Tobacco Free Kerala: September 2012

Saturday 22 September 2012

Smoking can cause Alzheimer's Disease, says study

Cigarette smoking can lead to cognitive impairment and even Alzheimer's Disease shows recent research studies , even as the world observed World Alzheimer’s Day on September 21 to wipe away the stigma associated with the disease and provide relief to sufferers and their families.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is characterised by progressive deterioration in intellect including memory, thinking, learning, orientation, language, comprehension and judgement. The impact of the disease could be so harsh that patients are even unable to carry out everyday chores.

With no effective treatments available currently, the medical and scientific community has turned its attention to identifying modifying effects of lifestyle, including smoking.

In the backdrop of epidemiological studies that have shown cigarette smoking, including second-hand smoking to be an important risk factor of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease, researchers, in a recent study named “Cigarette Smoking Accelerated Brain Aging and Induced Pre-Alzheimer-Like Neuropathology in Rats” sought to identify cigarette-smoke induced pathological changes in brains.

The study conducted on Sprague-Dawley rats (a multipurpose breed used in medical research) demonstrated that exposure to cigarette smoke induces pathological changes in the brain and increases susceptibility to the development of cognitive impairment or even Alzheimer’s Disease later in life.

The rats were exposed to either sham air or four per cent cigarette smoke for an hour per day for 8 weeks in a ventilated smoking chamber to simulate the situation of chronic passive smoking.

Dr Jacob Roy Kuriakose, Chairman, Alzheimer’s Disease International said, “Kerala is going through a situation of emerging and re-emerging communicable and non-communicable diseases. In this context, the social costs in managing diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease will challenge health systems. What we need is to set in place an effective preventive measure strategy including phasing out of tobacco products.”

“One way of doing this would be strict implementation of the provisions of Indian tobacco control legislation and initiate penal action to dissuade use,” added Dr Kuriakose who is also the National Chairman of Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI).

According to Alzheimer’s Disease International – an umbrella organisation working to improve the quality of life of people with dementia and their families - 35.6 million people across the world were estimated to be living with dementia in 2010 - there are 7.7 million new cases of dementia each year, implying that there is a new case of dementia somewhere in the world every four seconds.

In Kerala, the projected prevalence of dementia in elderly aged 65 years and over 80 was 0.15 million in 2011 according to the Dementia India Report 2010 of Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India. The prevalence is estimated to be 0.18 million by 2016 and 0.21 million by 2021.

Image courtesy: TopNews

Deccan Chroncile, 21 September 2012

Chandrika, 22 September 2012

Madhyamam, 22 September 2012

Metro Vaartha, 22 September 2012

Friday 21 September 2012

Chairman of Indian Cricket Selection Committee regrets smoking

"I should not have smoked on television during a press interaction on the eve of the Pakistan tour during my stint as the captain of Indian team," said Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Chairman of Indian Cricket Selection Committee.

In a widely-read interview, the former cricketer described this act as his "biggest regret".

This admission of regret is a great turnaround, coming from someone who was quoted as saying, "My best moment was when I smoked in the Lords' balcony".

Known for his entertaining, innovative and explosive batting style, Srikkanth played 43 Tests for India scoring 2,062 runs. He represented the country in 146 One Day Internationals, notching up a total of 4,091 runs.

Let us hope that his public denunciation of smoking will cascade down to his countless fans across the world and help spread the message of abstinence from smoking for better health.

Image courtesy: Zee News

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Tobacco Free Emerging Kerala

The Emerging Kerala Summit that concluded at Kochi on 14 September 2012 made news for various things - from participation from 51 countries to a presence of globally acclaimed thought-leaders who could articulate and give specific recommendations on Kerala's development agenda.

The meet which saw participation of over 4500 delegates also brought cheer to public health and tobacco control activities in the state, for stringently following the COTPA's provisions on prohibition of smoking in public places.

The Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules, 2008 under Section 4 of COTPA has comprehensively laid out the various aspects of the prohibition on public places.

The Act defines ‘public place’ as any place to which the public has access whether as of right or not and includes all places visited by general public and includes hotels, restaurants, auditoriums, health institutions, hospital buildings, bus stops and amusement centres.

In keeping with the Kerala Government's proactive stance on tobacco control, the Emerging Kerala meet had specially hired trained detectives from Bangalore to keep an eye over smokers and drug addicts at the venue.

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Smokers may find relief from green tea, say studies

When the urge strikes to puff a smoke, take a sip of green tea instead! Research-based evidence has it consumption of green tea may help in smoking cessation, besides reducing the risk of smoking-induced lung cancers.

Even though public smoking has been banned in Kerala as in the country via the tobacco control legislation called COTPA enacted in 2003, smoking continues to be rampant in public places including bus stops and cinema halls.

Around 21.9 per cent of Kerala’s population continue to be addicted to smoking and in the process, making themselves vulnerable to a wide variety of diseases such as cancer, heart diseases, stroke and osteoporosis.

The paper titled ‘A revolutionary approach for the cessation of smoking’ published in ‘Science China Life Sciences,’ a peer reviewed open-access journal cites how researchers used custom-developed cigarettes with components of green tea as filters, in their bid to treat smoking addiction.

A clinical trial involving 70 healthy cigarette smokers, aged 18 to 30 years, brought out that after two months, the average number of cigarettes smoked per day reduced by 56.5 per cent. A significant 31.7 per cent of the smokers quit smoking after the use of this filter.

Dr. Phinse Philip, Lecturer, Community Oncology Division, Malabar Cancer Centre said, “Pharmacotherapy such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) has generally been found effective in smoking cessation. However a comprehensive, cost effective solution to the problem is yet to arrive.”

“Majority of users smoke, as it purportedly gives them some form of relaxation. The oral intake of the amino acid L-Theanine uniquely found in green tea is known to have anti-stress effects and acts as relaxing agent. The study conducted in China shows that green tea may be used as an alternative to quit this addictive habit,” he added.

Further, green tea has also found to be reducing the risk of lung cancer in smokers. Lung cancer top the list of cancers among males in Kerala, and reports has it that 39 per cent of all cancers among males of the state are tobacco-related.

A recent study published in PLoS One, covering 170 primary lung cancer cases and 340 healthy controls, with mean ages 66.2 years and 64.6 years respectively, concluded that smoking-induced pulmonary carcinogenesis could be modulated by green tea consumption and their growth factor environment.

Dr. Thomas Varughese, Head of Surgical Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery, Lakeshore Hospital and Research Center, Cochin said, “Consumption of green tea after quitting smoking completely can contribute to reversing the possibility of lung cancers. Green tea, which is rich in anti-oxidants, can help in restoring the oxidant/antioxidant imbalance among those who have quit tobacco use completely, both smoking and smokeless, provided they have used it long enough to cover the impact of the period of use.”

“It is also now widely held that a person with deficiency in the immune system runs a higher risk of cancers. Smokers typically have low levels of vital nutrients like Vitamins C and E, zinc, calcium, folate, and the omega-3 essential fatty acid, which are vital for the human body’s immune system and proper metabolic activity. Consumption of green tea can boost up the body’s immune system by fighting free radicals and can reduce the risk from damage caused by toxins in cigarette smoke,” he added.

“While it augurs well that we have a natural remedy in green tea that can reduce the adverse impact of tobacco use, what is more important is that it needs to be discouraged by all possible means. One way could be to increase taxes as has been done in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan,” Dr. Varughese also said.

In Rajasthan, all tobacco products – cigarettes, bidis and smokeless - are taxed at 50 per cent during the current fiscal and in Uttar Pradesh the VAT for cigarettes is 50 per cent and 55 percent for smokeless tobacco.