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A 12-week course of daily beetroot juice supplement for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) lowered blood pressure and improved how far patients could walk in six minutes in research. COPD includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, causes breathing difficulties and severely limits people's capacity for physical activity. The new research tested a concentrated beetroot juice supplement that is high in nitrate against a beetroot juice placebo. Professor Nicholas Hopkinson said, "There is some evidence beetroot juice as a source of nitrate supplementation could be used by athletes. Higher levels of nitrate in the blood can increase the availability of...

A new study has revealed that marijuana smokers have a higher rate of emphysema and airway diseases compared to cigarette smokers. Researchers have found marijuana smokers have a higher rate of emphysema and airway diseases compared to cigarette smokers. The findings, from the University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital, will be published today (November 15) in the journal Radiology. In the study, the chest CT examinations of 56 marijuana smokers, 57 non-smokers, and 33 tobacco-only smokers between 2005 and 2020 were analyzed. The investigators determined higher rates of paraseptal emphysema (PSE) and airway inflammatory changes, such as bronchiectasis, bronchial...

The first randomized controlled trial to compare two lung volume reduction procedures for people with emphysema has found that both lead to similar improvements in lung function, breathlessness and exercise capacity. The results from the study of lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) and bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (BVLR) should help doctors and patients to choose the best approach to treat emphysema. Emphysema is a chronic lung disease. In people where the lung damage is unevenly distributed, treatment to target the worst area of emphysema, by reducing the volume of the lung by about 20–30%, can improve airflow and exchange of...

"It has not been very clear what causes the disease and there has been no therapy to stop or reverse lung destruction in emphysema," said Norbert Weissman of the University of Giessen Lung Center in Germany. "There have really been no new concepts about therapy in the last 20 years." COPD, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema, is expected to become the third-greatest cause of death worldwide by the year 2020. In addition to airway inflammation and decreased of respiratory function, COPD is often accompanied by pulmonary hypertension, which is essentially high blood pressure in the lungs. Whether this condition was...

Former First Lady Barbara Bush, 92, decided Sunday to focus on comfort care in the face of her failing health, rather than additional medical treatment. “Following a recent series of hospitalizations, and after consulting her family and doctors, Mrs. Bush, now age 92, has decided not to seek additional medical treatment, and instead will focus on comfort care,” read a statement from the office of George H. W. Bush. Bush has been in an out of the hospital the past year battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure. The former first lady has been married to former...

Former first lady Barbara Bush is in failing health, a source close to the Bush family tells CNN. At 92 years old, Bush has been suffering for some time and has been in and out of the hospital multiple times in the last year while battling with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD, and congestive heart failure. The source said she is being cared for at her home in Houston and has decided she does not want to go back into the hospital.

Last month I gave the keynote address at the Cannabis World Congress Business Expo in New York City. CWCBExpo is the trade show for the cannabis industry. I had the pleasure of meeting thousands of like-minded cannabis activists, and the experience was truly refreshing and inspiring on many levels. I learned firsthand that those in the legal cannabis industry — whether they're growing hemp, medical marijuana or recreational marijuana in Colorado or California or Oregon or wherever — have formed a united front. Everyone at the convention was looking to work together to come up with solutions on how to...

Nevada state officials declared a state of emergency after stores that sell recreational marijuana reported that their supply is running out just less than two weeks after the drug went on sale legally. Gov. Brian Sandoval, R-Nev., issued the state of emergency on Friday, which will allow state officials to decide on new rules that could ease the shortage of marijuana, according to Fox 13 Now. Nevada’s Department of Taxation released a statement that said it will contemplate emergency regulations that would permit liquor wholesalers to cash in on the marijuana sales. “Based on reports of adult-use marijuana sales already...

George Noory made a brief mention that Art Bell has been in and out of the hospital here lately. He is back in now for problems with COPD (shortness of breath) Colitis and possible pneumonia. I can't get Art on my terrestrial radio, and am not yet in the habit of using my computer to get radio. So, I hadn't given Art any thought in quite a few months. I was saddened to hear that he's been feeling poorly for the last few months. Art is not quite sure when he'll be back on the air. He does have a...

PRINCETON, N.J. — The number of Americans who smoke has fallen to 20 percent, tying the all-time low first recorded in 2009, according to a new poll by Gallup. The decline is sharpest among young adults, a signal the overall rate may continue to fall after years of plateauing. "This is all very good news," said Randall Burt, professor of medicine at the University of Utah and senior director of prevention and outreach and clinical services at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. "Ultimately, less smoking will result in fewer cancer deaths, as well as a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and...

A man who has filed well over a hundred lawsuits against local small-business owners says he's an advocate for the disabled. His critics say what he does is harassment and extortion. James Farkus Cohan says he's disabled with end-stage emphysema. He sues small businesses, claiming those businesses are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Cohan has filed at least 161 lawsuits... Eyewitness News caught up with Cohan after his daily hike up a steep hill near his Sun Valley home. He was hiking without a wheelchair, walker or oxygen tank.

Bitter taste receptors we have in our mouths were found to also exist in our lungs - what researchers discovered about these functioning receptors in the smooth muscle of the bronchus in the lungs may transform future treatment for asthma and obstructive lung diseases, scientists wrote in an article published in Nature Medicine. When bitter taste receptors in the lungs were exposed to certain doses of substances known to activate bitter taste receptors in the tongue, they opened up the airways better than most current medications are able to do. Senior author, Stephen B. Liggett, M.D., a pulmonologist from the...

Uncommon version seems to lessen risk of lung disease in smokers People who carry a variant form of a gene that encodes a protein called MMP-12 are in luck. This uncommon form of the gene appears to provide some protection against emphysema and asthma, researchers report online December 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the study, an international team of researchers analyzed data on lung function and genetics from seven studies that included more than 5,000 people and found that 7 to 13 percent of people harbored the beneficial variant of MMP-12. In four of the studies,...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In classic movies, cigarette smoking was used as shorthand to convey sultriness and beauty. In the real world, the connection between smoking and one’s appearance – as many studies have shown – has more to do with premature signs of aging and less to do with glamour and refinement. A new study from the University of Michigan Health System adds another dimension to the link between cigarette smoking and skin damage. The study suggests that smoking may be associated with a higher degree of aging on areas of skin, such as that of the inside of...

Some years ago, when I was freelancing at a mutual fund company, I took a break to go downstairs and smoke my pipe. On my way back upstairs, I found myself sharing the elevator with one of my co-workers in the corporate communications department. "Ewww, smoke!" she exclaimed. "Let me out of here! I don't want you to give me cancer!" Let's absorb this slowly. My fellow worker thought that: 1) Cancer was contagious. 2) She could "catch" cancer from the smell of tobacco smoke clinging to my clothes -- not from the smoke itself, which was long gone outdoors,...

In recent years, legal scholars have produced a voluminous literature on the rule of law in indirectly controlling social norms and individual preferences. Smoking bans provide on of the favorite "success stories" of those who laud the use of legal rules to change norms and preferences. According to these scholars, smoking bans affect behavior, even if under-enforced, because they change the social norm regarding smoking in public. With the advent of smoking bans, non-smokers who previously felt embarassed about publicly expressing their distaste for ETS are speaking up. By providing a de facto community statement that public smoking is unacceptable,...

BRICK, N.J. -- New Jersey residents who buy their cigarettes over the Internet are experiencing a big reason to quit: huge sales tax bills. The state is cracking down on residents who buy their smokes online in order to avoid state sales tax, a development that has caught many Garden State smokers by surprise. Brick resident Craig Mathews, 57, quit smoking last April, but not before racking up a $10,426.11 sales tax bill for buying cigarettes over the Web for years. Another Brick resident, Tim Nolan, 52, received a sales tax bill from the state for $4,115.28 for the Pall...

Way back when, the closest thing to a "smoking ban" had to do with the age at which you could legally buy cigarettes. I think it was 12 or 13. After that, about half the teenage population seemed to be lighting up at least once an hour. At Morgan Park High School, where I spent four years in the 1960s, there was a white line on the sidewalk a block away from the school building. That marked the point where the high school determined kids could smoke. It didn't stop the hard-core smokers who really needed to feed their habit...

OPP probes nursing home death; Resident, 65, was left outside Gore Bay facility when he went for a smoke -ON Sudbury Star- January 25, 2007 by Laura Stradiotto Local News - Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a nursing home resident who was found outdoors in a courtyard Jan.16. Detectives from the Ontario Provincial Police's crime unit in Orillia were at the Manitoulin Lodge in Gore Bay on Wednesday. Nursing home resident Murray Myles Patterson, 65, was transported to the Mindemoya Hospital on Jan. 16 and died a day later. In a statement released Wednesday by the...

Smoking cigarettes is a clear health risk, as most everyone knows. But lately, people have begun to worry about the health risks of secondhand smoke. Some policymakers and activists are even claiming that the government should crack down on secondhand smoke exposure, given what "the science" indicates about such exposure. Last July, introducing his office's latest report on secondhand smoke, then-U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona asserted that "there is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure," that "breathing secondhand smoke for even a short time can damage cells and set the cancer process in motion," and that... --snip-- In addition,...