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As if rheumatoid arthritis weren't enough, smoking seems to cause
a pro-inflammatory rise in white blood cells, and thereby increase the
risk of heart disease.
"People who smoke are more likely to have an elevated white count," says
study director Dr. Wayne H. Giles, from the Centers for Disease Control
& Prevention in Atlanta.
Dr. Giles & colleagues examined a study conducted from 1976 to 1992 on
8900 adults, and stated "What we found was that people with an elevated
white count were 40% more likely to die from coronary heart disease
after taking into account a number of traditional risk factors".
Non-smokers with the same elevation were at the same risk.
The study showed that patients with a WBC count over 7.6 were at much
higher risk of dying from Coronary Heart Disease, even after adjusting
for other risk factors. The new findings support a role for
inflammation as a causal factor in the pathogenesis of CHD, the authors
say. "We really don't know whether reducing white count will lower the
risk," Dr. Giles added in an interview. "That's where we need more
studies."
Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2000;162:1348-1354.
WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) Apr 04 - Female smokers have a
higher risk of developing bladder cancer than their male
counterparts who smoke a comparable number of cigarettes, according to a
new report in the April 4th issue of the Journal of the National Cancer
Institute.
Dr. Ronald K. Ross, of the University of Southern California, in Los
Angeles, and colleagues conducted a study of more than 3000 adults with
and without bladder cancer.
Among smokers who lit up 40 times a day for 40 or more years, women
were more than twice as likely as men to develop bladder cancer,
with odds ratios of 11.49 and 5.23, respectively.
"This is not what you'd expect," Dr. Ross told Reuters Heath. "In the
US, bladder cancer's been thought of as a disease of white men." For
example, Dr. Ross noted, black men in Los Angeles have higher rates of
smoking, but lower rates of bladder cancer compared with white men in
the area.
"The increased risk was confined to those who smoked cigarettes," the
researchers write. They observed no associations between bladder cancer
risk and cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco or snuff.
Investigators also found that presence of a cigarette filter, the
cigarette tar content, and depth of inhalation did not appear to modify
the risk of bladder cancer.
The next step, Dr. Ross said, is to study which genetic and
environmental factors make subgroups of smokers more or less susceptible
to bladder cancer.
In any case, the finding that women smokers are at especially high risk
for bladder cancer provides them with yet another good reason to quit.
"Young women, and especially teenagers, are smoking more than young
men," Dr. Ross said. "That doesn't bode well for the future."
J Natl Cancer Inst 2001;93:538-545.
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters Health) Nov 6 -
Women who smoke have nearly twice the risk of developing
early-onset rheumatoid arthritis as do nonsmokers, according to Dr.
Kenneth G. Saag, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In a way,
this is good news, because "smoking is a potentially modifiable risk
factor," Dr. Saag said. "We can tell people that if they stop smoking,
it may lower their risk."
Dr. Saag and coinvestigators studied the health records of more than
30,000 women, between the ages of 55 and 69, who had been enrolled in
the Iowa Women's Health Study since 1986. The findings were presented
last week at the annual meeting of the American College of Radiology.
Compared with women who never smoked, current smokers had a nearly
two-fold increase in the risk of developing early-onset rheumatoid
arthritis. Former smokers also had a slightly higher risk than
non-smokers. But women who had stopped smoking at least 10 years prior
to the start of the study did not have an increased risk, Dr. Saag
reported.
The researchers do not know just how smoking affects the risk of
rheumatoid arthritis. "It's a complex phenomenon," Dr. Saag said. There
may be interactions with the immune system or interactions with
estrogen; "smoking may lower estrogen levels." He also noted that
smoking appears increase levels of rheumatoid factor, which generally
accompanies severe rheumatoid arthritis. Dr. Saag believes the study
findings are especially significant because of the large size and
prospective design. "With some of these studies, the concern is that
people change their chronic behavior, such as smoking habits, after they
develop the disease."
The Vitamin Lady®
comments: actually, my feeling is that the nicotine, along with
the other nightshade family plants such as potatoes, tomatoes, green
peppers, eggplant, imbalances estrogens, and this is the
mode of action.
BALTIMORE, MD (Reuters Health) Nov 14 - Female smokers are at higher
risk for a host of harmful health outcomes compared with nonsmokers and
even male smokers. The latest research on tobacco's impact on women was
the topic of a symposium sponsored November 10 by the University of
Maryland School of Medicine.
"Women who smoke are four times more likely to develop cervical
cancer than women who don't use tobacco," said Dr. Sandra Brooks, from
the University of Maryland Medical Center. "Physicians need to make
their female patients aware of the short- and long-term effects of
smoking."
Lung cancer, cervical cancer, cardiovascular disease, certain oral
health problems and infertility are among the conditions that affect
female smokers at far higher rates than women who do not smoke,
researchers said. Female smokers also are at risk of passing a host of
harmful health conditions to their offspring. "Learning disabilities,
ADHD, fetal and perinatal deaths and SIDS — these are all caused by
maternal smoking," Dr. Theodore Slotkin, from Duke University, argued at
the symposium.
He noted that the incidence rate of such conditions is increased
between 50% and 500% in pregnant women who smoke versus those who do
not. Despite the publicity about the negative effects of smoking during
pregnancy, tobacco use continues in one quarter of all pregnancies, Dr.
Slotkin said. He added that medical professionals should be doing a
better job of teaching adolescents about the dangers of smoking.
"Adolescent smoking is the cause of smoking during pregnancy."
Dr. Mary Corretti, from the University of Maryland Medical Center,
said that prevention efforts need to be focused on teenage girls, as
they are the fastest-growing category of new smokers.
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