smoking cessation for heart patients

[rickcharles606]

My father has been a smoker for 50 plus years, and in the last 10 years has had numerous issues with his heart. Clogged arteries which led to stints being placed, etc.

He's seen how easily I quit smoking with snus and wants to try them. I think he should speak with his doctor first, but his thinking is that he's already getting about 30mgs of nicotine through his smokes, so what's the difference?

Looking for clinical studies or papers written that would show snus to be a "safer alternative" for a smoker with heart problems. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[rickcharles606]

The only thing I can find are studies or papers written about how snus doesn't increase the risk of heart related probs, guess that's the same thing but shit, I'm not a doc. I truly would like to see my old man give up the cigs and he's willing to try snus to do it, but I don't wanna kill him either, after all he's 70 years old...lol

[lxskllr]

I can't give you anything firm, but with smoking, the carbon monoxide also negatively affects the heart. You wouldn't have that with snus of course.

[KarlvB]

http://nzhta.chmeds.ac.nz/publicatio...ss_tobacco.pdf

(pp 37 - 55)

I would suggest reading the entire report though as it collates all the snus related medical literature.

Ultimately, while there are some risks involved with using snus (these are set out in the report) it would vastly improve his overall health IMO and would be sensible aid in helping him quit smoking.

Best of luck

[deebocools]

I'll present the idea of using mini portions to get the best of both worlds

[rickcharles606]

Don't know if a mini would give him enough nicotine to stave off cravings. He's a big man, 6'5" and at least 380lbs.

Thanks for the report Karlvb, I'll print it at work..lol. Don't want to use all my paper. I just believe that the snus would be far better than smoking, especially with his heart conditions. Thanks all! Any other ideas or information would be greatly appreciated.

[bearcat87]

Well if he is like my father than he just simply likes to smoke. My dad won't even try snus because it is not smoked. About 4 years ago he switched to cigars from cigs in an effort to inhale less smoke. He admits to inhaling occasionally with cigars but as little as he does, it is probably better than cigs. I too am worried about him after he had a stint put in.

Maybe your father could use a pipe or cigars for the smoking pleasure and snus for the nicotine. Granted that he does not inhale the smoke much if at all.

[rickcharles606]

He tried a pipe and cigars, but he inhaled both and he said that preferred the cigs because it was easier. So if it's ease of use, what's easier than snus. How poetic..lol

[snusjus]

Inhaling burned plant matter produces carbon monoxide and a slew of 4000 other chemicals that are know to damage the body. Snus, on the other hand, does not produce any of the byproducts, since its not ignited. If he refuses to quit smoking cigarettes, the safest alternative is snus. Since he is already exposing himself to nicotine on a daily basis, the nicotine content of snus may damage his heart even more, but not to the extent in which cigarettes will.

[Paladinx]

is anyone else here concerned a little after reading that study report?? The largest and best study conducted said that snus users had a 40 percent higher risk of dieing then non tobacco users. In fact the risks for cardiovascular disease were higher in middle aged snus users then for smokers. The other studies that snus was ok, were funded by the tobacco company.

[Ainkor]

is anyone else here concerned a little after reading that study report?? The largest and best study conducted said that snus users had a 40 percent higher risk of dieing then non tobacco users. In fact the risks for cardiovascular disease were higher in middle aged snus users then for smokers. The other studies that snus was ok, were funded by the tobacco company.

I read through most of that study and while I did read that line, it also said that there were many other factors that were not taken into account in that study and that it was the only study that showed a marked increase compared to others.

Here is a breakdown of cardiovascular deaths in the EU. This report shows info from 2000.


http://www.scribd.com/doc/3261376/An...-within-Europe

Here is also a spreadsheet from the WHO ( http://www.who.int/entity/healthinfo...yestimates.xls ) that shows estimated death rates from 2002. As you look down the list there is a larger percent of Swedes that die from cardiovascular diseases that the US. The number that die from cardiovascular deaths in the US is 317 per 100,000 and in Sweden it is 478 per 100,000.

Also there is an increase in the combined "Oral tobacco cancer" (oral, esophageal, stomach and pancreatic) related deaths. The number that die from "Oral tobacco cancer" is 23.8 per 100,00 in Sweden versus 17.3 per 100,000 in the US.

Overall Sweden has a larger % of the population that dies from cancer than the US at 0.24% in Sweden compared to 0.19 % in the US.

So what does all of this mean? Hell if I know but numbers are numbers and usually don't lie.

What is my opinion?

IANAHS (I am not a health specialist) but it would stand to reason that based on the information shown there is a marked increase in specific diseases and deaths from those diseases in Sweden compared to the US.

Just to flip it around a bit though, if you combine COPD and Lung cancer together, the US has 98.4 deaths per 100,000 where as Sweden has 59.7 per 100,000.

One thing to take into account in regards to snus and it's potential harms is that there is a much larger percentage of the population in Sweden that use snus versus the percentage that use oral tobacco in the US. Based on what I saw I bet if you scaled the US usage numbers up to Sweden's you would come out closer or even higher.

Bottom line? We all die. Do you enjoy your life as you go along or do you put off all forms of enjoyment to live a bit longer?

I always think of my grandfather. He loved smoking but was told to quit by his doctor when he was in his 30's and he did. He wanted a cigarette EVERY SINGLE day of the rest of his life until he died from a massive stroke at 79. Was the stroke caused from him smoking in his younger years? Who know but I know there were days that he was just downright miserable.

[Paladinx]

I dont know there are so many conflicting studies. Im surprised that it is higher then in the united states to be honest. But that could be to different factors such as diet, But to think that they have a worse diet then americans is kind of hard to swallow.

[Ainkor]

I agree. I really honestly expected them to be lower. Who knows the reason though. It would be very easy to blame it on one thing or another but it is safer, much much safer than smoking!

[Paladinx]

how do we really know that though? I mean besides a common sense thing. I mean my common sense would tell me USA would def be higher for many reasons including we have many more smokers here. The study i posted stated that the risks to cardiovascular disease for men 35-54 were higher in snus users then for cigarettes. Perhaps t hat has something to do with amount used or amount of nicotine i have no idea.

I mean to me cardiovascular risk is more important then anything, because way more people die from heart problems then from lung cancer. So if something gives you a greater cardiovascular risk, then overall , it actually could be more dangerous because ur risks of lung cancer are still less.

[Ainkor]

True, but in what you posted, there were a few comments about how that there was only one study that came to that conclusion and they admitted that there could have been other causes that were not looked at.

I am not defending snus in anyway. It is bad for you no matter how you slice it. Is it worse than smoking? In every piece of documentation that I have seen, it is not nearly as bad as smoking.

Hopefully some non-tobacco and non health nut organization will come along and do some real comprehensive studies on it, but until then, we are left with what we have.