Smoking Mom May Cause SIDS

We all know that smoking is very detrimental to your health. But here is an alarming new fact: Smoking by mothers has replaced infants sleeping on their stomachs as the greatest modifiable risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS.

SIDS is the sudden and unexplained death of an apparently healthy infant aged one month to one year.

A recent study found that when mothers smoke, the sleep arousal process of infants, which awakens them in response to a life-threatening situation, is altered, increasing the risk for SIDS.

Infants who have been exposed to smoke have reduced sub-cortical activation to cortical arousal. They also have lower rates of full cortical arousal from sleep and higher rates of sub-cortical activations than infants of nonsmoking mothers. Decreased cortical arousals from sleep have been observed in infants who later died of SIDS.

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Second Hand Smoking Could Be Bad For Your Brain

We already know the negative side effects of smoking. Now a new study has shown that second hand smoking could affect your brain.

According to the study conducted by advance online edition of BMJ (formerly called the British Medical Journal), cognitive impairment was more common among passive smokers. People who never smoked were found to be 70% more cognitively impaired than smokers.

Mark Eisner, MD, MPH, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said that "This study raises the strong possibility that secondhand smoke causes cognitive decline, but further research is needed to establish a causal effect."

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Teen Girls Who Smoke May Have Bigger Waistlines

A new study conducted in England found that teen girls smokers have increased possibility to be obese as adults.

Research shows that teen girls who smoke 10 cigarettes daily are at higher risk to have bigger waistlines. However, it is still a big question as to why this data isn't the same for men. For teen males smoking doesn't affect their weight.

This could be attributed to biological factors. It might be that gender specific hormones interact differently with girls and boys that affects fat distribution among men and women.

According to Sheryl Pagoto, assistant professor in clinical psychology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. “When people do quit smoking, one of the reasons they gain weight is that they increase their consumption of foods. They’ll start snacking at the times they used to smoke.”

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Tips to Quit Smoking

One of the top New Years Resolutions throughout the years is to quit smoking.

Here are some tips on how to quit smoking from the American Lung Association:

1. Plan. Mark the days in your calendar on when you plan not to smoke. And do your best to stick to it.
2. Exercise. Engaging to physical activities such as walking is an effective way to reduce stress of quitting. Aside from that it will also help you in being more energetic.
3. Drink lots of water and eat a balanced diet.
4. Consult your doctor about medications to help you quit smoking.

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Occassional Smokers, Still At Risk?

Smoking is well known to have its negative effects on both active and passive smokers. But what about occassional smokers, are they still at risk?

A recent study conducted at University of Georgia researchers "found that the arteries of otherwise young, healthy adults who smoked less than a pack a week were 36% less responsive to changes in blood flow than nonsmokers, even if it had been days since their last cigarette. This lack of responsiveness, known as impaired flow-mediated dilation, is an early sign of the arterial damage that typically foreshadows the development of cardiovascular disease."

That's bad news for the occasional smokers and "weekend smokers" . Regardless of how many cigarettes you smoke in one day or one week, smoking is still one of the worst things you can do for your health.

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Cigarettes and Teenagers

We have always been aware of the consequences of cigarette smoking to our bodies. Recent study from Université de Montréal shows that teenage girls who smoke are more likely to have difficulty loosing weight than non-smoker teenagers. And teenage boys who smoke shows a decrease in height as well as their body mass.

Dr. Jennifer O’Loughlin headed the research and according to their study, a teenage boy ages 12 - 17, who consumes 10 cigarettes per day is about an inch shorter than non-smoker teenager boys.

According to Dr. Loughlin, “We were surprised to find that there was no link between smoking and weight among teen girls because it’s something that many of us take for granted,We can only hope that girls will think twice about taking up smoking now, if weight loss is one of their goals.Maybe teenage boys will see smoking as a bad decision if they dream of being a quarterback or star basketball player,”

This study is truly helpful to parents who woould want to convince their children to avoid cigarette smoking. These results can be used in creating awareness of the physical effects of cigarette smoking to the growth and development of adolescents to adulthood.

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