Why smoking feels good...

By Olatunji OLOLADE

Big girls don’t cry. Guess when they look like Abimbola Cole, they rise above little vanities, like tears. The 26-year old’s mien is so cool, so controlled, even in the grip of a terrible ailment.
In the dimness of the private ward, the Assistant Regional Manager of a South-east courier firm snuggled under her blanket. Fat has thinned on her bones and her favourite Dalmatian dog-spotted T-shirt is too big for her now.
Sweat beads glisten her arms and forehead and she wheezes for breath, like some child caught beneath its comfortable wooly blankets, drowning there. Her lungs probably wouldn’t take some air although she wills it to, eventually.
"Pele (Sorry) Abimbola," she whispered to herself in the third person. Her whisper, more like a gasp, pervaded the room like an interior dialogue of guilt and extenuation.
Drawn silence, sparse breathing, crushing symbolism; she simply displaces the banality of anything happening. And then she said, "I would give anything for a puff now but I dare not, do I? I started smoking at the age of 15…my first cousin; Bodunde who was 17 at the period was a chain smoker. She probably picked up the habit from one of her boyfriends. But I couldn’t care then. All I felt was a sense of freedom. I was getting to rebel in my own little way and fit into some peer culture…hmm…I sucked on Rothmans Pallmall like my life depended on it. The fact that I had a boyfriend named Rotimi imbued my habit some poetry or sort. He smoked the same brand too and between us; we consumed at least a pack and a half everyday. Even when we had little to eat, it paid us to suck on cancer sticks…yeah, that was the name we coined for it…cancer sticks."
There is much pain in her recollection. Bitter-sweet memories steal from her lips with a nostalgic peal. The effect is awesome.
"Now they said I got lung cancer (Non-small cell Stage three lung cancer) but it’s funny that I feel no regret. Whatever will be will be; a human has to die in some way," she says with the perception of someone who understands that peace might be attained by the suppression of certain feelings, like regret.
That affect is somewhat elegiac which made talking to the sick undergraduate not just exploratory but oftentimes, charming. It’s a mood that says: "This pretty young lady’s been there."
Shakiru Agarawu too has been there but he summoned the courage to get off early enough from what he recollects as "a first class journey to hell." The 44-year old proprietor of a Laundromat disclosed that he started smoking at age 12. He said: "It was a given in my neighborhood that you either smoke marijuana or cigarettes. I opted for cigarettes because I was scared of the bad stereotype given smokers of marijuana. So I started smoking cigarette. At first, I used to hide the habit from my folks but no sooner than I secured university admission, I summoned courage to light a stick in front of my siblings and then my mother. She was totally against the habit but the more she condemned it, the more I stuck to the habit. Hence her joy know no bounds when after 20 years of chain-smoking, I decided to quit."
Agarawu had his epiphany at a chance encounter with the father of a childhood friend. The latter was battled advanced stage 4 cancer until his death. "He suffered a terrible stroke that led to his death 13 days before his 81st
birthday. The man was a chain-smoker," disclosed Agarawu.

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Cigarette smoking: Killing a killer-habit

-Yetunde Akintola

Habits are behaviours people develop over a period of time. Some habits are almost totally harmless, others are so dangerous that they could actually kill the person. Smoking cigarretes, however, has the tendency to kill even a non-smoker. Yetunde Akintola reports on why smokers should quit and how.

JUNE 26 every year is the United Nations’ International Day Against Drug and Illicit Trafficking. The day is set aside to enlighten the public on the dangers of doing drugs like Indian hemp, cocaine, cannabis, cigarette, etc.

While all the other drugs are more dangerous and banned by the government, cigarette is, however, legal, and can be smoked in public. It is with this impression that smokers feel that cigarette is less dangerous to the health.

However, smoking cigarette can be as dangerous as smoking Indian hemp, or taking other hard drugs, the only difference is just that the effect takes a while to manifest. This is probably why cigarette smokers feel it is safe. Often times, you even hear smokers say that they have been at it for several years and nothing has happened to them.

Now that there is a sustained campaign against those into hard drugs, special focus must be given to those who are already smoking cigarettes. The reason for this is that, it is generally believed that most of those who go into hard drugs started from cigarette.

Somebody who had never smoked before, is most unlikely to pick up a wrap of Indian hemp and light it. The genesis of most drug adicts starts with smoking cigarette.

This is why it is important to find ways towards discouraging those who are into smoking cigarette to put a stop to it before they graduate into taking harder substances.

Justifying this line of thought, a private medical practitioner based in Ibadan, Dr. Olukayode Samuel, agreed that most people who do drugs start with cigarette, before graduating into harder substances.

Dr. Samuel said that, after a smoker had smoked cigarette for a while, he would be tempted, mostly by fellow smokers, to try Indian hemp or cannabis and other forms of hard drugs.

He, therefore, suggested that, “it is important that tougher sanctions be given to those who smoke cigarettes like other hard drugs.”

But since that is not likely to happen anytime soon, the medical doctor then gave a piece of advice to smokers, saying, “before you stick another cigarette into your mouth, take a look at the effects of smoking, and then decide if you want to go ahead.”

In the society today, smoking is considered a status symbol, especially among the youth. However, many people are not paying much attention to the effects of smoking, which can result in deadly diseases like cancer. The damage smoking causes is not suffered only by the smoker, but the environment also gets its share of the damage as the smoke released into the air is dangerous. Those that also hang around smokers are at risk, they are refered to as passive smokers. According to a scientific study, those who inhale the smoke from a cigarette, are at an equal risk with the real smoker.

It is even more dangerous for those that have certain health conditions to smoke or stay around smokers as this could cause complicatons. An asthmatic patient, for instance, might have an attack or crisis if exposed to cigarrete smoke.

Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body, causing lung and throat cancer, as well as chronic heart diseases, and so on. It also gives rise to sicknesses like Conductive Heart Failure (CHF), also known as heart attack, hypertension and so on.

Before looking at how to get people to stop smoking, we must first look at how many started in the first place.

According to Mr. Ademola Ogundele, an official of a non-governmental organisation, Creative Actors Initiative for Development (CRAID), some people start smoking just because they are curious, while others start because of peer-pressure or they feel it is a way to act or look like an adult.

While advising those who smoke to put an end to the habit, Mr. Ogundele said, “why do tobacco producers include it on the pack that smoking is injurious to health? This is a clear and unambigous way of telling smokers that they are killing themselves.”

The disadvantages of smoking are so much, among which is the fact that smoking cigarette stains the teeth, as well as have effect on the breath. It also affects the immunity level in the body, making it prone to contracting diseases.

However, quiting smoking is not so easy because of the nicotine in the cigarette. Nicotine makes smokers addicted, thereby making it difficult to stop.However, smokers who decide to quit must realise they can, provided they have firm determination, which is what determines whether they will be able to witstand the withdrawal symptoms.

According to Dr. Bashiru Akande Lasisi, Executive Director, CRAID, withdrawal symptoms are symptoms one gets when one wants to stop something, like drugs. Once in a while, or even frequently, the person who has stopped taking cigarettes, or other drugs, will experience headaches, body aches, dizziness, etc, due to what the body had been conditioned to, but which the person had stopped doing.

Dr. Lasisi, however, advised smokers who are planning to quit, to visit doctors, or even the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), on the rehabilitation towards overcoming withdrawal symptoms.

Some people may, however, have justifiable reasons to engage in smoking cigarretes. Those living in colder regions of the earth, the in Europe, definitely need to keep warm. But, it could still be argued that, there are others who live in these places, yet they do not smoke. Those that have no excuse, whatsoever, are those who live in temperate regions like Nigeria.

Although it is an inevitable fact that death must eventually come to everyone, but, should a person hasten up the process through an habit that is in one’s power to control? Smoking is killing one’s self, one stick at a time.

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TOBACCO FACTS: WHERE IS THE NATIONAL TOBACCO CONTROL BILL?

Smoking Now Kills More Nigerian Women

by Annette Oghenerhaboke

Death from smoking-related ailments is on the increase among Nigerian women

Smoking among women is on the increase globally and this is doing a lot of harm to their cardio vascular system, lung function, reproductive system and bone density. Latest reports indicate that out of the more than one billion smokers worldwide, 250 million are women. About 5.5 percent of them die annually from smoking-related ailments. “The number of women that smoke would triple over the next generation and more than 200 million will die prematurely if nothing is done about it.” Kemi Odukoya, a doctor with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, said during a recent seminar held in Lagos.
Odukoya, who observed that women are so important that when they die, their death affects the family, society and the nation, said the increase in the number of women smoking in the less developed countries like Nigeria is worrisome. “The current trend shows that men smoke more than women and if we don’t do anything about it, that gap will narrow and that means the female will start smoking just as much as men and in some countries, females are even already smoking more than men,” she said.
According to a recent study by the World Health Organisation, WHO, tobacco accounts for nearly one in three cancer deaths worldwide. The study also revealed that in Nigeria, there are more than 13 million active smokers out of which more than five million die annually. Of this number, approximately 1.5 million are women and unless urgent action is taken, tobacco could kill more than eight million people by 2030, out of which 2.5 million would be women.
Medical experts say smoking affect a woman’s mental, social and economic health. Other major health effects peculiar to women are menstrual problems, pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility and premature menopause. Odukoya said tobacco is a major risk factor for about 44 different kinds of diseases and that more than 4,000 toxic chemicals have been found in tobacco smoke. And because women bear the greatest burden of environmental tobacco smoke, they are at risk of particular health hazards. “Women that smoke during pregnancy are more likely to have ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy is when a pregnancy does not form inside the womb and this can kill because the baby has been poisoned by cigarette smoke.”
Apart from the risk of fertility problems, they more are likely to have spontaneous abortion, a condition known as miscarriage. They are also at risk of delivering babies with low birth weight while their baby runs the risk of sudden infant death. Smoking also increases the risks of painful and irregular menstruation.
Unfortunately, most women are not aware of the dangers of smoking. Lanre Oginni, executive director, All Nigeria Consumers Movement Union, ANCOMMU, said while many tobacco users generally know that tobacco use is harmful, studies have revealed that most of them are unaware of the true risks.
It was in a bid to address this problem that the Environment Rights Action / Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN recently held a seminar to commemorate the 2010 World No Tobacco Day, WNTD. The WNTD tagged: “Tobacco and Women, with emphasis on marketing to women,” condemned the marketing strategies employed by the tobacco industries and their tactics of luring women into smoking. Betty Abah, gender focal person, ERA/FoEN, said the theme was timely because it seeks to highlight the dangers that the world face when women, whom she described as “mothers, home makers, great dreamers and achievers,” fall deeper into the snare that turns them into puffers. “But very prominently, this year’s theme seeks to expose the ongoing subtle, sly, but aggressive marketing strategies that the tobacco industry employs to make tobacco use attractive to women, to hook them as lifelong smokers and therefore, continue in this evil, dehumanising circle,” she said.
In order to curb this problem, Akinbode Oluwafemi, programme manager, ERA/FoEN, urged Nigerians to pressurise the government to implement the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, FCTC, that regulates tobacco marketing to minors, ban smoking in public places, and ultimately reduce the harms caused to women and girls and everyone from the use of this dangerous product.

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Smoking may contribute to pelvic pain in pregnancy

A LOWER risk of pelvic pain could be yet one more reason for women to quit smoking before becoming pregnant, a new study suggests.

Danish researchers found that among 5,000 women interviewed during and soon after pregnancy, those who smoked during pregnancy were 20 per cent more likely to have pregnancy-related pelvic pain than non-smokers.

A similar risk was seen among women who had given up smoking during the first trimester, according to findings published in the obstetrics journal BJOG.

Pelvic pain is believed to be a common problem in pregnancy, with recent studies finding that anywhere from 14 per cent to 33 per cent of women develop it, most often in the second half of pregnancy.The pain can make routine activities, like walking, getting up from a chair or even turning over in bed, difficult.

So it is important to reduce the risk of developing the pain, if possible.The current findings show an association between smoking and pelvic pain, but do not prove cause-and-effect. Still, there are many reasons for women to quit smoking, particularly if they are planning a pregnancy.So a reduction in the risk of pelvic pain can be viewed as a potential added benefit, according to lead researcher Karin Biering, of Herning Regional Hospital in Denmark.

Smoking during pregnancy is linked to increased risks of miscarriage, low birth weight and other pregnancy complications. So the most important reason for women to quit before pregnancy is for the health of their child, Biering told Reuters Health in an email.“The finding of our study just adds another possible consequence of smoking,” she said.The results are based on data from a subgroup of women included in a national study of more than 100,000 pregnancies between 1996 and 2002.

Women in that study were interviewed during pregnancy and six months after giving birth.Biering’s team compared 2,300 women who reported having pelvic pain during or shortly after pregnancy with nearly 2,700 who did not report the problem. Pelvic pain was defined as pain that was at least significant enough to affect a woman’s ability to walk.

Overall, the study found, smokers, including those who quit in early pregnancy, had an elevated risk of pelvic pain, even taking into account a number of other factors, such as age, obesity, the women’s self-rated general health and whether they had a physically strenuous job.It is not clear why smoking might contribute to pelvic pain during pregnancy. In theory, it may be related to reduced blood flow to the pelvic tissue, according to Biering.

Even if smoking is a risk factor for pregnancy-related pelvic pain, being a non-smoker is no guarantee that a woman will not develop the problem. Among women with mild pelvic pain in the current study, 73 per cent were non-smokers; of those with severe pain, pain bad enough to interfere with several daily activities – 69 per cent were non- smokers.Pelvic pain is a “complex” condition, Biering noted, and there are probably numerous factors involved in pregnant women’s risk.

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Secondhand smoke linked with illness

-Editor Natural Health

EXPOSURE to secondhand smoke appears to be associated with psychological distress and the risk of future psychiatric hospitalisation among healthy adults, according to a report posted online in the August print issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

The authors in background information stated: "A growing body of literature has demonstrated the harmful physical health effects of secondhand smoke exposure. Given the highly prevalent exposure to secondhand smoke…even a low level of risk may have a major public health impact."

Dr. Mark Hamer of University College London, and colleagues studied 5,560 non-smoking adults (average age 49.8) and 2,595 smokers (average age 44.8) who did not have a history of mental illness and participated in the Scottish Health Survey in 1998 or 2003.

Participants were assessed with a questionnaire about psychological distress, and admissions to psychiatric hospitals were tracked over six years of follow-up. Exposure to secondhand smoke among non-smokers was assessed using saliva levels of cotinine – the main product formed when nicotine is broken down by the body – "a reliable and valid circulating biochemical marker of nicotine exposure," the authors write.

A total of 14.5 per cent of the participants reported psychological distress. Non-smokers with a high exposure to secondhand smoke (cotinine levels between 0.70 and 15 micrograms per litre) had higher odds of psychological distress when compared with those who had no detectable cotinine.Over the six-year follow-up, 41 individuals were newly admitted to psychiatric hospitals. Smokers and non-smokers with high exposure to secondhand smoke were both more likely than non-smokers with low levels of secondhand smoke exposure to be hospitalised for depression, schizophrenia, delirium or other psychiatric conditions.

Animal data have suggested that tobacco may induce a negative mood, and some human studies have also identified a potential association between smoking and depression. "Taken together, therefore, our data are consistent with other emerging evidence to suggest a causal role of nicotine exposure in mental health," the authors write."To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate a prospective association between objectively assessed secondhand smoke exposure and mental health in a representative sample of a general population," they conclude.

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