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Certain constituents in red wine may be able to reverse some of the damage caused by cigarettes, suggests a new study presented at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Vienna last week.

The small study found that red wine, but not its alcohol content, counteracted acute arterial dysfunction left by cigarettes. The researchers from Alexandra Hospital in Athens, Greece, reported that a dose of two glasses (250 mL) of red wine eradicated the harmful effect of one cigarette. Cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

The team assessed the arterial function of 16 healthy adults after smoking one cigarette. They also measured the effects on this group of drinking two glasses of a Greek red wine, which had had the alcohol removed, and smoking one cigarette and again after drinking two glasses of normal red wine and smoking one cigarette.

The researchers claim that the non-alcoholic wine was tested against the original wine, to guarantee that there were no differences in flavor, color and taste and constituents, except from their alcohol content. This means that volunteers could not distinguish which type of red wine they consumed each time.

Results confirmed previous findings that after smoking one cigarette and for the following 60 minutes there is a significant arterial dysfunction. However, simultaneous consumption of either regular red wine or non-alcoholic red wine with smoking one cigarette did not cause any such dysfunction.

“Since the presence or absence of alcohol on the two types of wine didn’t influence the results, we can conclude that constituents of red wine other than alcohol are responsible for the reversal of arterial dysfunction caused by smoking,” said the researchers. More.

Some jobs involve engineering and selling industrial air filtration systems which are designed to remove process emissions. Process emissions like welding smoke for example which factory employees are exposed to all day every day.

Typically what happens is that a disgruntled employee makes a call to OSHA to report that the welding smoke level seems high, so it must be dangerous. This scenario happens relatively often in the real world, oddly enough OSHA’s response isn’t to ban welding smoke in the alleged facility or have lawmakers pass sweeping welding smoke bans in the workplace, rather; its response is to conduct air quality testing to determine if welding smoke levels pose a hazard in that particular facility.

OSHA doesn’t have a permissible exposure limit or PEL for “welding smoke” as a whole because welding smoke contains hundreds of hazardous components too long to list here. Components like hexavalent chromium, beryllium, lead, nickel, arsenic, asbestos, etc. But OSHA does have a permissible exposure limit (PEL) for the individual components of welding smoke.

So OSHA conducts air quality testing on the individual airborne components, if the results come in lower, or safer than its set PEL, the facility is given an acceptable bill of health and allowed to conduct business as usual. If testing yields results which exceed current OSHA PELs it doesn’t ban welding, rather it allows the facility to improve its air quality by upgrading its ventilation or filtration system. OSHA PELs are the safe acceptable level of exposure to humans for an 8 hour day, 40 hour per week time period.

So now let’s get back to secondhand smoke’..OSHA also has a pel for each and every one of the “hazardous” components of secondhand smoke. The five AQ test results above prove that secondhand smoke levels are 2.6 ‘ 25,000 times SAFER than occupational (OSHA) workplace regulations. In other words, not a workplace health hazard.

People have called me a smoker’s rights advocate, however as a non-smoker it’s more accurate to call me a property rights, and jobs rights advocate. Whether pro-smoking ban activists admit it or not smoking bans eliminate businesses and jobs at an alarming rate, 258+ bars and restaurants and approximately 10,000 jobs in the Twin Cities have been eliminated since local smoking bans went into effect. More.

Scientists have known about it for years, but now scientists have an explanation. Viral symptoms that are often mild in non-smokers can make smokers seriously ill. They used to think smoke caused the immune system not to respond properly, but now evidence is showing that might be wrong.

Yale ran an experiment on mice, exposing them to cigarette smoke over the course of two weeks. Then they infected them with a “mimic” flu virus. The immune system in the mice killed the virus like it normally would, but the exaggerated inflammation caused increased levels of tissue damage.

Essentially, instead of the immune system under-reacting to the infection, it over-reacts to it. The increase attack from the immune system causes the damage to your body and makes you more susceptible to future infections. “It’s like smokers are using the equivalent of a sledge hammer, rather than a fly swatter, to get rid of a fly” one scientists said.

Not only are you more prone to future infections, the over-reaction also causes harm to your body when it happens. The mice exposed to cigarette smoke and the flu had accelerated airway scarring, and emphysema. “If the exaggerated responses are verified in human studies, it will be the first explanation for why viral infections are more serious in smokers,” said Elias. “Once verified, we can find ways to prevent the destruction of lung tissue and the higher illness and death among smokers”.

Of course they will work on cures, but is it really worth it? Just put the cigarette down now instead of waiting for a cure, because they probably won’t ever have a cure. Just a way to keep you alive longer. I’m obviously not a scientists, but it’s hard to see how this scarring in your throat and airway passages wouldn’t be permanent. Just another reason to stop smoking today!

Tell me what you think of this new discovery in our comment section below!

It’s common knowledge that smoking cigarettes can cause a wide range of disease, and it looks like it’s time to add another problem to the list. A new study shows that cigarettes can cause your hair loss, too.

A recent study, published in the journal Archives of Dermatology, said that “statistically significant positive associations were noted between moderate or severe baldness and smoking status”.

Scientists studying the correlation between the smoking habits and hair loss of the Taiwanese men assessed family history and other relevant factors for hair loss before drawing conclusions. They found that even when taking these things into account, hair loss was still significantly increased in smokers.

Smoking is well known to damage the circulation, and so the theory is that smoking may damage the micro-circulation supplying blood to the follicles. Once the hair is no longer being ‘fed’, it cannot survive and falls out.

www.centreforhairloss.co.uk

Your body goes through tons of changes when you make the jump to being a non-smoker. A lot of them are very quick (20 minutes), giving you some serious incentive to quit smoking today, now.

20 minutes after quitting: Your heart rate and blood pressure drops.

12 hours after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.

2 weeks to 3 months after quitting: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.

1 to 9 months after quitting: Coughing and shortness of breath decrease; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) regain normal function in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.

1 year after quitting: The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker’s.

5 years after quitting: Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a non-smoker 5 to 15 years after quitting.

10 years after quitting: The lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker’s. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas decrease.

15 years after quitting: The risk of coronary heart disease is that of a non-smoker’s.