Obama ‘Tobacco Free’ but Still Chews Nicotine Gum, Doctor Says

President Obama “remains tobacco free” but still maintains “occasional use” of nicotine gum, according to an official summary of his periodic physical exam conducted in May.
Physician to the president Dr. Ronny L. Jackson says Obama’s overall health is “excellent” and that “all clinical data indicates that the president is currently healthy and that he will remain so for the duration of his presidency,” according to a memo released by the White House.
Obama, 52, still has perfect 20/20 vision. He maintains a healthy weight of 180 pounds (though he had lost 1.3 pounds since his previous exam). And his blood pressure remains within the “normal” range, Dr. Jackson found.
Obama’s cholesterol levels – 213 mg/dl overall – is “borderline high” under established medical guidelines, however.  A jump in his LDL (“bad cholesterol”) level from 110 mg/dl in 2011 to 137 mg/dl this year puts him in the “borderline high” category, according to the Mayo Clinic.  The respected medical center suggests most people should aim for an LDL level below 130.
Obama still copes with a mild case of plantar fasciitis (inflammation of the thick tissue on the bottom of the foot), the report says.
The only drugs Obama takes is an occasional ibuprofen, daily vitamin D and malarone (antimalaria medication) when traveling abroad.

Benefits of Smoking Cessation

• Every breath I take feels so clean and refreshing
• I'm not tired during the day...yet I sleep like a rock at night
• I have more stamina, endurance, and confidence
• More cash in my pocket
• My clothes don't stink
• I'm not ashamed of smoking anymore
• My anxiety level has gone way, way down
• I can breathe!
• I'm working out like a champ
• I am in control of ME
• No more coughing
• I'm eating better--I used to substitute cigarettes for food a lot
• I can smell again
• My complexion is much better
• My heart feels relaxed...like it can do more work with less effort now
• Less heartburn and indigestion
• More respect for myself
• No need to worry about attending events where I can't smoke
• My house smells good! My car smells good!
• No more fear of fire caused by smoking
• I spend money on my health now, like working out at a health club, instead of on cigs
• My sinus problems are gone!
• My allergies and asthma have improved
• I don't feel like a hypocrite
• I can sing again!
• No more time wasted smoking
• Whiter teeth
• Fresh breath
• Sharper thinking
• Pride in myself
• No more guilt about exposing family and friends to secondhand smoke
• Confidence in my ability to achieve whatever goal I set for myself!

Smoking cessation represents a difficult task for many smokers, but if you pass it then it could be the step that changed your life.  But to succeed you have to know what you want and work hard. Remind yourself every day about the reason you want to give up smoking, and imagine yourself as a contented ex-smoker, free of the need to light up every hour a cigarette.

Stopping smoking is not out of reach, it is possible, and you have the power to make it happen, right now. Believe it and believe in your own personality.

Smoking kills -Remember smokers

Touching on a subject that has stirred controversy in countries where pro- and anti-tobacco lobbies are fighting over smoking controls, investigators looked at data from a large survey among British teenagers.
More than a thousand 11- to 16-year-olds took part in the survey, which unfolded in two waves, in 2008 and a followup in 2011.
In 2008, cigarette packets sold in Britain had large text warnings on the front and back.
In 2011, these were joined by anti-smoking pictures on the back panel of the pack.
Between two-thirds and three-quarters of respondents in the survey had never smoked.
Between 17 and 22 percent had experimented with cigarettes.
Around one in 10 were already "regular" smokers, defined as smoking at least one cigarette a week.
All were asked if they recalled the text message or the picture, and say which warning was likely to discourage them from smoking.
The most commonly recalled messages were the two types of general warnings on the packet front.
"Smoking kills" was remembered by 58 percent in 2008, while "Smoking seriously harms you and others around you" by 41 percent.
These rates fell to 47 percent and 25 percent respectively in 2011.
In contrast, the more specific text messages on the back of the pack were recalled by less than one percent of participants both 2008 and 2011.
Recall of the back-of-the-pack images was generally below 10 percent in both waves.
The exception was three scary pictures of rotting teeth, diseased lungs and neck cancer, for which recall increased between 2008 and 2011, reaching a maximum of 33 percent for the diseased lung image.
The research say the pictures had most effect on "never" or experimental smokers.
But the impact was negligible on regular smokers -- except to prompt some of them to buy special "hiding packs" to mask the nasty images.
"As warnings need to be salient to be effective, positioning pictorial warnings only on the less visible reverse panel limits their impact," says the study.
"While recall was high at both waves for pack-front (text) warnings, it was low -- below 10 percent -- for the pictorial warnings on the pack reverse, fear-appeal pictures aside."
The study, appearing in the specialist journal Tobacco Control published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), also points to the "wear-out" factor, of text and visual warnings that go unchanged for years and fail to make an impact on regular smokers.
More than 60 countries now require pictorial health warnings on packs, according to the paper.
In five countries - Australia, Brunei, Canada, Sri Lanka and Uruguay - the law stipulates that they cover 75 percent of the main surfaces.
European Union (EU) countries must follow a 2001 directive that gives one of two general warnings covering 30-35 percent on the pack front, and 14 specific warnings, covering 40-50 percent of the reverse.
There are also 42 possible images that member states can use on the reverse of packs.
Less than half of the EU's member-states have adopted these pictorial warnings, and none has warnings covering 50 percent of the main pack surfaces overall, a guideline set by the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO).

Smokeless tobacco products and tobacco sales

Lately have appeared new kinds of smokeless tobacco products on the tobacco markets like "Camel Orbs" for example, which is tested by Reynolds American Inc. (RAI).

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--New types of smokeless tobacco products like the "Camel Orbs" being tested by Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) could accidentally draw young children because of their candy-like appearance, researchers said in the Pediatrics journal Monday.

Unintentional ingestion of tobacco products is a major reason for infant and child toxic exposures reported to poison-control centers throughout the nation, the article says. The Camel Orbs product named in the article was launched by Reynolds American unit R.J. Reynolds in the first quarter of 2009 and the orbs are small pellets made of finely milled tobacco and contain nicotine.

Smokeless tobacco products have become increasingly important to the sales of the U.S. tobacco industry. Americans are smoking fewer cigarettes amid bans on smoking in public places and other factors.

A Reynolds spokesman countered that the Camel Orbs products are made for adult tobacco users, sales are age restricted, they carry the same warning as any other smokeless tobacco products and they are sold in child resistant packaging. Reynolds maintains that accidental ingestion of tobacco products isn't a major reason for infant and child toxic exposures reported to poison-control centers.

The published piece in the Pediatrics journal suggests that public health authorities study such products to determine the appropriate regulatory approach. Gregory Connolly, director of the tobacco control research program at the Harvard School of Public Health, was the lead author of the study.

Other tobacco industry critics have had similar concerns. The Food and Drug Administration was recently given powers to regulate the tobacco industry and its approach to such products will be closely watched.

Smoking bans and public policies

Smoking bans represent public policies, including occupational safety, criminal laws and health regulations, which forbidden smoking tobacco in workplaces and/or other public spaces. Legislation may also characterize smoking in a general way as being the possessing or carrying of any tobacco product.

Smoke-free laws are very rationale because there are made to protect all the people from the effects of second-hand and third hand smoke, which include a big risk of cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and other diseases. Laws that are implementing bans on indoor smoking were introduced by many countries in many forms in the past years, with a few legislators citing scientific evidence that sustains that tobacco smoking is harmful to the smokers themselves and to people that are inhaling second-hand smoke.
Such laws may lower health care and improve work productivity, and lower the overall cost of labor in a community, so that it could make the community more attractive for the employers. In
Another rationales for smoking restrictions include a reduced risk of fire in areas where it is possible explosions; cleanliness in places where pharmaceuticals, food, precision instruments and machinery are produced or semiconductors; decreased legal liability; reduced quantities of litter; giving smokers possibility to quit, and healthier environments.
The World Health Organization thinks that smoke-free laws have a big influence to reduce the demand for tobacco products by making an environment where smoking cigarettes for example is more difficult. Together with cessation measures, tax measures and education, smoking ban policy is now seen as an important part in making the smoking rates lower and promoting public health. When all of these are made correctly and strictly and are also implemented right it is considered as one important, useful policy agenda goal to change or at least transform human habits away from unhealthy behavior and towards a healthy lifestyle