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Category Archives: Medical Tidbits
Chewing Tobacco
| Chewing Tobacco | |
| Apart from Smoking, Tobacco is taken in various other forms: Tobacco with betel leaves, Chewing tobacco (khaini), Guthkha, Tobacco snuff. | |
People who chew tobacco for many years are 50 times more likely to get oral cancer, gum disease and lose their teeth than people who do not chew.The risk of other cancers, heart disease, and ulcerative colitis is 50-70% higher among chewers.Nicotine addiction and dependence is also very real with chewing tobacco. Nicotine addiction leads to increased heart rate and blood pressure. Nicotine constricts the blood vessels and limits oxygen supply throughout the body.Chewing tobacco leaves irritating juices in contact with gums, cheeks and lips for prolonged periods of time. This can lead to a condition called leukoplakia which appears as a smooth, white patch or as leathery-looking wrinkled skin.Oral leukoplakic lesions have been seen upon continued use of tobacco use, which undergo transformation to a dysplastic state. The dysplastic lesions can further develop into carcinomas.Tobacco chewing leads to:
The potent carcinogens found in snuff and chewing tobacco include nitrosamines, polycyclic aromatic Oral lesions caused by chewing tobacco rarely cause pain and thus such persons should regularly undergo dental checkups. Some of the danger signs in those who chew tobacco:
More Dangers of Chewing Tobacco Hazards
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Smoking Tobacco Facts
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hydrocarbons, and radiation-emitting polonium.
Acupuncture: in aid of Smokers
| Acupuncture: in aid of Smokers |
| MORE and more patients who fail to respond to modern medicine are turning towards alternative forms of therapy. Do these alternative systems work? Is it merely a placebo effect? Few doctors have done clinical studies to gather objective evidence to answer these questions. |
| In England, Dr. Tanvir Jamil, has systematically gathered information that suggests acupuncture could help patients quit smoking. He has used acupuncture on 21 patients who wanted to quit smoking and found that five of these gave up the habit, seven reduced the number of cigarettes smoked, and all found the therapy beneficial. |
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Basic principles Chinese physicians have practiced acupuncture for over 5000 years. It is based on the concept Qi or bio- |
| Many doctors in the West are using acupuncture to treat aches, pains, respiratory infections and allergies. Some claim that they have helped patients quit smoking, but there are no published data. So Dr. Jamil decided to bridge the gap by compiling information on patients who received acupuncture therapy in his clinic to help them quit smoking. |
| TherapyOver a six-month period, 15 women and 6 men received one acupuncture treatment every week for an average of four (range 2-5) weeks. At each session five ear points (see diagram) and two distal points in the hand were punctured and the needle was left in place for 20 minutes. Patients were also taught to use simple acupressure methods like applying firm pressure on the ‘lung point’ if they felt the urge to smoke. |
| ResultsFour patients withdrew from the therapy. Five quit smoking and seven decreased the number of cigarettes. Many found that acupuncture reduced stress and controlled craving. In one case, the patient had already stopped smoking and found the acupuncture helped in dealing with “withdrawal’ symptoms. Some noticed that the cigarettes started to taste terrible. Acupressure gave many patients something to do and distract themselves during periods of craving. Overall, patients found the therapy of ‘definite’ benefit.
One 66-year-old woman who had been smoking 20 cigarettes a day for more than 20 years could give up smoking because of this therapy. She had tried unsuccessfully to quit smoking five years earlier when her father died of bronchitis. Her husband had managed to quit with the help of nicotine patches. Neither nicotine patches nor smaller packs of cigarettes nor herbal cigarettes nor hypnotherapy helped her in any way. But after two sessions of acupuncture, she was down to five cigarettes a week. At the end of five sessions, she had stopped smoking. There was some craving initially but this settled rapidly after her second session. She found that acupressure helped her relieve stress. Three years after therapy, she continued to be a non-smoker. In this time, she had taken three sessions of acupuncture during periods of stress. |
| Scientific basisThe results seen by Dr. Jamil’s clinic could be due to release of endorphins and encephalins that were able to latch on to nicotine receptors in the brain. They could also have been due to hormonal stimulation that brought about the stress relief. Placebo effect cannot be ignored, especially as most of the patients were highly motivated and had wanted to give up smoking for a number of years.
Dr. Jamil has acknowledged that his sample size was too small with no control group to generalize the findings of his study. But data from an open study are better than no data at all. Besides, the results are encouraging enough to undertake further research. |
| Smoking |
energy. The Chinese believe that Qi flows in the body through certain channels or ‘meridians’. Impaired flow leads to disease. ‘Acupoints’ are specific areas on the surface of the body which when stimulated modulate flow of Qi and influence the function of internal organs. Stimulation is achieved by puncturing the ‘acupoint’ with a needle or pressing it with the fingertip (acupressure). Doctors use special ‘maps’ that indicate the location of acupoints all over the body that can be stimulated to treat various conditions.How to get rid of Tobacco Smoking
for those who smoke
| How to get rid of Tobacco Smoking |
| Tobacco is a serious but preventable risk factor for the heart diseases. It has a large habit forming potential. The strong addiction to smoking needs equally strong motivation and determination to get rid of this habit. But it is not an impossible task. Those who on this habit have no option but to get rid of this addiction if they wish to prevent heart and lung problems and to avoid expensive cardiac surgery like cardiac bypass or angioplasty in the future. |
| A smoker has to makeup his mind to quit smoking. It has to be 100 percent, as anything less that this would not do. It should be understood that it is far easier for a confirmed smoker not to smoke a single cigarette than to struggle with a reduced number. Thus one has to aim at quitting completely. There is nothing like a “reduction in smoking”. |
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| If you can stop smoking and throw away your pack of cigarette for good, nothing like it. If not, you can do it in two or three stages, but with a clear resolve that the goal is complete abstinence and under no circumstances the interim stage be allowed to become the goal. |
| It is a fact that one cigarette leads to another, because it not only satisfies the craving for the nicotine but also produces craving for more. You would have noticed that when you get up in the morning the craving for the cigarette is the minimum. but after the first smoke the craving increases. It is therefore important to recognize that the easiest cigarette to resist is the first cigarette of the day. Similarly if you are confined to bed due to some illness and have not smoked for a few days, the craving appreciably diminishes. |
| Thus, if you cannot stop smoking all of a sudden, then you should do it in 3 stages. |
| In the first stage reduce the number to exactly half, realizing fully that this is a temporary and merely the first battle against tobacco. Continue this for a month. You’ll notice that craving for the cigarette has considerably reduced. |
| In the second stage, reduce the number of cigarettes to 4 or 5, and continue for another month. At this stage you’ll find that the craving has become so little that it is not difficult to stop the cigarette smoking. |
| In the third or the final stage, take the final plunge and say goodbye to smoking forever. Do not keep any cigarettes at home. Throw away all the things like ash trays, cigarette tighter or anything that may remind you of smoking. |
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Tobacco Facts
| Tobacco Facts |
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Smokeless Tobacco
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Passive Smoke (ETS)
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Health Risks
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| Pregnancy and Smoking Many women, particularly teenage girls, have taken up smoking in recent years. A study revealed that smoking among pregnant teens has increased, with as many as 29% of non-Hispanic white teens smoking during pregnancy.The health benefits of quitting smoking are significant for the unborn children of pregnant women.
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Smoking Chewing Tobacco
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