Quitting Time: How to Stop Smoking for Good

By Sonya Collins
WebMD Magazine - Feature

Congratulations! You've decided to quit smoking. But how? The answer depends on why you smoke.

"Men smoke more for the effect of the nicotine. Women smoke more to regulate mood and stress," says Kelly P. Cosgrove, PhD. She's an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine.

10 Ways to Reduce Stress While You Quit Smoking

Many smokers think that lighting up helps them relax. They’re fooling themselves, experts say. “Nicotine withdrawal makes people feel jittery and anxious, which smokers often confuse with feeling stressed,” says Steven Schroeder, MD, director of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco. “Lighting up makes them feel better, not because that cigarette eases stress but because it’s delivering the next dose of nicotine.” Breaking free of nicotine addiction...

Read the 10 Ways to Reduce Stress While You Quit Smoking article > >

So, a good quitting strategy for women includes more than nicotine replacement. That's because the female brain responds to nicotine differently than the male brain. Nicotine-replacement therapy (NRT) -- patches, gum, nasal sprays, and inhalers -- helps more men than women quit long-term. In the first 6 months of quitting, NRT often helps women, but they usually need further aids to kick the habit for good.

Other medications, such as antidepressants, may help. Bupropion helps some people quit whether or not they're depressed. When you start taking it a week or two before your last cigarette, the mood-stabilizing effects can make quitting easier.

Chantix, a nicotine-free medication that helps curb nicotine cravings, also works as well for women as for men.

Tell everyone you know that you're quitting. "It helps to have someone you can talk to about it every day," Cosgrove says. This could be a friend or a counselor.

Quitline coaches in your state can help you make a quit-smoking plan, keep you on track, and point you toward counseling and other resources. Online communities offer great support, too.

If you've decided to quit on Monday, spend the weekend cleaning. Shampoo carpets, upholstery, and drapes. Clean your car's interior. Dry-clean your winter coat. Then resolve to never let smoke in these places again. Get rid of every ashtray, lighter, and cigarette.

New routines also help. Studies show that triggers -- such as having coffee or finishing a meal -- are especially tempting for women. So enjoy your morning coffee in a café or at the office, where you can't smoke. Finish a meal with gum or a sugar-free candy.

You'll still have cravings, but they last only a couple of minutes. Be prepared. Keep your purse stocked with sugar-free gum, a bottle of water, and something to keep your hands busy, like knitting or a deck of cards.

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Cancer Doctors Don't Discuss Herbs, Supplements With Patients

Many physicians cite a lack of knowledge as a primary reason, survey finds

By Mary Elizabeth Dallas

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Jan. 5, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Despite concerns about potentially dangerous interactions between cancer treatments and herbs and other supplements, most cancer doctors don't talk to their patients about these products, new research found.

Fewer than half of cancer doctors -- oncologists -- bring up the subject of herbs or supplements with their patients, the researchers found. Many doctors cited their own lack of information as a major reason why they skip that conversation.

"Lack of knowledge about herbs and supplements, and awareness of that lack of knowledge is probably one of the reasons why oncologists don't initiate the discussion," said the study's author, Dr. Richard Lee, medical director of the Integrative Medicine Program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

"It's really about getting more research out there and more education so oncologists can feel comfortable having these conversations," Lee said.

The study was published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

People with cancer often turn to herbs and other dietary supplements in an attempt to improve their health and cope with their symptoms, according to background information in the study.

Although herbs and supplements are often viewed as "natural," they contain active ingredients that might cause harmful interactions with standard cancer treatments. Some supplements can cause skin reactions when taken by patients receiving radiation treatment, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). Herbs and supplements can also affect how chemotherapy drugs are absorbed and metabolized by the body, according to the ACS.

St. John's wort, Panax ginseng and green tea supplements are among those that can produce potentially dangerous interactions with chemotherapy, according to the study.

For the current survey, the researchers asked almost 400 oncologists about their views and knowledge of supplements. The average age of those who responded was 48 years. About three-quarters of them were men, and about three-quarters were white, the study noted.

The specialists polled talked about supplements with 41 percent of their patients. However, doctors initiated only 26 percent of these discussions, the researchers found.

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About 1 in 7 Older Adults Has Some Form of Lung Disease: CDC

COPD, asthma affect many aging Americans

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Jan. 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly 15 percent, or about one out of seven, middle-aged and older U.S. adults suffer from lung disorders such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), health officials said Tuesday.

While 10 percent of those people experience mild breathing problems, more than one-third of them report moderate or severe respiratory symptoms, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported.

"There are a huge number of Americans that experience lung obstruction," said Dr. Norman Edelman, a senior medical advisor to the American Lung Association, who was not involved in the research. "It's a major problem; it's the third leading cause of death in the United States."

People with asthma or COPD -- which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis -- have reduced airflow and shortness of breath.

For the report, CDC researchers analyzed national survey data on adults ages 40 to 79 between 2007 and 2012. The research team looked at results of breathing tests or self-reported oxygen use to determine the prevalence of lung obstruction.

"The number of adults with lung obstruction has remained fairly stable since the last time these data were collected, in 2007 to 2010," said lead author Timothy Tilert, a data analyst with CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

According to the report, the incidence and severity of these lung diseases were similar for men and women, but prevalence increased with age. For example, 17 percent of people 60 to 79 had COPD or asthma compared with about 14 percent of those 40 to 59.

Also, severity of asthma or COPD -- which is usually caused by smoking -- was related to education level, Tilert said. People with some college education had lower rates of moderate or severe disease than those with less schooling.

Among people with either disease, more than half said they had one or more symptom, such as shortness of breath, wheezing, chronic cough or chronic phlegm.

For those with moderate to severe disease, more than 80 percent said they experienced at least one symptom. Shortness of breath was most common.

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Diet Rich in Whole Grains Might Extend Your Life, Study Says

Findings held even after researchers accounted for person's weight, age and smoking status

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Jan. 5, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Over time, regularly eating whole wheat bread, oatmeal or other whole grains may add years to your lifespan, a new Harvard-led study concludes.

Whole grains are so healthy that a person's risk of an early death drops with every serving added to a daily diet, according to findings published online Jan. 5 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

"We saw clear evidence that the more whole grain intake, the lower the mortality rate is," said Dr. Qi Sun, an assistant professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "When we looked at risk of death from heart disease, there was an even stronger association."

The researchers estimate that every one-ounce serving of whole grains reduced a person's overall risk of an early death by 5 percent, and their risk of death from heart disease by 9 percent.

However, eating whole grains did not appear to affect a person's risk of death from cancer, the study noted.

Sun's team based the findings on data from two long-term health studies dating back to the mid-1980s involving more than 118,000 nurses and health professionals. In the studies, participants were required to fill out food and diet questionnaires every two to four years, which included questions about their whole grain intake.

Freshly harvested grains such as wheat, barley and oatmeal consist of three parts. An outer shell called the bran protects the seed. The germ is the small embryo inside the seed that could sprout into a new plant. And the endosperm -- by far the largest part of the seed -- is the potential food supply for a new plant started from the germ.

In refining grains to make processed flour, manufacturers typically strip away the bran and the germ -- leaving only the calorie-rich endosperm. But whole grain foods such as oatmeal, popcorn, brown rice and whole wheat bread and cereal contain all three parts of the seed.

Over 26 years, there were about 27,000 deaths among the people participating in the two studies, the researchers said.

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Rotating Night Shift Work May Raise Risks of Heart Disease, Lung Cancer: Study

Research can't prove cause-and-effect, but does suggest a link

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Jan. 5, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Working rotating night shifts may pose a threat to your health, a new study suggests.

The study defined rotating shift work as at least three nights spent working each month, in addition to days and evenings worked in the month.

In the new study, researchers led by Dr. Eva Schernhammer of Harvard Medical School tracked 22 years of data from about 75,000 nurses across the United States.

While the study couldn't prove cause-and-effect, it found that people who worked rotating night shifts for more than five years had an 11 percent increased risk of death from all causes.

The risk of death from heart disease was 19 percent higher among those who worked such shifts for six to 14 years, and 23 percent higher for those who worked such shifts for 15 or more years, Schernhammer's group found.

Nurses who worked rotating night shifts for 15 or more years also had a 25 percent higher risk of death from lung cancer, according to the study.

The findings are to be published in the March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

According to the study authors, prior research has shown that night shift work is linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

"These results add to prior evidence of a potentially detrimental relation of rotating night shift work and health and longevity," Schernhammer, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard and associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said in a journal news release.

Further research is needed to learn how individual traits might interact with rotating night shift work to harm health, she added.

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Binge Drinking May Weaken Immune System, Study Suggests

But whether this makes you more vulnerable to colds or flu isn't known

By Alan Mozes

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Jan. 5, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Young adults who engage in just one bout of binge drinking may experience a relatively quick and significant drop in their immune system function, a new small study indicates.

It's well-known that drinking ups injury risk, and this new study suggests that immune system impairment might also hamper recovery from those injuries.

"There's been plenty of research, mainly in animals, that has looked at what happens after alcohol has actually left the system, like the day after drinking," said study lead author Dr. Majid Afshar, an assistant professor in the departments of medicine and public health at Loyola University Health Systems in Maywood, Ill. "And it's been shown that if there is infection or injury, the body will be less well able to defend against it."

The new research, which was conducted while Afshar was at the University of Maryland, found immune system disruption occurs while alcohol is still in the system.

This could mean that if you already have an infection, binge drinking might make it worse, he said. Or it might make you more susceptible to a new infection. "It's hard to say for sure, but our findings suggest both are certainly possible," Afshar added.

The findings appear in the current online issue of Alcohol.

The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as drinking that brings blood alcohol concentration levels to 0.08 g/dL, which is the legal limit for getting behind the wheel. In general, men reach this level after downing five or more drinks within two hours; for women the number is four.

About one in six American adults binge-drinks about four times a month, with higher rates seen among young adults between 18 and 34, figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate.

To assess the impact of just one bout of binge drinking, investigators focused on eight women and seven men who were between 25 and 30 years old.

Although all the volunteers said they had engaged in binge drinking prior to the study, none had a personal or family history of alcoholism, and all were in good health.

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Alcohol Poisoning Kills 6 Americans Every Day, CDC Says

Older adults hardest hit by binge-drinking deaths, and long-term effects of alcoholism often play a role

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Jan. 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A new report finds that six people die in the United States each day after consuming far too much alcohol in too short a time -- a condition known as alcohol poisoning.

"Alcohol poisoning deaths are a heartbreaking reminder of the dangers of excessive alcohol use, which is a leading cause of preventable deaths in the U.S.," Ileana Arias, principal deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an agency news release.

According to the new CDC Vital Signs report, alcohol poisoning kills more than 2,200 Americans a year. Adults aged 35 to 64 account for 75 percent of these deaths, and white males are most often the victims.

Alcohol poisoning death rates vary widely across states, ranging from 5.3 per million people in Alabama to 46.5 deaths per million people in Alaska. The states with the highest alcohol poisoning death rates are in the Great Plains, western United States and New England, the CDC said.

According to the agency, consuming very high levels of alcohol can cause areas of the brain that control breathing, heart rate and body temperature to shut down, resulting in death.

Alcohol poisoning can occur when people binge drink, defined as having more than five drinks in one sitting for men and more than four in one sitting for women. According to the CDC, more than 38 million American adults say they binge drink an average of four times per month and have an average of eight drinks per binge.

"We need to implement effective programs and policies to prevent binge drinking and the many health and social harms that are related to it, including deaths from alcohol poisoning," Arias said in the news release.

Alcoholism is a key risk factor in alcohol poisoning deaths. The new report -- based on national data from 2010-2012 -- found that alcoholism was a contributing factor in 30 percent of such deaths, and that other drugs were a factor in about 3 percent of the deaths.

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