An unhealthy lifestyle could put men at risk for sexual dysfunction, according to a new study.

Several factors associated with an unhealthy lifestyle, such as weight problems, physical inactivity, high alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking and hard drugs appear to be associated with sexual dysfunctions.

Additionally, unhealthy lifestyles are more common among persons who are sexually inactive.

Danish researchers analyzed survey data from over 5,500 men and women to study the association between lifestyle factors, sexual inactivity and sexual dysfunction.

They found that unhealthy lifesty factors are associated with an increased risk of sexual inactivity by up to 78 percent in men and 91 percent in women.

Meanwhile, the risk of experiencing sexual dysfunction was up to 71 percent greater in overweight men, and more than 800 percent greater in men who used hard drugs.

The researchers also found that women who used hashish had a risk nearly three times greater of anorgasmia – not being able to reach climax during sexual activity – than non-hashish users.

“Hopefully our findings can be used in future counseling of patients with unhealthy lifestyles,” said lead researcher Professor Morten Frisch, MD, PhD, DSc, of Statens Serum Institute. “Knowing about possible negative consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle to one’s sexual health may help people quit smoking, consume less alcohol, exercise more, and lose weight.”

The study was published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Not only are smokers twice as likely to have strokes, they are almost a decade younger than non-smokers when they have them, according to a new study.

Researchers studied nearly 1000 stroke patients between January 2009 and March 2011 and found that the average age of stroke patients who smoked was 58, compared to age 67 for non-smokers.

“The information from this study provides yet another important piece of evidence about the significance of helping people stop smoking,” said study author Dr. Andrew Pipe from the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. “It also alerts the neurology community to the importance of addressing smoking in stroke patients.”

Smoking can cause a build-up of debris inside of blood vessels, a condition called atherosclerosis, which contributes to a higher likelihood of clots forming.

The study found that smokers have double the risk of a stroke caused by a dislodged blood clot (ischemic stroke) and four times the risk of a stroke caused by a ruptured blood vessel (hemorrhagic stroke).
Furthermore, smokers have a greater chance of complications and recurrent stroke. Patients who have a minor stroke are 10 times more likely to suffer a major one, especially if they keep smoking.

“It’s scandalous that [people] continue to die in large numbers from stroke, heart disease, cancers and a host of other diseases for which the tobacco industry is responsible,” Pipe said.

If a person stops smoking, their risk for stroke or heart disease decreases dramatically. Within 18 months to two years of quitting, the risks of stroke for ex-smokers are about the same as for non-smokers, the study indicated.

“Stroke is preventable,” said Dr. Sharma, Deputy Director of the Canadian Stroke Network. “This study highlights the sizeable role smoking has on stroke. Quitting smoking, controlling blood pressure, following a healthy diet and being physically active significantly reduce the risk of stroke.”

Despite a growing number of cities instituting smoking bans across the country, hookah bars are continuing to crop up everywhere and gaining a loyal customer base in young adults.

Hookahs, for those who are unfamiliar, are smoking instruments that use charcoal to heat flavored tobacco. The smoke from the heated tobacco is then sucked through a hose into the mouth.  Hookah cafés often offer a wide variety of flavorings on their menu, from mango to rose petals.  People often share hookahs in groups.

Wake Forest University researchers have found that 40.3 percent of students in North Carolina reported trying hookah at least once – just barely lower than the percentage of students who reported smoking at least one cigarette (46.6).  Moreover, 17.4 percent said they actively use hookahs.

“The popularity of hookah smoking among young adults is quite alarming given the potential for negative health effects,” said Erin Sutfin, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy and lead author on the study. “Unfortunately, many young adults are misinformed about the safety of hookah smoking and some mistakenly believe it to be safer than cigarette smoking.”

The results also indicated that freshmen and males were more likely to use hookahs, and that there was an association between individuals who used hookahs and those who smoked cigarettes, smoked marijuana, had a history of other illegal drug use and had drank alcohol in the 30 days prior to the survey.

Hookah users who participated in the study seemed to share a mistaken perception that smoking from a hookah was less harmful than smoking a cigarette.

“The smoke produced by hookahs is a very mild smoke that may be appealing to non-cigarette smokers as a starter product,” Sutfin said.

According to Sutfin, 22 percent of hookah users in the study had never tried a cigarette, suggesting that hookahs may be their first tobacco product.

“Likely because of the pleasant aroma and taste, users may inhale more deeply over a longer period of time,” she said. “This results in hookah smokers actually inhaling a larger volume of tobacco smoke than cigarette smokers do.”

The dangers associated with smoking hookah are two-fold.  First, there is a concern about the cleanliness of the hookah cafes.  Because hookahs are shared and re-used, if cafes do not clean them properly, there is a risk of spreading infectious diseases.

Second, the hookah smoke itself contains high levels of toxic compounds, including tar, carbon monoxide, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals. Smoking from a hookah actually exposes an individual to more carbon monoxide and smoke than a cigarette, and delivers the same amount of nicotine, which can lead to dependence.

Health risks of smoking hookah include lung cancer, respiratory illness, low birth-weight (among infants whose mothers smoked hookah during pregnancy) and periodontal disease.

“This study highlights hookah smoking as a considerable public health concern, especially among young adults,” Sutfin said. “Going forward, we need to develop interventions to address this risky behavior.”

The study was published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

While a smoke-free home for children who have asthma is the best option, a new study shows that indoor air cleaners can significantly reduce household air pollution and reduce rates of daytime asthma symptoms.

Johns Hopkins researchers found that air cleaners could improve overall air quality in homes, and in some cases lead to a reduction in asthma symptoms that was comparable to the effect of anti-inflammatory asthma drugs. However, the researchers warned, the air cleaners did not reduce air nicotine levels and did not counter all adverse effects of secondhand smoke.

“Air cleaners appear to be an excellent partial solution to improving air quality in homes of children living with a smoker but should not be viewed as a substitute for a smoke-free environment,” says lead investigator Arlene Butz, Sc.D., an asthma specialist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

Researchers followed 115 children, who lived with at least one caregiver who smoked, over a period of 6 months. A third of the households were given two air cleaners, while another third received air cleaners plus counseling on the dangers of second hand smoke. The remaining third was only given air cleaners at the end of the study.

The researchers then measured air nicotine and air pollution levels at the start of and the end of the study, and also compared asthma symptoms and nicotine levels in children living in homes with and without air cleaners.

They found the overall air quality in homes with air cleaners showed a nearly 50-percent drop in pollution, though the air still never reached the quality of smoke-free homes. Meanwhile, levels of air nicotine and nicotine in children remained similar in all households, regardless of whether there was an air cleaner in the home or not.

Additionally, children living in homes with air cleaners experienced significantly more days without coughing, wheezing or difficulty breathing compared with children living in homes without air cleaners. Researchers estimated that children in homes with air cleaners experienced 33 more symptom-free days, on average.

Based on the study results, Butz and her colleagues recommended that parents completely ban indoor smoking and use air cleaners as a temporary tool if necessary on the way to achieving a smoke-free household.

Asthma is the most common pediatric chronic illness. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it affects 6.5 million children in the United States.

More than 30 percent of children in the United States live in a home with a smoker, and up to two-thirds of children in urban neighborhoods live with a least one smoker.

The study was published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Many of us have seen the shocking new images on cigarette packages meant to discourage smokers from buying them.  But do they actually work?

Not really, according to researchers, because cigarette smokers appear to have lower activity in the fear centers of their brains compared to non-smokers.

Heavy smokers actually appear to need nicotine to keep their brain functioning normally, the researchers said.

This means that after smoking a cigarette, the brain’s fear center, the amygdala, works the same for smokers as for non-smokers.  This is when the negative image is most likely to cause fear in smokers.

However, after 12 hours of abstaining from cigarettes, the activity in the amygdala of smokers is far lower than non-smokers, and the picture causes considerably less fear.

This lack of fear is problematic because “the amygdala is prevented from performing its natural function,” said study researcher René Hurlemann. “Fear is an archaic instinct that protects us from doing things that are dangerous.”

If smokers are not afraid of the consequences of smoking, Hurlemann explained, they are less likely to quit.

There are 1.2 billion smokers worldwide and half are expected to die early deaths.  While it appears that other tactics will be necessary to persuade them to stop smoking, there nevertheless may be some advantage to the negative images on cigarette packs, the researchers said.

“Those who do not smoke yet can probably be kept from smoking by such scare tactics,” said study researcher Dr. Özgür Onur.

The study was supported by the German Research Foundation.

Forget nicotine patches and gum.  Efforts to quit smoking have officially moved into the 21^st century.

According to British researchers, smokers are twice as likely to succeed in quitting if they receive supportive text messages, USA Today reported.

The researchers followed 5,800 smokers in their attempts to quit the habit.  One group was sent motivational text messages while another group received “placebo texts” that thanked them for participating in the study.

The motivational message group received five texts a day for the first five weeks and three per week for the next 26 weeks.

A sample text message read: “TXT2STOP: think you’ll put on weight when you quit? We’re here to help – We’ll TXT weight control and exercise tips, recipes and motivation tips.”

The smokers were also able to text for help during cravings or relapses and would receive appropriate tips for dealing with their current situation.

After six months, the study participants were all tested for a substance found in cigarettes.  Those who had received the motivational texts were twice as likely to still be smoke-free.

The smokers reported the messages helped them through the quitting process, according to lead researcher Caroline Free.

“It made them feel less isolated while they tried to quit,” Free said.

For a small group of smokers, however, the texts actually became unhelpful because the messages reminded them of smoking, which emphasizes the need for individually tailored support.

Only 10.7 percent of smokers receiving motivational messages were still abstinent after six months, but this was double the rate of those who did not receive the messages.  Free suggested that increased personalization and interactivity could make the program even more effective.

The study was published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

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