Smoking

Parents' smoking habits can reduce their chances of conceiving a baby boy by almost half, scientists say.

The study conducted by paediatricians at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine implied that smokers are less likely to have a boy. Besides, smoking during pregnancy may prevent male embryo implanting in the womb and may become a cause for miscarriage.

If you want to quit smoking, don't rely on nicotine patches and menthol cigarettes as studies show that they are at best useless, but may even increase the risk of serious health problems.

Recently the study conducted by Dr. Nicholas Vozoris of St. Michael's Hospital, in Toronto has found that menthol cigarettes may up stroke risk. Those who smoked menthol cigarettes had doubled risk to have a smoke and this risk was higher for non-black smokers and women.

German researchers found that smoking is linked to higher risk of committing suicide. The study was based on data of 3,021 people aged 14-24, living in Munich, who were interviewed since 1995. Almost 25 percent of the respondents were non-smokers, 40 percent smoked occasionally, 17 percent were non-dependent smokers and 19 percent claimed to be addictive to smoking.

Drinking alcoholic drinks while inhaling second-hand smoke becomes even more damaging for your heart increasing your risk of heart problems nearly five times. The research conducted by scientists from the University of Alabama, Birmingham showed that second-hand smoking becomes even more dangerous when combined with alcohol consumption.

Scientists discovered that, regardless of the anatomic site, smoking is the main cause of developing head and neck cancers in both men and women. A study, published in "Cancer", proved that there is a strong connection between current and past smoking of cigarettes and head and neck cancers in men and women.

Annually, around four in five people want to quit smoking, while most smokers have tried to quit at least once. Smoking cessation can be quite difficult for many people due to several reasons. More than 70 percent of smokers who quit face the problem of weight gain. This especially refers to women, who tend to gain 6 to 8 pounds on average. In this case you should deal with smoking cessation and weight gain at the same time, which is quite a hard job that requires great efforts.

Second hand smoking considerably increases the risk of stroke for your spouse, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that nonsmokers married to smokers have the 42 percent increased risk of having a stroke in comparison to those who are married to nonsmokers. The risk rose up to 72 percent for former smokers who are married to smokers, the researchers said.

The research which was published in the journal Thorax states that one cannabis joint negatively affects the lungs just as much as five cigarettes do in one go. Scientists made were able to show their findings by selecting 339 adults aged up to 70. The participants were selected from an ongoing study related to respiratory health. All adults were divided into four different groups.

Those women who decided to give up smoking may succeed if they chose the right time of the month- during a premenstrual period, the study says.

The study conducted at the University of Michigan showed that 85 percent of women who tried to give up smoking after their periods did not managed to do it. In comparison, 66 percent of women who attempted to quit smoking after ovulation stage and before their periods failed to do so.

Experts explain that during the menstrual cycle different levels of female sex hormones influence their ability to stop the bad habit.