. And you ' re at risk of dying from acute respiratory failure.Specifically, the American Lung Associationstated: " The bottom line is that e-...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - September 1, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Can vaping help you quit smoking?
It’s hard to overstate the dangers of smoking. Nearly 500,000 people die of tobacco-related disease each year in the US. Over the next decade, estimates are that around eight million people will die prematurely worldwide each year due to tobacco use. The list of tobacco-related diseases and conditions is long and growing. It includes:
cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke
emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma
lung and other types of cancer
tooth decay
weathering of the skin
having a low-birthweight baby
diabetes
eye damage (including cataracts and macular degeneration).
And there are others. The point i...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 27, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Health Prevention Smoking cessation Source Type: blogs
SRNT Under Fire for Accepting Sponsorship Money from E-Cigarette Company for Annual Meeting
Controversy is brewing in San Francisco this week as it was revealed that the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) accepted money from an e-cigarette company to sponsor its annual meeting which is being held this week.It was reported this morning that SRNT accepted funding from GreenSmokeKloud, an e-liquid distributor whose products are competing with nicotine replacement therapy and Chantix for a share of the smoking cessation market.Critics pointed out that sponsorship of the conference by GreenSmokeKloud presents a severe conflict of interest because its products are being used for smoking cessation and t...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - February 21, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Expert advice on how to quit smoking
Okay, everyone knows smoking is bad for you, the number one cause of preventable death in the US and the world, a direct cause of lung and heart disease and cancer… et cetera. So let’s get right down to the nitty-gritty: quitting smoking is tough. What can people do to quit?
To answer this question, I spoke with my colleague Nancy Rigotti, MD. Dr. Rigotti is director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Tobacco Research and Treatment Center. She has extensively researched nicotine and tobacco, evaluated public policies on tobacco, contributed to US Surgeon General’s Reports, and authored clinical guidelines on smoki...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 8, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Health Heart Health Lung disease Prevention Smoking cessation Source Type: blogs
New York State Department of Health Urges Physicians to Discourage Patients from Quitting Unless They Use Big Pharma Products and Tells Vapers They Might as Well Go Back to Smoking
The New York State Department of Health has sent out a letter to medical professionals in the state, urging them to discourage patients from quitting smoking using e-cigarettes, even if they indicate unwillingness or lack of interest in nicotine replacement therapy or other smoking cessation drugs.In the February 2017 letter, the state health commissioner writes:" I encourage all health care providers to talk to their patients -- young and old alike -- about the dangers of e-cigarettes and to discourage their use. For patients who are already using traditional cigarettes or e-cigarettes, there are currently seven FDA-appro...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 15, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
New Survey Shows that Most Physicians are Completely Misguided on E-Cigarette Recommendations; Anti-Tobacco Groups' Propaganda is Wreaking Havoc on the Public's Health
Apaper published in the current issue of theAnnals of the American Thoracic Society reports the results of a survey regarding physician recommendations to their patients about the use of electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation.(See: Nickels AS, Warner DO, Jenkins SM, Tilburt J, Hays JT. Pulmonologists ’ and Primary Care Physicians’ Responses to an Adult Patient with Asthma Who Inquires about Using Electronic Cigarettes as a Smoking Cessation Tool.Annals of the American Thoracic Society 2017; 14(3): 466-468.)Physicians were given a clinical scenario in which a patient who smokes seeks advice about smoking cessation....
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 14, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Article Defending Nicotine Replacement Therapy Fails to Disclose Author's Conflict of Interest with Big Pharma
In another example that demonstrates the hidden influence of Big Pharma on tobacco treatment policy and the extent to which many defenders of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) are going to hide their conflicts of interest, anarticle (letter to the editor/reply) defending NRT from criticism that was published online ahead of print in theJournal of Clinical Epidemiology fails to disclose the serious conflicts of interest of its lead author.The article is a response to apaper published recently in theJournal which concludes that once one accounts for publication bias, there is no significant effect of NRT on smoking cessatio...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - September 29, 2016 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Deciding Vote in FDA Advisory Committee Recommendation to Remove Black Box Warning for Chantix is Cast by Pharmaceutical Company President; FDA Review Process is Badly Tainted
Last Wednesday, a pair of FDA advisory committees - meeting jointly -voted 10-9 to recommend that the FDA remove the black box warning for Chantix (varenicline). Currently, the black box warns about the potential for severe psychiatric side effects of Chantix, including depression and suicidal ideation. The recommendation is not binding, and the FDA is free to follow or ignore the advisory panel ' s vote.According to anarticle atMedPage Today: " a few of those who voted to remove the warning said the study supplied the evidence needed to make them comfortable using Varenicline to address a major public health problem. ' Th...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - September 19, 2016 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Pfizer Study of Psychiatric Risks of Chantix Marred by Financial Conflicts of Interest and Under-Reporting of Adverse Events
According to abriefing document for today ' s joint meeting of the FDA ' s Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee and Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee to discuss the black box warning for Chantix (varenicline), Pfizer ' s study of the potential serious psychiatric side effects of Chantix, which reported no significant increased risk of adverse events, was marred by financial conflicts of interests of many of the study investigators and by under-reporting of adverse events, including potential episodes of suicidal ideation and depression that could have been drug-related.According to the document, in...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - September 14, 2016 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Physician Recommends Against Quitting Smoking for Smokers Who Do Not Want to Use NRT or Cessation Drugs; Hides Conflict of Interest
An article in the Annals of Family Medicine argues that smokers who do not wish to use nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), varenicline, or other drugs should be counseled by their physicians not to quit smoking. Specifically, these patients should not be encouraged to try to quit using e-cigarettes. Moreover, the article scares physicians into thinking that if they do encourage smoking cessation via e-cigarettes, they are putting themselves into legal danger.According to the lead author - Dr. Adam Goldstein of the University of North Carolina - e-cigarettes are dangerous and have not shown to be helpful in smoking cessatio...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - July 19, 2016 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Pediatrics " Gateway " Article Author Hiding Conflicts of Interest with Big Pharma; Drug Companies Have Gotten More than their Money's Worth
Last week, I < a href= " http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2016/06/new-pediatrics-study-provides.html " > discussed < /a > an < a href= " http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2016/06/10/peds.2016-0379 " > article < /a > published in < i > Pediatrics < /i > which is going to deal a devastating blow to the vaping industry because it wrongly concludes that e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking among youth. Evidence like this is the death knell to vaping, as perhaps it < b > should < /b > be < b > if it were true < /b > . < br / > < br / > The problem, however, is that as I explained, the < i > Pediatrics ...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - June 20, 2016 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Pediatrics "Gateway" Article Author Hiding Conflicts of Interest with Big Pharma; Drug Companies Have Gotten More than their Money's Worth
Last week, I discussed an article published in Pediatrics which is going to deal a devastating blow to the vaping industry because it wrongly concludes that e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking among youth. Evidence like this is the death knell to vaping, as perhaps it should be if it were true.The problem, however, is that as I explained, the Pediatrics study cannot conclude that e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking because it measured only e-cigarette experimentation at baseline and was unable to document that a single nonsmoking vaper actually became addicted to vaping. Nor was the study able to document that a single...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - June 20, 2016 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
