Dentistry

Snuff Use May Increase the Risk for Heart Failure?

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Yes, according to a new study.

Use of smokeless tobacco (or snuff) may increase the risk for heart failure, mainly of nonischemic origin and chiefly by increasing blood pressure and heart rate, a Swedish study found.

When adjusted for age, the use of smokeless tobacco among a cohort of older men was associated with a more than twofold risk of developing heart failure compared with non-users (HR 2.42, 95% CI 1.37 to 4.27), according to Gabriel Arefalk, MD, of Uppsala University Hospital in Uppsala, Sweden, and colleagues.

When further adjusted for current smoking dose, pack-years of smoking, diabetes, body mass index, occupational classification, alcohol use, and myocardial infarction before baseline, the use of snuff resulted in a hazard ratio of 2.08 (95% CI 1.03 to 4.22), they reported online in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation.

The researchers noted the increased use of smokeless tobacco in Scandinavia, but also pointed out that the U.S. is the world’s largest snuff market, with an annual growth rate of 6%.

Ugh! While tobacco smoking rate is decreasing or stable in the United States, smokeless tobacco IS increasing.

While tobacoo consumers may bypass the deleterious atherogenic effects of smoking, the harmful effects of nicotine remain.

“Smokeless administration of tobacco may indeed circumvent the atherogenic effects of smoked tobacco, but it is possible that the potent autonomic and hemodynamic effects of nicotine per se are detrimental for cardiovascular tissues,” Arefalk and colleagues wrote.

In particular, smokeless tobacco “increases epinephrine levels, impairs endothelial function, and increases blood pressure and heart rate.”

Just say NO to the use of tobacco products.

They ARE harmful to your health!

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Health

Study: Menthol Cigarettes Make It More Difficult to Quit Smoking

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This is especially true for African American and Puerto Rican smokers.

Menthol cigarettes make it more difficult for smokers to quit, especially blacks and Puerto Ricans, a new study indicates.

Researchers at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the UMDNJ-School of Public Health analyzed tobacco use data from the U.S. National Cancer Institute and focused on white, black and Hispanic current and former smokers.
Click here to find out more!

Overall, the use of menthol cigarettes was highest among females and young adults, aged 18 to 24. When examined by race/ethnicity, menthol cigarette use was much higher among blacks (71.8 percent) than among Hispanics (28.1 percent) or whites (21 percent).

But there were wide variations among Hispanics: Puerto Rican origins (62 percent), Mexican origins (19.9 percent), and other Hispanic origins (26.5 percent), the investigators noted.

The study also found that smokers who used menthol cigarettes were less likely to quit than those who used non-menthol cigarettes, and that this association was strongest among blacks and those of Puerto Rican origin.

“Because our evidence suggests that the presence of menthol may partially explain the observed differences in cessation outcomes, the recent calls to ban this flavoring would be prudent and evidence-based,” the researchers said in a UMDNJ news release.

The study appears Aug. 15 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The United States Food and Drug Administration is considering whether they should ban these tobacco products.

But, we all know what happens when there is a market and something is outlawed. Remember American alcohol prohibition?

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