Marijuana is Trending More Than Heroin, Opioid Analgesics and Cigarettes - http://clapway.com/2015/12/16/marijuana-is-trending-more-than-heroin-opioid-analgesics-and-cigarettes-combined/

According to the latest National Institute on Drug Abuse‘s Monitoring the Future Survey, marijuana use is more popular than heroin, opioid analgesics and cigarettes combined. The survey gives talks to teens in grades 8-12 to get a feel for how many students are using drugs, which ones, how often and how much. 

Illegal Use of Prescription Drugs and Heroin is Only Popular Among Adults

The NIH has declared that use of prescription drugs and heroin is at its lowest since the Monitoring Future Survey was first introduced. These drugs have not seen a decline in popularity for adults, but teenagers tell an entirely different story. The use of synthetic cannabinoids, Vicodin, inhalants, methamphetamine, amphetamines, ecstasy and alcohol is at an all time low in NIH records, in all age-groups that took part in the survey.

For 8th-10th graders, the use of Ritalin, Oxycontin, bath salts, over the counter cough medicine and bath salts also saw a significant decrease, and it is at its lowest since the survey was first made. 12th grader reported the lowest amount of crystal meth and sedative use as well.

Drug Use in Teens is Down to 27.2%

The only drug that has seen only a slight decrease is alcohol. 40% of teens surveyed were revealed to have gotten drunk in the past year. The popularity of e-cigarettes is also evident. While the use of regular cigarettes is at it’s lowest, 9.5% of 8th graders, 14% of 10th graders and 16.2% of 12th graders had used e-cigarettes in the past year.

The Only Drug that Did Not Lose Popularity is Marijuana

6% of high school seniors reported having smoked marijuana daily. 6.5% high school freshman and 16.6% of sophomores smoked in the past month. 21.2% of seniors admitted having used it in the past month. The perception of marijuana at high schools has seen a steady shift. 31.9% of seniors surveyed said that consistent use of marijuana could be harmful, which is down 6% from last year.

These Figures Should Be Taken With A Grain of Salt

Dr. Nora Volkov, director of NIDA, advises the community to still remain alert. The fact that figures are lower doesn’t mean that they will continue to decline. The past twenty years have seen a trend shift toward relatively safer drugs, but rates of drug use are still very high at the national level.

In comparison to other countries, the United States has some of the highest rates of drug use among younger age groups. It will likely be some time before global surveys show us any different. There is lots of work to do until illegal drug use is kept at a manageable line.

Will Legalized Medical or Recreational Marijuana Factor into These Figures in the Future?

If marijuana is legalized under federal law, it may no longer factor into these figures. Whether it for in medical or recreational use, marijuana shows no signs of becoming less popular. Aside from the fact that it introduces potentially harmful fumes and tar into the lungs, there is little to be said about opposing marijuana. While it does impair judgment, it has shown potential to treat pain, depression and other ailments in moderate amounts.

Party Drugs Are Dead to Teens

The fact that this survey shows marijuana as the most popular drug of choice is probably not only for the teenage age group. Figures for young adults in or recently out of college are probably similar. In any case, it’s good news that party drugs and dangerous opioid analgesics are less popular, perhaps because marijuana is as trendy as it is accessible in the United States. Whether or not the trend will stabilize is yet to be seen, as the government has been increasingly considering of legalizing the plant.

Marijuana is Trending More Than Heroin, Opioid Analgesics and Cigarettes

New research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that less Americans are #smokers. Just 15.2% of them #smoke #cigarettes. - http://clapway.com/2015/09/04/cdc-smokers123/

New research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that less Americans than ever – just 15.2% of them – smoke cigarettes, UPI reports.

DRAMATIC DROP OVER DECADES

The statistic, which was found by researchers for the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey, is consistent with the trend of decline from the past few years. In recent decades, smoking in the United States has dramatically decreased in popularity: in 1965, 42 percent of Americans smoked; in 2013, 18 percent; and in 2014, 17 percent. Since 2009, the number has been decreasing after stagnating for a few years in the mid-2000s.

ANTI-SMOKING ACTIVISTS ARE PLEASED

Anti-tobacco activists are pleased with the unprecedented low in American smokers, and cite it as an indication of an effective anti-smoking strategy. The American Lung Association’s director of national policy, Thomas Carr, told HealthDay that it shows that anti-smoking organizations should do “more of the same.”

Carr has also called for more anti-smoking laws. “It could have an impact on the smoking rate, and definitely would protect more people from secondhand smoke,” he said.

WHY LESS SMOKE THAN EVER

Anti-smoking laws, marketing campaigns and taxes are thought to be the cause behind the new low in American smokers.

Specifically, graphic television commercials with grotesque pictures of cancerous lungs aimed at smokers were cited as one of the reasons by the Patricia Falon, the Center for Tobacco Control at North Shore-LIJ Health System’s director in an interview with HealthDay.

“Smokers find them so painful to watch that they keep changing the channel, but these ads are running everywhere,” said the director.

GENDER AND RACE OF SMOKERS

Researchers found that men (17 percent) were more likely to smoke than women (13 percent), and young people were more likely than old people. Statistics differed among races, too: 10 percent of Hispanics, 18 percent of blacks and 10 percent of whites are smokers.

The director of the American Cancer Society’s Tobacco Control Center, Cliff Douglas, told HealthDay that the differences among demographics “highlight the importance of something that’s crucial to us — addressing disparities in the tobacco epidemic.”

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Less Americans Than Ever Are Smokers Says CDC

%Public Health England published a report proving #e-cigarettes 95 percent less hazardous than regular, "normal" #cigarettes; recommends them as quitting aid.% - http://clapway.com/2015/08/22/e-cigarettes-95-percent-less-harmful-than-smoking-110/

Public Health England, an agency of the British Department of Health, published a report which describes e-cigarettes as 95 percent less hazardous than the regular, “normal” cigarettes and recommends them as a quitting aid.

“Best estimates show e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful to your health than normal cigarettes and when supported by a smoking cessation service, help most smokers to quit tobacco altogether,” Public Health England Chief Executive, Duncan Selbie, says while one of the study’s authors, Peter Hajek, professor at the Queen Mary University adds:

“My reading of the evidence is that smokers who switch to vaping remove almost all the risks smoking poses to their health.”

E-CIGARETTES DO NOT LEAD THE MASSES TO SMOKING

Anti-smoking activists and public health officials do not believe in vaping as a method for smokers to quit their unhealthy habit and believe that e-cigarettes are making smoking seem glamorous luring non-smokers into nicotine addiction.

The report though says that almost all of the 2,600,000 adults who use e-cigarettes in Great Britain used to be smokers and that most of them are using their devices in order to quit. In addition, less than 1% of adults and less than 1% of teenagers have become regular e-cig users without ever being smokers in the past.

In other words, as in the United States, smoking rates in the U.K. have decreased as vaping rates have risen and “there is no evidence so far that e-cigarettes are acting as a route into smoking for children or non-smokers.”

PHE’s report calculates that 44.8 percent of the population in Great Britain have not realized that e-cigarettes are less harmful than smoking. This number is quite small compared to the 65 percent of Americans who, according to a Reuters poll, believe that e-smoking is either worse than regular smoking or don’t know.

Related Post: Are E-Cigarettes Bad for Your Health?

Misleading pronouncements by anti-smoking organizations and public health agencies about vaping have made the masses believe that e-cigarettes may be, in fact, more dangerous than smoking. For example, CDC Director Tom Frieden says that “When it comes to tobacco products we really have to assume they’re dangerous until they’re proven safe, rather than the other way around.” However, e-cigarettes do not contain any tobacco at all.

E-CIGARETTES ARE NOT RISK FREE

This kind of misinformation may lead smokers to serious behaviors, making them believe that e-cigs are, at least, as harmful as normal cigarettes. This could keep million of smokers from quitting.

Kevin Fenton, PHE’s director of health and wellbeing, says:

“E-cigarettes are not completely risk-free, but when compared to smoking, evidence shows they carry just a fraction of the harm. The problem is people increasingly think they are at least as harmful, and this may be keeping millions of smokers from quitting,”

Ann McNeill, professor of psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience at King’s College London, who co-authored the study adds that in her view smokers should try vaping and vapers should stop smoking entirely, in order to prove that e-cigarettes could change everything in public health.

Report: E-cigarettes are 95 percent Less Harmful Than Smoking

Link found between #smoking and #HotFlashes from #menopause. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/26/want-to-reduce-hot-flashes-from-menopause-put-out-that-cigarette-234/

A new study says women who quit smoking may suffer less hot flashes during menopause. So if you’re a smoking woman getting to be of a certain age, you may want to extinguish that cigarette.

Quitting Smoking Helps Reduce Hot Flashes from Menopause

Researchers from the University of Illinois say that an added benefit for women who quit smoking may come in the form of cooler days during menopause. Less hot flashes with a shorter duration was a positive side effect the researchers found in former female smokers.

Menopause is a stage of a woman’s health around her late 40s or early 50s. At this stage of her life, a woman’s menstruation will cease and her hormones will deplete, leaving sometimes terrible side effects, including insomnia, mood swings, and dreaded hot flashes.

The researchers found that women who had given up smoking cigarettes five or more years prior to menopausal onset had a 45% reduction in hot flashes over women who still smoked. Women who had never smoked, however, had an even less occurrence of hot flashes.

Smoking and Women’s Health: A No-No At Any Age

Lead author on the study, epidemiologist Rebecca Smith of the University of Illinois hopes the findings will urge smokers to quit sooner and non-smokers to continue refraining from the harmful habit.

Though the study focused on menopausal women and how cigarette smoking affected hot flashes, Smith and the other researchers as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) know all too well that smoking at any age in a woman’s life is harmful and potentially fatal.

According to the CDC, smoking can lead to lung and mouth cancers, as well as increased possibility of strokes and heart problems. Presently, smoking-related illnesses top the charts in cause of death in the United States.

Study Encourages Women To Stop Smoking Before Menopause

The study was conducted over a period of 7 years focusing on women with an average age of 50. Of the 700 women in the study, half of them (346) reported experiencing hot flashes. The smokers of the study had more hot flashes and had an increased duration. The smokers had hot flashes four times more frequently than the former smokers who had quit prior to menopause.

Though a small study, the benefits of quitting smoking before reaching menopause may not only save your lungs, your skin, your organs, and your life, but it can also save you the agonizing sweat-soaked nights of hot flashes when you’re at the prime of your life.

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Want to Reduce Hot Flashes from Menopause? Put Out That Cigarette

Are E-Cigarettes Bad for Your Health? - http://clapway.com/2015/06/27/are-e-cigarettes-bad-for-your-health654/

Ever since their introduction into the market, electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, have raised a lot of questions from the health community. They have been both credited as a potential tool against smoking and deemed a gateway for those to begin smoking again. Either way they are looked at, the main question is to whether or not they are harmful to the health of those who use them.

Since their introduction, there has been a noticeable decline in the sale of traditional cigarettes. This is perhaps true due to those who want an alternative to the addictive and potentially deadly cigarette.

HOW DO THEY ACTUALLY WORK?

Electronic cigarettes use battery powered heating elements to vaporize a solution of either vegetable glycerin or propylene glycol with nicotine and added flavors.

Electronic cigarettes’ introduction into the world of smoking has been marketed as a healthier alternative to smoking actual cigarettes.

THERE’S A LOT TO CHOOSE FROM, complicating matters

There are currently about 500 different brands of electronic cigarettes offered in over 7,000 flavors. These different brands offer flavors often involving mixtures of nicotine, carcinogens and other toxins, just like the real cigarette.

So, can that really mean that vaporized tobacco is that much better for your health than actual cigarettes? According to the recent reports that have been released, the answer is likely a negative one. A lot of research has recently been done to see the effects of these electronic cigarettes.

ITS HARD TO DETERMINE ACTUAL RISKS BECAUSE OF number of BRANDS AND FLAVORS

The sheer number and variety of different brands and flavors being offered has made it difficult for researchers to make a clear assessment of this technology’s health impacts.

There aren’t any studies showing the long term effects of electronic cigarette smoking, but it is known that the overall effect on the body is negative. The lack of studies showing the long term effects has the health community at odds with each other. Some of the other studies that have been done have been compromised by conflicts of interest. Either way, the State of California issued a warning against e-cigarettes back in January, stating that they are harmful and can easily lead to nicotine poisoning. Especially strong was the state’s warning against leaving E-cigarettes within the reach of children.

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Are E-Cigarettes Bad for Your Health?