Smog in Piccadilly Circus, 1952 Do you know what a pea-souper is? You don’t really want to know, at least not at first-hand. It was the humorous name given to an decidedly unfunny atmospheric condition, not uncommon in the winter months in London in the nineteenth century and up to the 1950s, when a combination [...]
All right, Dr Symonds, what's the evidence that your method works? This hypothetical question, on the face of it, is not unreasonable. The question is about whether there have been any scientific trials to compare my method with other ways to quit smoking. A trial could be done like this: you find two hundred smokers who say they [...]
Is this the beginning of the end for ENDS? The acronym – much medical writing is peppered with annoying non-standard abbreviations of this sort – means Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems. These drug-delivery devices, for that is what they are, were in the spotlight at a conference held in India in 206 of the FCTC (there we go again) [...]
I recently signed up for the Vaping Post, an online publication that ‘brings information on vaping’. They add, ‘We consider that the electronic cigarette (vaporizer) is a method of risk reduction for adult smokers who can’t or don’t want to quit smoking.’ Having set out their raison d'être they rightly caution that: Vaping exposes the user to the [...]
Here we have the delusions of smoking in full flight, by a – I presume tongue-in-cheek – article by Allan Massie in the current edition of the entertaining Taki’s Magazine. He thinks it’s better to smoke and be happy,even if you die young from heart disease or cancer as a result, rather than from Alzheimer’s disease which he [...]
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as usual, has got it right. Any substance addiction will affect your inner peace and health. Nicotine and alcohol addiction are often linked in people’s minds and may be reflected in their responses to a suggestion that they should stop smoking: ‘I smoke, but I don’t drink’ – so that’s all right then. [...]
The distinguished medical journal, The Lancet, in June 2016 reported the results of a huge multinational collaborative effort to investigate the risks of psychiatric side-effects of two drugs used in smoking cessation: varenicline (Champix®) and bupropion (Zyban®); no evidence of increased harm was found compared with nicotine patches and placebo (dummy) treatments. This must have been good news [...]
Not everyone is happy about e-cigarettes. Dr Phil Banfied, chairman of the British Medical Association's Welsh Council, wants to see proof of their safety. To emphasize the need for caution with these new drug (nicotine) delivery devices, he reminded the audience at a BMA Welsh Council meeting that thalidomide, which was originally thought to be safe, turned out [...]
In the best tradition of the orthodox approach to smoking cessation, this year’s vintage of the quaintly named Stoptober scheme, produced by NHS England, has just finished. At least it’s an improvement on the previous two versions. Last year’s seemed intended to encourage smokers to quit through humour. Is it a laughing matter? The idea of Stoptober is [...]
Amazing discovery! Now you can enjoy poisoning yourself with nicotine by e-cigarettes without doing yourself any harm at all! Guaranteed 95 per cent safe! You can get the same satisfaction as smoking cigarettes but without the tar! Really? I can’t get-no satisfaction…a man comes on to tell me…but he can’t be a man ’cause he doesn’t smoke the [...]
It seems cigar smoking is still regarded as ‘naughty but nice,’ at least by one doctor – an anaesthetist into the bargain – who in a recent interview in The British Medical Journal admitted that his 'guiltiest pleasure' was ‘the Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure No 2 cigar.’ He added, guiltily, ‘Although I know I shouldn’t.’ I thought there [...]
NRT, let me remind you, means so-called nicotine replacement therapy. Why 'so-called’? Because nicotine is neither a replacement for something, nor is nicotine being replaced with something, so the name is wrong. It really means cigarette replacement but could equally well, if not more accurately, be called nicotine maintenance therapy (NMT), and that is how I shall refer [...]
In my research on smoking I recently came across a book and a website with the following titles: ‘Smoke-free in 30 days’ and ‘STOP SMOKING! in 28 days’, respectively. Here’s a quote from the latter: ‘Getting hooked doesn’t happen overnight and getting unhooked is best done in the same way: over a period of several days.’ This is [...]
Last year in a little town in New York state I had occasion to visit a friendly neighbourhood pharmacy. There I chanced upon a pamphlet with the inviting title, Let’s Quit Together. In case one might wonder what the ‘quit’ refers to it tells you in the next sentence with a question: ‘Are you ready to quit smoking?’ [...]
So much activity in dealing with the smoking problem is directed towards trying to get smokers to stop. But you have to start doing something before you can stop doing it. In this regard it seems the official policy is to discourage young people from taking up the habit by various means, which according to scientific studies seem [...]
I recently came across an interesting guideline for doctors who are trying to help smokers quit. It’s a publication from 2008 by the US Department of Health and Human Services called Treating tobacco use and dependence. The guideline is not just for any old smokers, mind you, but for ‘smokers unwilling to quit’. Here we go again – [...]
How many centuries spent The sedentary soul In toils of measurement…? (W B Yeats) This curious concept is examined in a medical paper, the combined efforts of seven authors from Canada and the US, published in May 2016. Their answer: at least thirty. The research leading to this conclusion consisted in carrying out random number telephone surveys [...]
Do you know what the letters ATTUD stand for? It’s Association for the Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence, based in the US. We are further informed from their website that: ATTUD is an organization of providers dedicated to the promotion of and increased access to evidence-based tobacco treatment for the tobacco user. Before we go any [...]
If a doctor were to call himself a tobacco treatment specialist what would you think he does? It’s ambiguous. Is he treating a disease called tobacco, similarly to the way in which a cancer treatment specialist is obviously someone who treats cancer? Or, if you talk of an acupuncture treatment specialist, it’s clearly a practitioner of acupuncture who [...]
One conventional measure of ‘success’ in smoking cessation is the proportion of smokers who, when then have used the X method, are not smoking one year later. For example, many studies show that of smokers who quit using medicinal nicotine (gum or patches), around 16 per cent are still not smoking a year later. Not very impressive but [...]
I have just come across a brilliant feature from the Reader’s Digest: 'The 23 Best Ways to Quit Smoking.' It’s really about hints or tips that might be helpful to would-be quitters. Here are some of them, with my comments: Set a quit date I have written a blog about why this is a bad idea. Write down [...]
These cigarette machines are ubiquitous in Japan. Note the ad for Parliament cigarettes. The attractive models imply that smoking is sexy. The wording says something like ‘vivid, strong menthol, crystal blast’. You can undergo this refreshing experience by crushing the menthol flavour capsule in the filter. The small print at the bottom, covering only about 16 per cent [...]
Curing someone of smoking is easy, in my experience. However, treating alcoholism is a different matter. It’s not difficult to cure alcoholism – it’s impossible. Let me hasten to add that there are many things that can and should be done to help people with an alcohol problem. In this endeavor it’s important to keep in mind an [...]
The photo shows the latest wheeze in smoking cessation for those who have ‘tried everything’: laser treatment. I predict this will be found to be ineffective. […]
Non-smoking restaurants and cafés are becoming more and more ubiquitous (!) in Japan, which, of course, is a good thing. And the Japanese, being on the whole a considerate people, make provision, as far as practicable, for other people's needs. Outside this particular café a bench is provided together with an ashtray, partially filled with earth, for the [...]
Except they don’t. But this is what smokers often say. Let me put it slightly differently: why cigarettes go with a drink – or with anything else you happen to be doing (or not doing) – about every forty minutes of every day if you’re a pack-a-day smoker, or pro rata if you smoke more or fewer cigs [...]
What does the US National Cancer Institute have to say about quitting smoking? On their website there’s a long section titled ‘How To Handle Withdrawal Symptoms and Triggers When You Decide To Quit Smoking’. This implies that you may indeed suffer such symptoms and that ‘triggers’ are also something you will need to be aware of. These are [...]
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in their 2008 report draw attention to a well-known but nonetheless shocking fact: Products which are known to kill one in every two of their life-long users are available for sale in shops throughout the land. What to do about this scandalous situation? The obvious thing they dismiss: As banning tobacco products [...]
The other night I was eating with a friend in a local restaurant – non-smoking of course –and had occasion to observe my fellow diners. There was a party of what are known in Japan as ‘salarymen’ (company employees), consisting of about ten middle-aged people who were evidently enjoying themselves with good food and drink and animated conversation. [...]
Cancer Research UK, bless their cotton socks, wants Big Tobacco to be obliged to 'cough up' to the tune of £500m, the equivalent of one penny per cigarette sold in the UK. The intention is to make up the current government deficit in health funding and would be used in public health services to help people stop smoking. [...]