You obviously weren't in combat...pilgrim. A desk jockey rather than in a foxhole. Smokes are one of the greatest stress relievers known to man. They even used to offer them to men about to be executed by firing squad. FO.
Posted on 09/16/2024 1:49:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Light smoking is also tied to poor birth outcomes, even if the mother quits during pregnancy.
Smoking even one or two cigarettes a day before or during pregnancy can lead to serious health problems for newborns, according to a new analysis of more than 12 million families.
Globally, an estimated 1.7 per cent of pregnant women smoke, though that rate is 8.1 per cent in Europe and 5.9 per cent in the Americas. Smoking during pregnancy can negatively affect the newborn’s health, increasing their risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, restricted infant growth, and death.
In the study, which was published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, researchers analysed the relationship between smoking and major neonatal health complications such as needing assisted ventilation immediately after birth, being admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with ventilation, suspected sepsis, seizures, or neurological dysfunction.
Overall, about 9.5 per cent of babies experienced these issues. But they were 27 per cent more likely to have several of these complications if their mother smoked before pregnancy, and 31 per cent more likely if she smoked at any point during pregnancy, researchers found.
While researchers have long known about the poor outcomes tied to smoking during pregnancy, the new study indicates that even light smoking is unsafe, including in the months before pregnancy.
"Any smoking at all during pregnancy has an impact on infant outcomes," Caitlin Notley, who leads the addiction research group at the University of East Anglia in England, told Euronews Health. She was not involved with the study.
The analysis included nearly 12.2 million mother-infant pairs in the US, and found that the health risks held up even after researchers adjusted for other factors, such as age, ethnicity, and weight. Women with high blood pressure or diabetes were not included in the study.
Among the mothers in the study, 9.3 per cent smoked before pregnancy, while 7 per cent smoked in the first trimester, 6 per cent smoked in the second trimester, and 5.7 per cent smoked in the third trimester.
'Cutting down isn’t enough'
Neonatal outcomes were worse among those who smoked later into their pregnancies, the study found, but women who stopped smoking during pregnancy were still at a higher risk of poor neonatal outcomes compared with those who didn’t smoke at all.
Risks were also higher for heavy smokers. The children of women who smoked 20 or more cigarettes per day were 29 per cent more likely to be admitted to intensive care, the study found.
Yet those who smoked only one or two cigarettes per day still saw a 13 per cent higher risk of NICU admission.
"It's quite clear that cutting down, particularly during pregnancy, isn't enough," Notley said, emphasising the need for "complete cessation" of smoking to protect infant health.
Scientists discover smoking has a harmful impact on the immune system even years after quitting Pregnant women may find it harder to quit smoking because nicotine metabolism speeds up during pregnancy, meaning the body absorbs it more quickly, Notley said.
She said pregnant women trying to quit can try nicotine replacement therapies, such as nicotine gum, and opt for a higher dose if they find themselves still turning to cigarettes.
They can also try replacing traditional cigarettes with e-cigarettes, which may contain nicotine but no tobacco. Research is mixed on the effects of vaping on pregnancy outcomes.
"It's a harm reduction approach of doing anything you can, basically, to support women to quit smoking," Notley said.
Harvard failed to addict ANYONE in their study. Pumping nicotine into people at the rate that occurs with smoking had ZERO effect. Try that study with heroin and you will have a lot of addicts on your hands. They could not conclude that nicotine is addictive.
Other than being addictive, nicotine is relatively harmless. Vaping is an excellent nicotine delivery system for those who are addicted. The problem is that teenagers choose the flavored varieties and, just as ciggies’ damage is done by the tobacco’s additives, the (mostly Asian) producers of flavored vaping stuff add all sorts of noxious chemicals to their products.
You could be right about that. Smoking is addictive but it may or may not be the nicotine. They added a lot of other ingredients, chemicals etc to cigarettes. Ammonia and sugar among others. When I smoked, I would go out of my way to buy Nat Sherman cigarettes. I started rolling my own and the owner of the tabacco store had his own blends that were just tobacco. He sold me on buying Nat Sherman’s because they were supposedly also just pure tobacco. Eventually I would order them online or find them at a few places nearby. I’d spend a lot of money on them because only tobacconists and boutique liquor stores had them and I’d buy several cartons (which was only 5 packs per carton) at a time. Much more expensive than generic gas station cigs.
I often wonder if it was easier to quit because I smoked pure tobacco vs the chemically tainted brands. I can’t know for sure. I did miss the smoking part, but didn’t really have any physical withdrawals. You could call it the oral fixation or as I say it, it was the feeling of “affection” - hot smoke in my throat and lungs. It’s a sensation. Maybe a character flaw, I dunno. But even as a smoker I was as cautious or conscientious as I could be about what I was smoking. And the good thing about it was that none of my Marlboro light smoking friends would bum a smoke off me. They hated my Nat Sherman’s. But that was when I was in my 20’s and early 30s. It’s been decades since I touched anything with tobacco. I don’t mind if people smoke around me. But even hanging with my neighbors and they smoke cigars and drink, I just have a drink and enjoy their company.
“...except as a kid being exposed second hand to my parents chain smoking...”
Well, you turned out okay.,didn’t you?
I remember reading years ago that it was the sugar they put in cigarettes that was most addicting. I can’t find a source right now, but smoking sugar was supposedly the most addictive aspect. That’s why I switched to pure tobacco leaf at the time. But still, I smoked for years. Habits. When I did quit I eventually had all my walls repainted and carpet replaced. That stuff stained everything and the smell lingered for years.
And when the government started to crack down, and sued the tobacco companies the tobacco companies consolidated, took their hoards of cash and bought up the big food conglomerates. Apparently there is a lot of gross profit (and net profit) in each pack of cigs. Even today Altria (Phillip Morris) pays something like an 8% dividend. That’s a lot of profit. One of the highest. But the scientists from the tobacco industry were moved over to food products.
I am just recently entering an “eat healthier” lifestyle. I’ve done keto type diets in the past. They work. I’ve never been obese but once I quit smoking I did gain more weight. Twice I’ve been able to shed a lot with Keto but if I get off it, the weight eventually comes back. Sometimes it takes years but it does return. So I’ve taken a new interest in diet. Dropped 25 lbs in the last 90 days. Still not at my college weight but on my way. No sugars. Minimal carbs. Lots of protein and some vegetables which I only minimally prepare. Himalayan pink salt and steam. No sauces. Kind of carnivore I guess. But I like greens too.
I smoked for ten years from 14 to 24. At the end the smoke was just like sucking fog thru a sock as the poet said. When it had kick and flavor I liked it but when it lost that I quit.
While smoking cannot be good for the fetus studies like this that blow it out of proportion are good reason to not take any studies seriously. You back to the 50’s thru the 70’s and you had tons of babies born to heavy smokers who came out a whole lot better than the kids today from mothers who don’t smoke. There are so many other environment contaminants that did not exist back then. Needless to say there are just plain a lot of bad parents these days who don’t teach their kids good things.
I remember going to the doctors once a week for physical therapy after I had a mild case of polio in 1956 and ashtrays in the waiting room. Often the doctor would come out to the waiting room to get me while putting out a cigarette in a nearby ashtray.
You obviously weren't in combat...pilgrim. A desk jockey rather than in a foxhole. Smokes are one of the greatest stress relievers known to man. They even used to offer them to men about to be executed by firing squad. FO.
“... Study Finds...”
Study this. Same filth bringing us “global warming”.
Why did they care so much about pregnancy weight?
It’s the nicotine. Aside from the pleasure of inhaling, taste, whatever. I got majorly addicted to nicotine gum.
I had big babies, one very big. I ended up with Diabetes Type 1.
Yeah the smoke break thing is quite a dodge.
I had a smoker in my office that did that make a smart-ass comment to me about coming back from lunch late a couple of times.
I told him to deduct it from the smoke breaks that I DON’T take......he never opened his yap about that again.
“Well, you turned out okay.,didn’t you?”
At 55 I had chest discomfort that led to a visit to a cardiologist.....a heart cath revealed a 90% blockage in the LAD artery so I ended up with a stent. So you tell me.
Did second hand smoke cause that? Who knows, but it sure didn’t help.
it was the feeling of “affection” - hot smoke in my throat and lungs.
Kind of like the sensation of drinking a carbonated beverage. I thought I was hooked on soda for years. Then I switched to drinking carbonated water, and that pretty much got me off of soda.
Am familiar with the LAD...”Widow maker”. No lecture but hasn’t tobacco been portrayed ad nauseam as the root cause of all of mankinds maladies? I’m a natural skeptic/contrarian but by no means advocate inhaling if you do smoke. 2nd hand too dilute to be a problem except if one doesn’t like smell.
Good luck with those coronary arteries and stay on top of it! Godspeed.
No need to be rude.
I was in the TOC* at the time. Women weren’t allowed to hold a combat MOS when I was in the Army, though plenty of us died, anyway. I’ve never claimed to be in direct combat; I was always in a Support Battalion (providing ‘Bullets, Beans and Gasoline’ to the front lines; which is also a ‘good’ way to die via IED) and later that Battalion’s Brigade, but that didn’t mean we weren’t in the field. In the mud. In the rain. In the snow. In foxholes. Getting shot at. ;)
Taking out the TOC would be a total WIN for the enemy.
*Tactical Operations Center for those civilians reading from Rio Linda. *SMIRK*
Good job ...I respect your service! I was not in combat but rather in a trip-wire situation behind Berlin Wall. (Good for VFW membership.) Never wounded but did suffer a number of 3rd degree hangovers!😎
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