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Harm Reduction
Secondhand bong smoke worse than that from tobacco – Berkeley study
A study from the University of California, Berkeley, has found that second hand cannabis smoke from bongs can be even more harmful than tobacco...
Researchers expose the ‘pitiful quality’ of highly cited vaping studies
Research on the safety and efficacy of vaping has been hotly contested for over a decade. The two sides are neatly drawn, writes Helen...
How to stop vaping – Guidelines available
Guidelines to assist vapers who want to quit vaping were released last week by the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The...
Denmark, Britain, Malaysia may follow New Zealand in youth smoking ban
Denmark and the United Kingdom may follow in the footsteps of New Zealand by banning smoking by people born after a certain year, such...
Alcohol consumption changes the ageing clock – Yale study
Does drinking alcohol make you age faster? The answer is not straightforward, based on a study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine in...
Medical marijuana may trigger substance abuse – US study
Obtaining a medical marijuana card may pose a risk for people who use cannabis products to treat pain, anxiety or depression, according to a...
Heavy episodic drinkers in SA consumed more liquor during lockdown
Research has found that heavy episodic drinkers in South Africa consumed more alcohol than usual during both increased and decreased COVID-19 lockdown restrictions –...
E-cigarettes not a substantial gateway to smoking for young people – UK study
E-cigarette use in England among young adults between 2007 and 2018 did not appear to be associated with substantial increases or decreases in the...
SA must consider best interests of children in regulating and controlling e-cigarettes
Neurobiologically, children are much more vulnerable to nicotine addiction than adults, and those who start using it at a young age have greater nicotine...
Cutting back on final drink of day ‘could improve brain health’
A large study of adults in the United Kingdom, just published in the journal Nature Communications, found that the negative effects of alcohol consumption...
US research links e-cigarette use with increased odds of prediabetes
An analysis of data from a large, nationally representative survey of the United States population shows that e-cigarette use is associated with increased odds...
Two glasses of wine can exceed daily sugar limit, warn UK experts
Adults can exceed their recommended daily limit of sugar by drinking just two glasses of wine, experts in the United Kingdom have warned, reports PA...
International study reveals potential target for alcohol-associated liver disease
An international team of researchers led by Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles has uncovered a new pathway that helps explain how consuming too...
Evidence grows for vaping’s role in gum disease – New York University study
A series of new studies by researchers at the New York University College of Dentistry highlights how e-cigarettes alter oral health and may be...
Something new to worry about – Cannabis and road safety
Just when we thought Canada had answered questions around road safety and the use of cannabis, saying it was not another problem to worry...
Cannabis and brain health – American Heart Association scientific statement
Recreational and medicinal cannabis is increasingly available, and public and professional awareness that cannabis use may adversely affect brain health is critical, according to...
Web-based prescription of smoking-cessation therapy feasible, effective
An intervention that utilised smoking cessation therapy prescribed over the internet was feasible and effective, according to data published in the journal Drug and Alcohol...
Optimal use of smoking cessation pharmacotherapy – Dr Colin Mendelsohn
Pharmacotherapy combined with counselling can help smokers quit, writes Dr Colin Mendelsohn for Australian Prescriber. The most effective first-line treatments are varenicline and combination...
UK-China genetic study confirms that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer
Data from a large-scale genetic study has confirmed that alcohol directly causes cancer, reports the University of Oxford. Research with Peking University and the...
Tobacco harm reduction in Africa – Has the revolution started?
Leaders in Africa must take responsibility and must trust science when making public health decisions, including in the area of tobacco harm reduction, said...
Active ingredient in cannabis protects ageing brain cells, may help Alzheimer’s
Research in the United States has found that cannabinol (CBN), a compound of cannabis, may aid in preventing and treating age-related neurodegenerative diseases like...
No amount of alcohol is good for the heart – World Heart Federation
In a policy brief, the World Heart Federation (WHF) based in Switzerland challenges the widespread notion that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol can decrease...
Pioneering study finds generational link between smoking and body fat
Women and girls whose grandfathers or great-grandfathers began smoking at an early age tend to have more body fat, research that taps into the...
Cannabis smokersʼ risk of deadly complication doubles after rare bleeding stroke
Among people with a certain type of bleeding stroke, an aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH), recent marijuana users, or those who had used marijuana within...
Switch to heated tobacco from cigarettes may reduce toxic exposure – Cochrane Review
There is moderate‐certainty evidence that people who switched from cigarettes to heated tobacco had lower levels of exposure to harmful chemicals and very low-...
Don’t offer e-cigarettes as an 'official' alternative to smoking, French doctors advised
As the National Health Service in England forged ahead with plans for doctors to prescribe e-cigarettes to help people quit smoking, in France a...
Ketamine and psychotherapy helps alcohol abusers to abstain – UK study
People with severe alcohol disorder were able to stay off alcohol for longer when they were treated with low doses of ketamine combined with...
The world’s deadly harm reduction policies unpacked – Clive Bates
The global public health establishment has adopted a “statist, coercive and punitive” approach to tobacco harm reduction, squandering the opportunity to avoid millions of...
Stopping smoking after lung cancer diagnosis may boost survival by nearly 30%
Stopping smoking at or around the time of being diagnosed with lung cancer conferred a significant – nearly 30% – survival benefit for patients,...
Daily vaping dramatically ups quit rate in heavy smokers – FDA, NIH
A United States study of data collected over five years suggests that vaping may help people who are not actively trying to stop smoking,...
Cannabis users report higher quality of life than non-users – Brazil study
The results of a study conducted to quantify the quality of life of cannabis users in Brazil, just published in the Journal of Psychiatric...
Real Vikings don’t smoke – Norway’s successful stance on snus
In Norway, people are emulating their Viking forefathers by living in the moment and letting things go – in particular, cigarette smoking. So much...
Vaping – Time for doctors to get on board
Doctors are both sceptical of and poorly informed about e-cigarettes and nicotine, failing to realise how dramatically harm reduction approaches can change the lives...
Research busts myth of cannabis being good for sleep
Contrary to popular belief, cannabis might be detrimental to a good night's sleep, according to a cross-sectional analysis using National Health and Nutrition Examination...
Dosing, administering medical cannabis for chronic pain – Recommendations
In Physician’s Weekly, Assistant Professor Alan Bell of the University of Toronto unpacks consensus recommendations from 20 global experts on dosing and administering medical...
Vaping damages DNA and raises risk of cancer – but is not as bad as cigarettes
Vaping damages people’s DNA in the same way as smoking cigarettes – though to a much lesser degree – a study has warned, writes...
Only alcohol – not caffeine, diet or lack of sleep – might trigger atrial fibrillation
Only alcohol use was found to be consistently associated with more episodes of heart arrhythmia in research by the University of California, San Francisco that...
Fatal heart attack or stroke could be first sign of CVD in some smokers
Death from a heart attack or stroke may be the first cardiovascular disease (CVD) event in some people who smoke cigarettes and CVD is...
Tobacco taxes reducing consumption rates, says WHO
Tobacco use is on a declining trend worldwide, says a report from the World Health Organisation (WHO), reports Sanjeet Bagcchi for SciDev.Net. Women using...
Cannabis legalisation has not led to increased traffic injuries in Canada
When Canada implemented cannabis legalisation in 2018, there was concern about increased traffic harms, especially among youth. But research by the University of Northern...