wellness weekly

China Bans Smoking: Okay, not really and not effectively. The government is attempting to reduce the places where people will smoke in order to have Beijing appear more health conscious and responsible before the Olympic games begin. Because China has such a great number of people to begin with and an incredibly high rate of smokers, it is a gold mine for tobacco companies. Businesses routinely disregard calls from the government to go smoke free and the citizens embrace the glamour of smoking, (circa USA in the 40s). Interestingly, China has allowed smoking in taxi’s and other public transport until just last fall. They are only now requiring hotels to provide nonsmoking rooms. This is truly frightening in that with hundreds of millions of smokers today, we can expect significant disease within twenty years. It is painful to see that our lessons have not protected them.

Blood Pressure: A conference was held this past week by the American College of Cardiology at which several research studies were discussed. It is true that there are times when studies are halted because of unacceptable amounts of adverse events, but it is also true that some are suspended early because the results are positive and significant enough rush into practice. One such event occurred this month when a study on the use of combination generic blood pressure treatment was concluded. The study was a double blind, which means no one knew which group received which combination of drugs. The drugs used a combo with either a calcium channel blocker or an ace inhibitor and both had a diuretic. The ACE inhibitor drug appeared to work better, and a good thing too because the company that sponsored the study, Novartis, made the drug that worked better. The group on that drug combo had 15 % less incidents of cardio or cerebral – vascular event. Another study showed a positive effect of treating blood pressure in persons over 80 years old. In that study, diuretics were quite effective in reducing strokes and deaths in general. It was noted that this is very good because the over 80 segment of the population is one of the fastest growing. I wondered who that was good for? The drug companies? Or the people who get to enjoy a longer life.

Nicotine: In a report that is connecting certain genes to increased risk for lung cancer in persons who smoke, an interesting hypothesis was noted. Actually, it is more than interesting it is alarming and needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Scientists have been quite busy trying to associate risk of disease to genetics so that they can find a way to protect someone from a particular illness even when that someone chooses to continue the risk behavior. I.e. eating poorly, not exercising, continued smoking… At least health educators are cautioning us against thinking that we should continue smoking if there is a way to turn off the lung cancer gene. For the record, the risk of getting lung cancer is about 15 percent if you smoke and 23% if you have this gene and smoke. Nine times out of ten, the lung cancer recipient is a smoker and 85% of the time, that person will die from the disease. All that being said, a smoker is more likely to die from emphysema or a heart attack. Now the comment that alarmed me. A researcher noted that nicotine receptors are involved in this predisposition for lung cancer and offered the suggestion that nicotine itself could be carcinogenic. If that turns out to be true, we are going to have a real issue with NRT and somebody needs to find out FAST.

Philip Morris x 2: Cigarette maker Philip Morris has split its tobacco company into two different brands. They are Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International. Both are units of Altria. The reason for the split can be explained by the China example. In America, tobacco companies have many restrictions, in most part due to the Master Settlement Agreement between them and the state’s attorneys’ general, and this includes advertising. Whereas countries who have yet to experience the magnitude of death, disability, and productivity loss caused by the smoking of cigarettes, are open to crafty advertising without regulation. This way each company can work within its parameter. PMI will grow for now, but may pay later.

Genetics: This is rather an afterthought that came to me after I wrote this week's blog. Finding which genes are related to specific diseases and turning them off or creating drugs to block them is not a simple endeavor. If for example, a gene that leads to diabetes is turned off so that eating too many high sugar low carb foods is not a bad thing anymore, it doesn't mean that obesity is no longer a problem. If there was a condition that was isolated to one gene and one behavior the outcome of gene suppresion might be better. I am thinking, sun tanning. If the risk factor for skin cancer could be linked to a gene or two and laying out in the sun had no other ill effect, that would be COOL!

Wishing you wellness