Herbal cigarettes are as unsafe as tobacco

Most people believe herbal cigarettes are a safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes. However, a recent study conducted by IIT, Gandhinagar (IIT-GN) and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (USA) researchers found that herbal cigarettes produced emissions comparable to, and in some cases worse than those from tobacco cigarettes

Researchers compared four popular herbal cigarette brands with two leading tobacco brands. The study found that particles smaller than 500 nanometres were present at nearly 20 percent higher concentrations in herbal cigarette compared to tobacco smoke. Exposure to such particles causes respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The study also found that herbal cigarette smoke showed significantly higher presence of toxic metals and oxidative potential.

“Our findings challenge the widely held belief that tobacco-free means risk-free. Emissions from herbal cigarettes are comparable to or exceeded those from tobacco cigarettes on nearly every metric we measured. Leaf-wrapped herbal variants turned out to be the most hazardous of all the samples tested,” says Prof. Sameer Patel, assistant professor at IIT-GN’s Department of Civil and Chemical Engineering.

Exposure to violence fuels smoking among teens

Adolescents exposed to violence — including bullying, cyberbullying, sexual and domestic violence — are more likely to increase cigarettes and e-cigarettes usage, says a study published in Substance Use & Misuse (June). The study conducted by Brown University (USA) researchers highlights strong association between exposure to violence and tobacco use among boys and girls, suggesting that most teens turn to tobacco as a coping mechanism.

Using data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance System, researchers examined the impact of individual and multiple forms of violence on tobacco use. They found that every type of violence increased the likelihood of cigarette and e-cigarette use. “Around one in five adolescents reported experiencing bullying, while significant numbers reported cyberbullying, sexual, or domestic violence,” says lead author Nicole Haderlein, who conducted the study as part of her Master of Public Health thesis at Brown University.

Researchers concluded that violence prevention, early identification, and intervention programs could play a crucial role in reducing tobacco usage among adolescents and improving overall youth well-being.

Biological ageing surges at 44 & 60 

Getting older might seem like a slow, gradual process but research suggests this is not always the case. According to a 2024 study by Stanford University researchers highlighted in Science Alert recently (May), humans experience two ageing peaks — at 44 and 60 years.

“We’re not just changing gradually over time; there are some really dramatic changes,” says geneticist Michael Snyder of Stanford University. The 2024 study analysed molecular changes in 108 individuals in the 25-75 age group and found that many biological markers changed sharply around the mid-40s and early-60s.

“While menopause or perimenopause may contribute to changes observed in women in their mid-40s, there are other, more significant factors influencing these changes in both men and women. Identifying and studying these factors should be a priority for future research,” says metabolomicist and first author Xiaotao Shen, formerly at Stanford and now at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Probiotic therapy reduces anxiety symptoms

Adding probiotic therapy produced modest but meaningful reductions in depressive and anxiety symptoms compared with adding a placebo among adults aged above 60 years, says a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (June). Researchers from Kolkata’s Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), National Institute for Research in Bacterial Infections and Tata Medical Center divided 58 participants aged 60 years and above with moderate depression into two groups, with 29 receiving daily probiotics and 29 a placebo for 12 weeks, conterminously with standard antidepressant care. They were followed up for another 12 weeks.

Based on validated psychological scores, biomarker, and faecal microbiota profiling, the researchers found that probiotics improved patients’ symptoms. “The results of our study are novel, encouraging and we are now planning a follow-up, larger-scale clinical trial,” says co-corresponding author Dr. Saibal Das of the ICMR.