Did you know...?

• Addiction to nicotine is usually established in young smokers within about a year of first experimenting with cigarettes, in many cases before reaching the age at which it is legal to buy cigarettes (on average at 12-13 years of age)
• It can take less than one pack of cigarettes - on average, just six cigarettes - to suffer withdrawal symptoms if you try to stop, in other words to become addicted
• Smoking causes permanent changes in brain receptors - once hooked most people will have cravings for nicotine which will never completely leave
• 80 per cent of ex-smokers will return to a regular habit within one month of having just one cigarette, even if they gave up years before
• People who smoke mild cigarettes simply drag longer and harder in order to get the same amount of nicotine and as a result they more often develop peripheral lung tumours at the edges of the lungs and vertical pursing lines around their lips
• Only about five per cent of smokers seek help to quit, even though this can increase their chances of stopping long term to as much as 30 per cent at one year if they get support from a trained adviser and use medications for nicotine dependency
• People who are exposed to second hand smoke from cigarettes smoked by others, are at increased risk of hearing loss, according to health experts. Doctors already know that people who smoke can damage your hearing.
  
  The latest study, published in the journal "Tobacco Control", over more than 3300 U.S. adults, shows that the same could happen due to passive smoking. 
  
  Experts believe that tobacco smoke may impair blood flow in small blood vessels of the ear. And that could lead to oxygen starvation of the body and lead to accumulation of toxic waste, causing other damage.
  
  Injury is different from that caused by exposure to loud noise or due to aging of the body.  
  
  In the study, researchers looked at test results of the hearing of 3307 volunteers smokers - people who are former smokers and people who have never smoked in my life. The test measures the range of audibility of noises and sounds with low, medium and high frequency.
  
  To assess the risk of passive exposure to tobacco smoke were taken blood samples from volunteers to see whether they contain cotinine - a by-product of nicotine, which is synthesized in the breakdown of nicotine and falls in the body when a person comes into contact with tobacco smoke. 
  
  Passive smoking increases the risk of losing a third of all hearing sound frequencies. People exposed to passive smoking, were at much greater risk to aggravate his hearing from others who have been exposed to background noise.  
  
  Dr. David Fabry, who led the study, said: "We do not yet know the impact of how much smoke should be exposed person to lose his hearing, but we know that it is not very big. Top safer not exposed to tobacco smoke. " 
  
  Dr. Ralph Holm, Head of Biomedical Research at the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, said: "We know from our own research that regular active smoking is an important risk factor leading to hearing loss, but this new study is important because it highlights the risks associated with passive smoking. " 
  
  Hearing loss can cause victims to unwanted social isolation, and sometimes - and depression, warn medics. 
  Older research conducted with over 4000 volunteers aged 53 to 67 years indicates that smoking and obesity can also lead to permanent hearing damage. Hearing loss is proportional to the amount smoked cigarettes and body mass index (BMI).
  But high levels of workplace noise remain the biggest cause of this negative effect .. 
  
  In a third separate study conducted jointly by scientists from Paris and London of 5000 subjects, shows that smoking in middle age is associated with memory loss and risk of dementia. 
  
  "Once the organism is damaged, it can not be repaired." Said Dr. Eric France. He said that hearing loss is proportional to how much you smoke and what your body mass index (BMI). Hearing begins to deteriorate after the patients had smoked regularly for more than one year. Smoking and obesity are a cause for deterioration of other organs or weakening of the blood flow in the body and lack of oxygen in the blood, the doctor has warned.
  
   Nedelin Boyadjiev
  
  Sources:
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11758345
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7443730.stm