Because it's one of the few ways they'll be allowed to differentiate on price under Obamacare, a lot of market competition will happen around tobacco users -- if there's much real competition at all.
Currently, tobacco costs New Yorkers an estimated $8.17 billion in health care costs, including $2.7 billion in Medicaid costs as a result of tobacco use. Cutting the state's program that works to reduce these costs by helping to reduce tobacco use is shortsighted.
It's hard to motivate yourself to adopt new habits, but it's even harder to rid yourself of old ones. More often than not, it's the latter that keep us from becoming the person we really want to be.
Is there a familiar aroma emanating from your kid's room? Do you shake your head and ignore it thinking, "Hey, I got high when I was a teen and I turned out OK, right?" Well, think again.
Over the course of 20 years or so, there were days when I thought I'd never live to see today. At first, the thoughts were fleeting; over the past year, they were consuming. Yet here I am, an elated woman. I'm actually none the worse for wear, and possibly even new and improved!
We've been targeted by the tobacco industry, we're extremely likely to seek social acceptance, and the pressures of stigma can nudge anyone toward unhealthy behaviors. That's why I was so pleased when the CDC created its first-ever national LGBT-oriented smoking cessation ad.
Have you ever tried to lose weight by not thinking about food? How about trying to stop yourself from calling your love interest by blocking out all thoughts about that person? Ever try to quit smoking by trying not to think about smoking? Did it work? I'll bet it didn't.
It's been 15 years since I stopped smoking, and it's still a source of pride for me. I've gained so much personally by seeing what I can accomplish. I've spent some of the best years of my life already as a non-smoker, and I'm confident some of the best are still to come.
One in two Americans is coping with a chronic disease, and many require rehabilitation. That's why I'm suggesting this year your New Year's resolution be "prehabilitation," a term defined by Wikipedia as, "a form of strength training, aims to prevent injuries before the actual occurrence."
Dr. James H. Berry, DO, medical director of Chestnut Ridge Inpatient Acute Dual Diagnosis Program and assistant professor at the West Virginia Health Science Center's Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, answers a few short questions for smokers.
Today and every day, new LGBT youth will pick up cigarettes for the very first time, desperately looking for some way to fit in. I hope we can stop having that momentary isolation play itself out in decades of profits for the tobacco industry, at the direct expense of our communities' health.
This research adds to a growing body of knowledge showing more clearly than ever that quitting smoking makes life better. Quitting is not only the best way to protect your body and your health, but also brings measurable benefits in terms of emotional well-being.
For every person who dies from smoking -- about 1,200 a day -- two youths or young adults become smokers. Ninety percent of these "replacement" smokers have their first cigarette before they are 18 years old. One of them could be your kid.
It wasn't even close. Out of five categories, four were won by one team.
It's every kid you never wanted yours to hang out with, all in the palm of their hands!
While adult smoking rates in the general population were cut in half between 1965 and 2004, the ratio of heavy and dependent smokers who meet the psychiatric definition of "nicotine dependence" is steadily rising.
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