Heena Sharma Blog

Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), among the four Indian states with the highest prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), recorded tobacco sales worth Rs 5,530 crore over seven years to 2017-18, according to state sales tax data exclusively accessed by IndiaSpend. This is the equivalent of the funds needed to construct four state-of-the-art hospitals along the lines of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Jammu. COPD, typified by coughing, wheezing and breathlessness, is the second most frequent killer disease in India, responsible for the death of almost 1 million Indians in 2017, IndiaSpend reported in March 2018, citing the Global Burden of Disease study by the University of Washington, US. Caused by the inflammation of the lung’s airways, it destroys the air sacs that extract oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. Air pollution and smoking have been established as the primary reasons for COPD in India, according to a 2018 study published in The Lancet. ...

A recent study has discovered a link between second-hand smoking and development of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The study, published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, found out that exposure to second-hand smoking increases the risk of various diseases and the researchers investigated the link between exposure to second-hand smoking and CKD. The study included 131,196 never-smokers who participated in the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study from 2001 to 2014. Participants were classified into 3 groups based on the frequency of second-hand smoke exposure as assessed with survey questionnaires: no-exposure, less than 3 days per week of exposure, and 3 or more days per week of exposure. Participants with less than three days per week and those with three or more days per week of exposure had 1.48-times and 1.44-times higher odds of having CKD when compared with participants with no second-hand cigarette exposure "Second-hand smoke expo...

Being anxious or depressed can increase risks for heart disease and stroke, the same as smoking and obesity, according to a new study, that underscores the importance of treating mental health conditions. The findings showed that people with high levels of anxiety and depression are at 65 per cent higher risk for a heart condition, 64 per cent for stroke, 50 per cent for high blood pressure and 87 per cent for arthritis. "These increased odds are similar to those of participants who are smokers or are obese," said lead author Andrea Niles, from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). However, the study published in the journal Health Psychology, showed that cancer was found as an exception to conditions impacted by depression and anxiety. "Our findings are in line with a lot of other studies showing that psychological distress is not a strong predictor of many types of cancer," said co-author Aoife O'Donovan from the UCSF. Read ...

Graphic warning labels on cigarette ads, which contain images such as bleeding, cancerous gums and lips, can effectively deter children from smoking, a study has found. Such labels cancel out the effect of ads that prompt children to think of smoking as cool, rebellious and fun, according to a study published in the journal Health Education Research. "This study suggests the value of graphic warning labels extends beyond just getting people to have more negative feeling about smoking," said Jeff Niederdeppe, an associate professor at Cornell University in the US. "It also seems to have the added benefit of reducing the influence of 'social cue' ads that entice young people to want to smoke in the first place," said Niederdeppe. Researchers studied the graphic warning labels' effect on 451 adult smokers and 474 middle schoolers in rural and urban low-income communities in the Northeast. Read More Business Standard

Trying to quit smoking? Spend time with people who use e-cigarettes . The University College London research has found that smokers who  were regularly exposed to vapers (as opposed to other smokers) were around 20 percent more likely to have reported both a high current motivation to quit and made a recent quit attempt. The findings have been published in BMC Medicine. "Our results found no evidence that spending time with vapers discourages smokers from quitting, which should help to alleviate concerns about the wider public health impact of e-cigarettes," said the study's lead author, Dr Sarah Jackson. Around a quarter (25.8 percent) of smokers in the study said they regularly spent time with vapers. Of these, around a third (32.3 percent) had made an attempt to quit smoking in the previous year - a higher rate than was observed among smokers who did not regularly spend time with vapers (26.8 percent). Read Complete Article Business Standar...

Pregnant women are more likely to smoke if they live in areas with a number of cigarette selling shops, according to a new study. Conducted by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, the findings appeared in the journal Tobacco Control . Pregnant women living in Scottish neighbourhoods with the highest availability of tobacco products are 70 per cent more likely to smoke than if they live in areas where no tobacco is sold, researchers say. The team examined maternity records - which include details of expectant mothers' smoking behaviour - for the more than 700,000 births in Scotland between 2000 and 2015. They focused on women who had at least two babies during the period and moved neighbourhood between pregnancies. The data was analysed in tandem with information on all the tobacco outlets in Scotland. Researchers found that the risk of women smoking during a pregnancy increased in line with the local availability of tobacco products. Read Complete Articl...

Here's another reason to stop smoking when pregnant! A recent study has linked earlier puberty in children with mother's smoking during pregnancy . The Aarhus University study has been published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. "We found that children of mothers who had smoked more than ten cigarettes a day during pregnancy, on average entered puberty three to six months earlier than the children of non-smokers," says Nis Brix, who is one of the researchers behind the study. "Early puberty can be associated with an increased risk of a number of diseases as an adult, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancer," said Nis Brix. Brix hopes that the study's results can be used as another motivating factor to stop smoking among women who are planning on becoming pregnant. "It is known that smoking is harmful to the unborn foetus . Smoking is, among other things, associated with an in...

Turns out, E-cigarettes can indeed help people give up smoking faster than any other methods out there. A recent study by the University of Exeter and University of Melbourne and funded by Cancer Research UK, confirmed that in order to stop people from smoking, e-cigarettes should be advertised more openly. The study appeared in the Harm Reduction Journal . Hannah Farrimond, from the University of Exeter, who led the research said, "There are real opportunities for stop smoking services to use e-cigarettes more actively to help people give up smoking, but for this to happen policies around the country need to be consistent, and people need to share best practice and know what others are doing." Farrimond further mentioned that for the smoking cessation work to succeed the initiative should go beyond specialist clinics where only a few smokers go to. Experts believe that this initiative should support smoking cessation in psychiatric units, community ment...

The step comes after the Delhi High Court slammed the Health Ministry for not taking regulatory measures on the manufacture, import, sale and trading of e-cigarettes in the country Current Affairs News : In order to crack down on the artificial nicotine products, the government on Tuesday issued an advisory against the sale of vapes , e-cigarettes , e-nicotine flavoured hookah , heat-not-burn devices , e-sheesha and other similar devices in the country. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare advisory issued to all the states and Union Territories, manufacturing, distributing, trading, importing and advertising of any artificially produced nicotine products -- Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) -- will be brought to an end soon. The step comes after the Delhi High Court slammed the Health Ministry for not taking regulatory measures on the manufacture, import, sale and trading of e-cigarettes in the country. The Ministry stated that in ...