smokers

On the third Thursday in November every year, smokers across the country try to do what feels impossible -- give up their cigarettes for 24 hours

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The tobacco industry is asking a federal appeals panel to overturn a landmark ruling that could open the door to more lawsuits from smokers claiming they were harmed because they were deceived by cigarette companies....

(Massachusetts General Hospital) Hospital-sponsored stop-smoking programs for inpatients that include follow-up counseling for longer than one month significantly improve patients' ability to stay smoke-free.

An analysis of clinical trials of programs offered at hospitals around the world finds that efforts featuring long-term support can increase participant's chances of success by 65 percent.

Smokers suffer more chronic back pain. This was the result of the analysis of a questionnaire performed by Monique Zimmermann-Stenzel and her colleagues and published in the current edition of Deutsches Arzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int, 2008; 105[24]: 441-8). http://www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/archiv/pdf.

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The Cleveland Clinic, highly regarded for its cardiac care, doesn't hire smokers or allow trans-fats on its menus, and now it's joining with a nationally known weight control program to help its employees shape up and slim down....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- If you smoke, start thinking of yourself as a decade older than you really are. A 55-year-old man who smokes has almost the same chance of dying in the next 10 years as a 65-year-old who's never smoked - a stark example from newly published charts that aim to put some of Americans' biggest health risks into context....

Gum disease, both in smokers and non-smokers, may be a warning sign of an increased risk of cancer.

(NIH/National Institute on Aging) When smokers kick the habit, odds are they are not alone in making the move. Instead, the decision to quit smoking often cascades through social networks, with entire clusters of spouses, friends, siblings and co-workers giving up the habit roughly in tandem, according to a new study supported in part by the National Institutes of Health.

CHICAGO (AP) -- The federal government's new advice to doctors for helping smokers quit recommends the drug Chantix, which has recently been linked with depression and suicidal behavior.

The new guidelines mention the psychiatric risks but also say the popular Pfizer Inc. drug is the most effective at helping people get off cigarettes....

BOSTON -- A Massachusetts study suggests that restaurant smoking bans may play a big role in persuading teens not to become smokers.

Youths who lived in towns with strict bans were 40 percent less likely to become regular smokers than those in communities with no bans or weak ones, the researcher...