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iTechMedicalToday - This Is The Heart of The Matter

Psychology of Smoking

April 26th 2012 03:39

Is Smoking "Cool"?

So in my last post I informed ya'll about the history, economy and health risks of the tobacco industry mainly focusing on cigarettes. So why, with all of these health risks, do people still smoke? This is my take on the psychology of smoking. I know that what started me smoking, even though my mom is a nurse and i'm going to be a doctor, was not so much peer pressure but rebellion. I knew it was wrong and unhealthy and addicting and this was the main reason that I wanted to try it. It was stupid rebellion but it did what I thought that I had under control: addiction. I became addictive to nicotine. I believe that this is the most common reason that people nowadays are addictive to cigarettes. It begins with teenage rebellion and continues in adult addiction. Also, once you become an adult and you just bow to and give up to your addiction and can get this drug legally, you have labeled yourself culturally as a "smoker". And as a smoker you now belong to a subculture of society that I believe could be known as the Smoking Youth. I call them this because they knew better than to smoke and were taught not to and for that very reason and rebellion they did what they knew was wrong and became needlessly addicted to tobacco at a young age. These College Students are not the older folks who didn't know any better as kids and just did what their parents were already doing. The "Smoking Youth" group together. If you haven't noticed but usually only smokers will hang out with smokers. You can see them on a rainy day huddled outside underneath the awning shivering and trying not to get their cigarette put out by the rain. It is said that misery loves company and I believe that is why smoking is still popular among youth even though it is on the decline. When you are deliberately and knowingly killing yourself you want to hang out with people that are doing the same as you.

So these people form a subset of society. A society based on addiction and on rebellion.

So for anyone who reads this and is a smoker know this: I love you and can sympathize with you, but there is no reason nor excuse to smoke. You CAN stop and you should have no reason not to. There are various ways to stop smoking and you can do your own research. Google is your friend. And if you have kids, know this: They are watching you and everything you do validates ANYTHING they do. If you smoke, they can start and you have no foothold to help them. The blind cannot lead the blind. Education and Example are the two greatest things that you can give your kids. Give them no reason to start smoking and even if they stumble and start. Don't try once to get them to quit and just give up. Keep at it and they WILL come around. I know I did.

Thank you for listening,
Jake

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Posted By: Bond, Jake Bond: A Science and Technology Blog - Category: No Category

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The Smoking Gun: History of Cigarettes and Health Related Issues.

April 23rd 2012 10:25

Smoking Gun

So this is and is also not going a bit off topic for me. I used to be a smoker. I am not proud of it, but peer pressure got the better (or worse) of me. I have an addictive personality and the extremely addictive nature of tobacco took hold of me. I have since been on Chantix, a prescription drug that helps incredibly to virtually eliminate the addiction of nicotine, and am doing well. But that is beside the point. I recently finished working on a project for Wikipedia for school. I chose an article to review and update. The article I chose was the Comprehensive Smoking Education Act. I added and updated sections including The History of Tobacco, The Economy of the Cigarette, and Health Related Issues. One of my great interests in the field of science and technology is history. Because everything in science is built upon the shoulder's of others' discoveries. Since Tobacco heavily influenced nearly every known culture and was used for its "curative" properties in the early centuries, I believe that it is an interesting topic to talk about. So here we go!

History Of Tobacco

The history of tobacco dates back to 600 through 900 A.D. from carvings by the Mayans. They were growing tobacco before the Europeans arrived in North America. Tobacco was primarily used for religious and medicinal purposes before 1612, the year that it because North American's most lucrative cash crop. Tobacco was used in Native American religious ceremonies as a peace pipe. Two tribe leaders would smoke a peace pipe to symbolize the new peaceful relations that would be held between the tribes. It was as binding as a written contract. Tobacco was also believed to be a cure-all, and was used to dress wounds and was also used as a pain killer. Chewing tobacco was believed to relieve the pain of a toothache.

The New World Discovery of Tobacco
On October 15, 1492, Christopher Columbus was offered dried tobacco leaves as a gift from the American Indians that he met when landing upon the New World. Soon after, sailors brought back tobacco to Europe and the plant started to be grown all over the Old World. The main reason for tobacco's growing popularity in Europe was its supposed healing qualities. Europeans believed that tobacco was a cure-all and could cure anything from halitosis to cancer. In support of this, in 1571, a Spanish doctor by the name of Nicolas Monardes wrote a book about the history of medicinal plants of the new world, one of them being tobacco. In his book he claimed that tobacco could cure 36 health problems. During the 1600's tobacco was so popular that it was often used as currency. It was the first crop grown for profit in Jamestown, Virginia, the first city in the first colony of the New World. It became North America's main source of income and helped fund the American Revolutionary War. (9)

The Economy of Cigarette

As mentioned above, in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War, tobacco helped finance the revolution by serving as collateral for loans that the Americans borrowed from France. The beginning of the Cigarette industry began by the ingenuity of James Bonsack. Who created the first cigarette making machine that allowed his company to mass produce a cheap, easy to use and easy to light way for Americans' to get their tobacco fix. People no longer had to roll their on smokes with paper or fill their pipes. It was a quick and convenient way for Americans to smoke. It wasn't until the 1900's that the cigarette became the major tobacco product made and sold. Still, in 1901 2.5 billion cigarettes were sold, while 6 billion hand rolled cigars were sold. In 1902, the British Phillip Morris set up a New York headquarter to market its cigarettes including the now famous Malboro brand. Company were producing 10 million cigarettes in their first year and had an exponential increased to 1 billion 5 years later. The number reached 300 billion by the year 1944 and created a multimillion dollar business in the United States. The tobacco industry has announced a 5.65 billion dollar surplus in 1992 and one company alone pay 4.5 million dollar in taxes that year. These tobacco companies clearly generated a lot of revenue for the United States.(9)

War & Cigarettes: A Soldiers' Relief

The use of cigarettes exploded during World war I (1914-1918) where cigarettes became known as the "soldier's smoke". During World War II (1939-1945), cigarette sales soared to an all time high. Cigarettes were even included in soldier's C-Rations. Tobacco companies sent millions of cigarettes to the soldier for free, and when these soldiers came home, the companies had a steady stream of loyally addicted customers.

The Revelation of the Hazards of Smoking

In 1964, the Surgeon General's report on "Smoking and Health" came out. This report helped the government to regulate the advertisement and sales of cigarettes. The 1960's as a whole was a time when much of the health hazards of smoking were reported. However the companies that made these cigarettes fought hard to keep the public buying their products. It wasn't until 1971 the television ads for cigarettes were taken off the air in the U.S.

Recent History

During the 1980's there were many lawsuit filed against the tobacco industry because of the harmful effects of its products. In this time frame, smoking becomes politically incorrect and public places such as restaurants start banning smoking in their place of business. In 1985, lung caner became the #1 killer of women, beating out breast cancer. The tobacco companies saw the trends in the market and began heavily diversifying, buying into other products like General Foods Corporation and Draft Inc in 1985. During the 80's and 90's, the tobacco industry starts marketing heavily in areas outside the U.S., especially developing countries in Asia. Marlboro is considered the word's No. 1 most valuable brand of any product with a value over $30 billion! Over this period, there is a battle between Coca Cola and Marlboro as the No. 1 brand in the world!
In recent, years, there is growing evidence that the tobacco industry has known all along that cigarettes are harmful, but continued to market and sell them. There is also evidence that they knew that nicotine was addictive and exploited this hidden knowledge to get millions of people hooked on this dangerous habit! Every year, tobacco companies spend billions of dollars on advertising and promotion, and U.S. consumers spend billions of dollars on tobacco products. Tobacco use then costs the United States billions of dollars in medical expenses and lost productivity.1–3 Tobacco companies spend billions of dollars each year to market their products.
Example in 2006, cigarette companies spent $12.4 billion on advertising and promotional expenses in the United States alone, down from $13.1 billion in 2005, but more than double what was spent in 1997.The money cigarette companies spent on U.S. marketing in 2006 amounted to approximately $34 million per day.The five major U.S. smokeless tobacco manufacturers spent $354 million on smokeless tobacco advertising and promotion in 2006.[3]
More than 315 billion cigarettes were purchased in the United States in 2009, with 3 companies selling nearly 85% of them.Approximately 121.4 million pounds of smokeless tobacco were purchased in the United States in 2009 (down from 124.7 million pounds in 2008), with 3 companies selling nearly 90%.8.Approximately 12 billion cigars (i.e., 9.7 billion large cigars and cigarillos; 2.3 billion little cigars) were purchased in the United States in 2009, with 3 companies selling a majority of them.

Health

Smoking has profound effects on the human body in many ways and contributes to the United States leading cause of death, heart disease. According to the National Cancer Institute, there are more than 440,000 early deaths each year in America due to smoking. (10) The primary organ that is closely related to smoking are the lungs. There are two types of lung cancer, the first type is called Small Cell Lung Cancer and is accountable for 20% of all lung cancers. The cancer cells in these patients are typically smaller than regular cancer cells, but they multiply rapidly to generate massive tumors. The second type is called Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and is responsible for 80% of call cancer cases. Cancers such as the Squamous cell carcinoma in men and Adenocarcinoma in women are the two most common form of NSCLC.

The estimated average annual number of smoking-attributable deaths in the United States during 2000 through 2004 by specific causes, as follows:Lung cancer: 128,900 deaths,Other cancers: 35,300 deaths,Ischemic Heart Disease: 126,000 deaths Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: 92,900 deaths,Stroke: 15,900 deaths andOther diagnoses: 44,000 deaths
Secondhand smoke is also another major problem from cigarettes and it has the same effects on nonsmokers as it does to smokers. There are two types of secondhand smoke with Type 1 being Sidestream smoke and Type 2 being Mainstream smoke. Sidestream smoke is the smoke that comes from the lighted cigarette while Mainstream smoke is the smoke that is exhaled by smokers. Sidestream is the more deadly of the two because it has more carcinogens and contains smaller particles that can easily maneuver into human cells.

Smoking also causes major damages to the heart causing coronary heart disease which is the number 1 killer in the United States. Cigarette smoke causes shrinkage in the arteries which heightens their chance of developing peripheral vascular disease. According to the Control Disease Center also known as the CDC, smoking can increase a person's risk of developing heart disease and getting a stroke as much as 2 to 4 times more than an average non-smoker.

Cigarette smoking was estimated to be responsible for $193 billion in annual health-related economic losses in the United States ($96 billion in direct medical costs and approximately $97 billion in lost productivity) in 2004-2004.The total economic costs (direct medical costs and lost productivity) associated with cigarette smoking are estimated at $10.47 per pack of cigarettes sold in the United States.Cigarette smoking results in 5.1 million years of potential life lost in the United States annually.

In my next post I will go over the psychology of smoking tobacco including: peer pressure, addiction and culture.

Cheers!
Jake

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Posted By: Bond, Jake Bond: A Science and Technology Blog - Category: No Category

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Valentine's Day Broken Heart

February 10th 2012 18:38

Valentine's Day Heart

It always sucks when your girlfriend (or boyfriend) breaks up with you and it sucks even more when they break up with you on or near to Valentine's Day, the day when you are supposed to focus solely on each other. But as Valentine's Day approaches, cardiologists describe something known commonly as a "broken heart" as an actual medical condition. It has similar symptoms as a heart attack. Such as chest pain and difficulty breathing. Called by doctors stress cardiomyopothy, this condition, however painful and emotionally damaging, does not cause lasting damage to the heart. Most people get better within a couple of weeks without medical treatment. During an extremely stressful event, such as your significant other breaking up with you, stress hormones such as adrenaline surge, causing the symptoms of chest pain and difficulty breathing. What happens in that these stress hormones cause the arteries going to the heart to constrict and allow less blood to flow into the actual heart muscle. This is similar to when in a heart attack, a blood clot allows less blood to flow into the heart muscle. This is why "broken heart syndrome" causes similar symptoms as a heart attack. However, these symptoms are indistinguishable from an actual heart attack. So don't hesitate to call 911 if you are feeling these symptoms because it could very well be a heart attack. Basically, if you want to break up with somebody, don't do it on Valentine's Day, or any other significant holiday.

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Posted By: Bond, Jake Bond: A Science and Technology Blog - Category: No Category

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Cancer Stem Cells

February 9th 2012 01:42

Cancer Stem Cell

Cancer Stem Cells (CSC's) are why cancer that has been said to be in remission reoccurs. Most of a cancerous tumor is made up of fast reproducing cells that don't work the same way that normal cells do. These cells are easily killed by chemotherapy and surgery. The only problem is that the CSC's are not killed as easily with chemotherapy. What needs to be done is some type of targeted drug that can kill CSC's. CSC's are slow reproducing and as such chemotherapy, which only kills fast reproducing cells, doesn't work. Just like regular stem cells, CSC's can turn into any type of cancer cell. Which is why metastasis occurs, such as having cancer in the lungs, suddenly having a tumor in the spleen. Cancer is a scourge in America and around the world. People and doctors most of all, need to realize that conventional wisdom is not wisdom at all, and that new methods of treating cancer are not inherently wrong or evil. The fact is that conventional treatments for cancer don't work and that they kill just as much, or more, as they cure, and even then they don't really cure.Killing CSC's is the answer to curing cancer.

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Posted By: Bond, Jake Bond: A Science and Technology Blog - Category: No Category

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Complex Heart Issues Can Now Be Fixed Without Open Heart Surgery

February 9th 2012 00:39

Open Heart Surgery

Open heart surgery is one of the most invasive, complex and hardest surgery to recover from. It is also the second most important, some would say the most important, surgery that you can have. The heart is arguably the most important organ in the body. It pumps life giving blood throughout the body and without this blood, the brain wouldn't work. Also, interestingly enough, the heart can work without the brain telling it what to do. It squeezes hard enough to crush a tennis ball to pump blood throughout the body. In one pump of the left ventricle it forces blood throughout the entire body giving oxygen and nutrients to the cells. Without the heart nothing would work and if the heart isn't working properly nothing works well or even at all. Certain unfortunate people are born with a heart defect in their heart valves. This congenital heart defect requires as many as four open heart surgeries before adulthood to replace the valves that they have outgrown. There is, however, a new alternative. A new type of artificial pulmonary valve called the Medtronic Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve was recently approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is now being used to replace a narrow or leaky pulmonary valve "conduit" that connects the heart of the lungs. The Melody valve is inserted into a small opening in the leg of the patient in the femoral artery guided by a catheter up to the heart. Once the valve is positioned, a balloon on the end of the catheter is inflated, placing the valve and immediately correcting blood flow. This procedure is extremely similar to Cardiac Catheterization, where a stent is placed using the same procedure as before. The amazing thing about this surgery is that it is done beating heart. Which means that the heart never stops pumping blood throughout the surgery. Also the recovery time for this surgery is next to nothing. The patient only stays overnight in the hospital and goes home in the morning with virtually no pain and goes back to business as normal

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Posted By: Bond, Jake Bond: A Science and Technology Blog - Category: No Category

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A Harmless Soil-Dwelling Bacteria Might Be Used As A Vessel To Target Cancer Tumors

February 9th 2012 00:34

Clostridium Sporeanges

Chemotherapy doesn't work. It destroys healthy and cancerous cells alike. It has no preference and is as much of a hit and miss therapy as anything. In the last ten years scientists have even come to find out that while chemotherapy does destroy tumors, it doesn't destroy all of the tumor. See, chemotherapy only kills fast replicating cells, not slow replicating ones. Why does this matter you say? Well, come to find out, there is a special type of cell that exists in a tumor, cancer stem cells. These cells are responsible for the tumor metastasizing (spreading into the blood and other organs) and are only present in about 1% of the tumor.And guess what? They are slow to replicate. So while chemotherapy does kill most of the tumor, it doesn't kill these cells and this is why the cancer can come back even when the tumor is gone. There are newer drugs out there that do kill cancer stem cells. However, we have had no way of targeting the tumor. Until now. A harmless soil-dwelling bacteria called Clostridium Sporogenes is being tested in human patients to target solid tumors. The spores of the bacteria are injected into the tumor and they only grow in the tumor. A anti-cancer pro-drug that is in an inactivated form is injected separately into the patient and travels through the body and upon arriving at the site of the tumor, it gets activated by specific bacteria enzymes that the bacteria have produced. This allows the drug to destroy only the cancer cells in its vicinity. How do these bacteria only target the tumor cells? Well, Professor Nigel Minton, who is leading the research, explains how this therapy naturally fulfils this need. "Clostridia are an ancient group of bacteria that evolved on the planet before it had an oxygen-rich atmosphere and so they thrive in low oxygen conditions. When Clostridia spores are injected into a cancer patient, they will only grow in oxygen-depleted environments, i.e. the center of solid tumors. This is a totally natural phenomenon, which requires no fundamental alterations and is exquisitely specific. We can exploit this specificity to kill tumor cells but leave healthy tissue unscathed." This is an amazing way to treat cancer and may be the way to effectively kill cancer stem cells and decrease mortality rates among cancer patients.

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Posted By: Bond, Jake Bond: A Science and Technology Blog - Category: No Category

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New Cancer Research- Glowing Tumors

February 9th 2012 00:09

3-D Scan of Mouse Tumor

Conventional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy are injected into the blood stream and circulate throughout the body and are not targeted toward the cancerous tumors in any way. The main goal of chemotherapy is to kill the cancer quicker than you kill the patient. Targeted drugs to eliminate the tumors right where they are, instead of killing every cell in the body, are something that has been thought of well before, but we have not had the technology to target these tumors until the last couple of years. For centuries the only way to truly know how big the tumor was is to cut it out of the patient. That is one of the reasons why surgeons cut twice as much of the area around the tumor when removing it. In this new publication, genetically tweaked bacteria, made to glow, are injected into the blood stream of mice and then the mice are scanned in three dimensions and the glowing bacteria show exactly where the bacteria are inside the tumor. The bacteria used end up in the tumor because they only grow in anaerobic, or non-oxygenated, area in the body, such as the center of a tumor. Because of this new technology, doctors will be able to see exactly where they need to cut to completely remove the tumor. However, this is not the answer for the end of cancer, although it is a step forward. There are these types of cells called CSC's or Cancer Stem Cells and I will tell you about them, what they are and why they are important, in my next post.

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