Smoking Kills 5 million a year
The Journal Tobacco Control reported the results of a survey of smoking related deaths in the year 2000. Smoking accounted for nearly 5 million deaths worldwide that year, with three times as many men as women succumbing to the deadly effects of the most addictive weed on the planet.

The main smoking related disease was coronary artery disease which accounted for a million deaths in the industrialised world and 670 000 in the developing countries. Then came lung cancer and chronic obstructive airways diseases such as bronchitis and emphysema. More than half of all these deaths occurred between the ages of 30 and 69.

But is smoking addiction in our genes?
The same journal had an interesting article on a Canadian study of the genetic profiles of 228 students who ‘smoked but were not addicted’. The Canadian men in white coats monitored these students for two years after which it was established that 69 of them became addicted to nicotine. However the researchers made an interesting finding: The young people with inactive variants of the CYP2A6 gene were nearly three times likely to become addicted to nicotine. Apparently this is because people with an inactive version of this gene clear nicotine more slowly from their systems. Thus the nicotine remains in the blood longer and makes you crave the next cigarette more.

What this means is that although tobacco is highly addictive to all, it may be more addictive to some than others. How does that help us? Not very much is the answer. My view is that the physical addiction to nicotine, although pretty strong, can be beaten in three weeks. The psychological addiction is somewhat harder to beat, but many have been successful there too. I recommend Allen Carr’s Easyway® which he has described in a couple of books and CD’s as it addresses the psychological addiction to smoking very well indeed.

Babies love Curry

It’s not only adults that like a good Chicken Korma these days, it’s children and babies too. We like to think of babies preferring mashed banana to curry but according to the great medical research centre, Sainsbury’s supermarket, this is not true anymore. Sainsbury’s did their own research over 10 years and found that the top selling baby foods were pretty exotic. For the record here are Sainsbury’s Top 10 selling baby foods: potato and lamb moussaka; vegetable, chicken and coconut korma; pasta stars and parmesan,; sweet potato, carrots and beef; rigatoni Napoli; vegetable noodle and chicken; lamb risotto and Hawaiin Chicken; spaghetti, tomatoes and mozzarella; banoffee pie and crème caramel. Favourite places for babies to eat out in London were The Savoy Grill and Claridges. (Just joking on the last point, but the rest of it is true 😉

Homeopathic Tip of the Week: Babies

One of the best homeopathic remedies for babies, according to the Greek master homeopath, George Vithoulkas, is Calcarea carbonica. He reckons that many babies with various problems can be helped with a few doses of this remedy – no matter what the problems are. On the whole it is indicated in sweat babies who are rather plump and whose milestones are marginally late. It’s always best to consult a homeopathic doctor and this is especially true when it comes to treating children and babies.