smokers Tag

16 Mar

Posted at 23:20h in Author Interviews, Cancer Research, JAMA, Lung Cancer, Smoking, USPSTF
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_56962" align="alignleft" width="133"]MedicalResearch.com Interview with: John B. Wong, M.D. Chief Scientific Officer, Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs Chief of the Division of Clinical Decision Making Primary Care Clinician Department of Medicine Tufts Medical Center Dr. Wong[/caption] John B. Wong, M.D. Chief Scientific Officer, Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs Chief of the Division of Clinical Decision Making Primary Care Clinician Department of Medicine Tufts Medical Center  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women in the United States. More than 200,000 people are diagnosed with this devastating disease each year. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, resulting in the vast majority of lung cancers in the United States.

17 Feb

Posted at 21:34h in Author Interviews, JAMA, Mayo Clinic, Smoking
Jon Ebbert, M.D. Associate director for research Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence CenterMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jon Ebbert, M.D. Associate director for research Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center   Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Ebbert: Some cigarette smokers prefer to reduce the number cigarettes that they smoke before quitting smoking completely. Previous studies have evaluated the use of nicotine replacement therapy and one smaller study looked at varenicline to help smokers quit through smoking reduction. We wanted to conduct a larger study with varenicline using a longer duration of treatment. We enrolled cigarette smokers who had no intention of quitting in the next month but who were willing to reduce the number of cigarettes they smoked while working toward a quit attempt in the next 3 months.

05 Dec

Posted at 04:16h in Author Interviews, PLoS, Smoking, Weight Research
Marcus Munafò PhD Professor of Biological Psychology MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies School of Experimental Psychology University of Bristol United KingdomMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Marcus Munafò PhD Professor of Biological Psychology MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies School of Experimental Psychology University of Bristol United Kingdom Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Munafo: We were conducting an analysis of data on smoking behaviour and body mass index (BMI), in order to better understand the potential causal effects of smoking on different measures of adiposity. Mendelian randomisation uses genetic variants associated with the exposure of interest (in this case smoking) as proxies for the exposure, in order to reduce the risk of spurious associations arising from confounding or reverse causality. As expected, we found that, among current smokers, a genetic variant associated with heavier smoking was associated with lower BMI, providing good evidence that smoking reduces BMI. However, we also unexpectedly found that the same variant was associated with higher BMI in never smokers. This suggests that this variant might be influencing BMI via pathways other than smoking.

22 Oct

Posted at 16:50h in Author Interviews, BMJ, Occupational Health, Tobacco
Dr. John Cherrie PhD Honorary Professor in Occupational Hygiene Institute of Applied Health Sciences Aberdeen, UKMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. John Cherrie PhD Honorary Professor in Occupational Hygiene Institute of Applied Health Sciences Aberdeen, UK Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Cherrie: We set out to bring together measurements of fine particle levels in homes where smoking takes place, to compare these with smoke-free homes and then to estimate how much of these fine particles are inhaled by people at different stages in their life. We also wanted to look at the exposure to particles of non-smokers living with smokers and compare this with the exposure of people living in heavily polluted major cities around the world.