http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Naltrexone, an opioid antagonist approved in 1994 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for alcohol-dependence (AD) treatment, can reduce relapse rates among AD patients. Research on naltrexone's effectiveness on nicotine dependence is less clear, although researchers believe it may be helpful for specific smoker subgroups. A new study has found that naltrexone can help non-AD smokers who drink heavily on a social basis. http://phys.org/news156704988.html Medicine & Health Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:10:08 EST news156704988 More than a third of patients who took part in an eight-week smoking cessation programme before and after planned surgery were able to give up and most of them were still smoke free after a year, according to research in the March issue of Anaesthesia. http://phys.org/news156101425.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:31:29 EST news156101425 Human problems rarely occur in a vacuum, but persist as part of ongoing social interaction in which causes and effects are interwoven. One person's behavior can set the stage for what another does. A new study in the journal Family Process reveals that smoking can promote emotional connection for couples when both partners smoke. Health-compromising behaviors, such as smoking or weight gain, may sometimes persist because they preserve stability in a vital close relationship. http://phys.org/news156007421.html Medicine & Health Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:24:50 EST news156007421 A popular smoking cessation drug dramatically reduced the amount a heavy drinker will consume, a new Yale School of Medicine study has found. Heavy-drinking smokers in a laboratory setting were much less likely to drink after taking the drug varenicline compared to those taking a placebo, according to a study published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry. http://phys.org/news155228075.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:56:40 EST news155228075 Obese adolescents have the same risk of premature death in adulthood as people who smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day, while those who are overweight have the same risk as less heavy smokers, according to research published on bmj.com today. http://phys.org/news154768226.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:10:59 EST news154768226 Europeans with the least education have a higher incidence of lung cancer compared with those with the highest education. However, smoking history accounts for approximately half of this risk, according to a study in the February 24 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://phys.org/news154721092.html Medicine & Health Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:05:21 EST news154721092 Taking a combination of vitamins B6 and B12 and folic acid appears to decrease the risk of age-related macular degeneration in women, according to a report in the February 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. http://phys.org/news154633640.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:47:50 EST news154633640 People who start smoking before age 17 may increase their risk for developing multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 61st Annual Meeting in Seattle, April 25 to May 2, 2009. http://phys.org/news154618005.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:27:17 EST news154618005 A new study finds that kids who are allowed to watch R-rated movies are much more likely to believe it's easy to get a cigarette than those who aren't allowed to watch such films. http://phys.org/news154583254.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:48:24 EST news154583254 A well-off professional who smokes has a much lower survival rate than a non-smoking low-paid worker of the same sex concludes new research published today on bmj.com. http://phys.org/news154122231.html Medicine & Health Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:44:24 EST news154122231 Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the American Legacy Foundation have estimated that truth®, the nations' largest youth smoking prevention campaign, saved $1.9 billion or more in health care costs associated with tobacco use. The results were published February 12 online by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. http://phys.org/news153669857.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:04:43 EST news153669857 Researchers at University College London and St George's, University of London measured recent exposure to tobacco smoke in non-smoking middle-aged men taking part in the British Regional Heart Study by measuring the levels of cotinine - a compound carried in the blood - at two time points 20 years apart. http://phys.org/news153569502.html Medicine & Health Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:12:19 EST news153569502 The health of bar workers, who actively smoke cigarettes, significantly improves after the introduction of a smoking ban, reveals research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. http://phys.org/news153514238.html Medicine & Health Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:50:57 EST news153514238 A University of Iowa study is apparently the first to make a connection between a rare, hereditary premature aging disease and cell damage that comes from smoking. The study results point to possible therapeutic targets for smoking-related diseases. http://phys.org/news153129248.html Medicine & Health Fri, 06 Feb 2009 07:54:43 EST news153129248 A Cardiff University research project has for the first time studied whether smoking during pregnancy can directly make children more likely to behave anti-socially. http://phys.org/news152818144.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:29:30 EST news152818144 Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) commonly called secondhand smoke, can harm a developing fetus and may account for complications during pregnancy and birth. It is now known that non-whites experience more adverse pregnancy effects than do whites from smoking and ETS exposure. In an article published in the March 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers examined whether black, non-smoking women were able to avoid ETS exposure early in pregnancy and the social contextual factors that affected their success in avoiding secondhand smoke. http://phys.org/news152294408.html Medicine & Health Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:00:41 EST news152294408 Duke University Medical System researchers have discovered there are differing taste pathways for nicotine, which could provide a new approach for future smoking-cessation products. http://phys.org/news151856271.html Medicine & Health Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:18:31 EST news151856271 A study from the University of Bath has found that smokers are twice as likely to kick the habit if they use a support group rather than trying to give up alone. http://phys.org/news151850069.html Medicine & Health Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:35:28 EST news151850069 The association between tobacco smoke and cancer deaths — beyond lung cancer deaths — has been strengthened by a recent study from a UC Davis researcher, suggesting that increased tobacco control efforts could save more lives than previously estimated. http://phys.org/news151770432.html Medicine & Health Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:30:40 EST news151770432 Cigarette smoking during pregnancy is associated with potentially harmful changes in both maternal and fetal thyroid function, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). http://phys.org/news151065667.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:41:07 EST news151065667 Women who smoke during pregnancy risk delivering aggressive kids according to a new Canada-Netherlands study published in the journal Development and Psychopathology. While previous studies have shown that smoking during gestation causes low birth weight, this research shows mothers who light up during pregnancy can predispose their offspring to an additional risk: violent behaviour. http://phys.org/news150461146.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:45:46 EST news150461146 Just seeing someone smoke can trigger smokers to abandon their nascent efforts to kick the habit, according to new research conducted at Duke University Medical Center. http://phys.org/news150397760.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:09:20 EST news150397760 A new study shows that people who are smokers and have a family history of brain aneurysm appear to be significantly more likely to suffer a stroke from a brain aneurysm themselves. The research is published in the December 31, 2008, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology and will appear in the January 6, 2009, print issue of Neurology. http://phys.org/news150023581.html Medicine & Health Thu, 01 Jan 2009 09:13:01 EST news150023581 Need another reason to add "Quit Smoking" to your New Year's resolutions list? How about the fact that even if you choose to smoke outside of your home or only smoke in your home when your children are not there - thinking that you're keeping them away from second-hand smoke - you're still exposing them to toxins? In the January issue of Pediatrics, researchers at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) and colleagues across the country describe how tobacco smoke contamination lingers even after a cigarette is extinguished - a phenomenon they define as "third-hand" smoke. Their study is the first to examine adult attitudes about the health risks to children of third-hand smoke and how those beliefs may relate to rules about smoking in their homes. http://phys.org/news149774815.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:06:55 EST news149774815 Smoking during the first trimester of pregnancy is clearly linked with an increased risk of cleft lip in newborns. Genes that play a role in detoxification of cigarette smoke do not appear to be involved. This is shown in a new study published in the journal Epidemiology. http://phys.org/news148816410.html Medicine & Health Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:53:30 EST news148816410 An analysis of previous studies indicates that smoking is significantly associated with an increased risk for colorectal cancer and death, according to an article in the December 17 issue of JAMA. http://phys.org/news148668495.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:48:15 EST news148668495 (PhysOrg.com) -- Cigarette smoking rates among American teens in 2008 are at the lowest levels since at least as far back as the early 1990s, according to the Monitoring the Future study based at the University of Michigan, which has been surveying national samples of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students each year since 1991. http://phys.org/news148229935.html Medicine & Health Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:58:55 EST news148229935 A new study from the Abramson Cancer Center and Department of Psychiatry in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine shows that smokers who carry a particular version of a gene for an enzyme that regulates dopamine in the brain may suffer from concentration problems and other cognitive deficits when abstaining from nicotine – a problem that puts them at risk for relapse during attempts to quit smoking. The findings, newly published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, pave the way to identify novel medications to treat nicotine addiction. http://phys.org/news148063843.html Medicine & Health Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:50:43 EST news148063843 If you need another reason to quit smoking, consider that it may diminish your chances of being a parent or grandparent. Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found that women exposed to second hand smoke, either as adults or children, were significantly more likely to face fertility problems and suffer miscarriages. http://phys.org/news147697851.html Medicine & Health Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:10:51 EST news147697851 As the connection between second-hand smoke and coronary heart disease (CHD) became clearer and legislation was passed to reduce such passive smoking, exposures have been reduced. In an article published in the January 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, Partners Healthcare, Boston and Columbia University have recalibrated the CHD Policy Model to better predict future trends in CHD. http://phys.org/news147422906.html Medicine & Health Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:48:26 EST news147422906