(Almost) As Bad As Smoking

Smoking is often seen as being (the most) unhealthy (thing you can do.)

However it often isn't as the following show.

E-cigs - 3 Sep 2012

Bit of a cheat this one, since it's not directly comparing e-cigs to smoking (or anything else for that matter) - just merely scaremongering

They are touted as a safe alternative to smoking, but electronic cigarettes could damage the lungs, latest research has found.

The devices were found to cause an immediate rise in airway resistance in the lungs - meaning less oxygen is absorbed by the blood.

On average the effect lasted for ten minutes, a report presented at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Vienna found.

This seems to be predicated on the fact that some smokers use their lungs to draw on the e-cigs (as opposed to those who close the back of their throat and produce a partial vacuum by their mouth alone.) Something that the same people smoking cigarettes would never do with real cigarettes...

Electronic cigarettes deliver nicotine through a vapour rather than smoke and there has been much debate over their safety.

No. There's been a lot of opinion spouted over their safety with no research to back up the scaremongering. Nicotine is the only active ingredient in e-cigs - a chemical that is 'safely' used in things that the pharmacological industry produce such as gum and patches. The only other constituants are water and (propylene) glycol who's safety is not in doubt

To investigate, researchers from the University of Athens examined the effects on eight people who had never smoked [...]

Words fail.

Email - 3 Sep 2012

Scientists who attached heart rate monitors to office workers found they remained in a state of 'high alert' throughout the day if they had constant access to email.

Now University of California informatics professor Gloria Mark has given her verdict on email after running an experiment in which 13 volunteers ignored their 'you've got mail' chimes for five days.

Always connected: Scientists who attached heart rate monitors to office workers found they remained in a state of 'high alert'

Speaking to The Times about her experiment, she said: 'I had this crazy idea that people were addicted to email.

'So I started thinking, the way you can test that is if you take people away from email cold turkey. You should see symptoms of withdrawal, the same way people are addicted to alcohol or drugs.'

Egg Yolks - 13 Aug 2012

LONDON, Ont. – Yolk or smoke — the first is almost as bad for you as the second, London researchers have found. But the egg lobby very much disagrees.

When it comes to raising your risk of heart attacks and strokes, eating egg yolks is nearly as bad as smoking, the Western University researchers found.

"If you are at risk of heart attack and stroke, you shouldn't eat egg yolks," said Dr. David Spence, a Robarts Research Institute scientist.

Lack of exercise - 18 Jul 2012

A lack of exercise is now causing as many deaths as smoking across the world, a study suggests.

The report, published in the Lancet to coincide with the build-up to the Olympics, estimates that about a third of adults are not doing enough physical activity, causing 5.3m deaths a year.

If you thought kicking the cigarette habit was enough to keep you healthy, you may want to go and find your trainers.

Because failing to take enough exercise is as deadly as smoking, researchers say.

More than 90,000 lives in Britain each year from illnesses including heart disease, breast and bowel cancer and diabetes.

[...]

Researchers at Harvard estimated the number of lives lost each year because of a lack of exercise.

The study, published in The Lancet, found that worldwide it leads to one in ten deaths, or 5.3million of the 57million deaths globally.

Fast Food, Aseem Malhotra - 14 Apr 2012

A consultant psychiatrist friend, on his recent appointment to a new job, was so disgusted by the detrimental effect of the unchecked consumption of junk food on his patients' health that he successfully banned vending machines selling chocolates, fizzy drinks and crisps from the hospital grounds.

He wondered whether I – as a clinician – believed the consequences of eating junk food were as bad for our health as smoking cigarettes. "No, not as bad," I replied, "in many ways it's far worse!"