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Posted by john on August 26th, 2007 — in Zyban News
Nothing helped Sammi Hawkins quit smoking — not nicotine replacement patches, gum, lozenges, hypnotherapy or even the death of her husband, Jim, of lung cancer in 2005, just four months after their wedding.
“It was the greatest shame of my life,” said the 41-year-old Waterford resident. “Even throughout his diagnosis and his death, I couldn’t quit. I was really ashamed of it. I would cry about it. I’d hide it because people couldn’t understand how Jim died of lung cancer and I still smoked. But I physically couldn’t stop. I got addicted.”
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In August 2006, Hawkins tried Chantix, Pfizer’s prescription smoking cessation drug and finally shed the seven-year habit she’d picked up while living in France.
“It literally takes the craving away, and you don’t think about it anymore,” said Hawkins, who now works for the American Lung Association of Michigan advocating lung cancer awareness. “Six weeks in, I quit. I don’t crave it, I don’t think about it, I don’t want it. It was a miracle drug.”
Chantix success stories like Hawkins’ may prove crucial to Pfizer when the world’s largest pharmaceutical company is reporting lagging sales of its cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, as well as increased competition from generic versions of Zoloft — the top-selling brand-name antidepressant in the United States — and Norvasc, which treats high blood pressure. U.S. patents for the two drugs expired in June 2006 and March 2007.
Last month, Pfizer reported a 48% drop in second-quarter profits — $1.27 billion, down from $2.42 billion for the same period last year. Worldwide sales for Lipitor fell 13% in the second quarter of 2007 from the year before.
Michigan is a loser in Pfizer’s restructuring to adapt to the changing market. The company is closing its Ann Arbor research facility and eliminating 2,400 jobs in the state.
Pfizer sees hope in Chantix, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in May 2006. Worldwide sales of Chantix in 2006 were $101 million, but rose to $362 million in the first half of 2007.
If the drug continues to perform well, it could become the next hugely profitable drug for Pfizer, said Dean Smith, senior associate dean for administration of the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, who studies the economics of the pharmaceutical industry.
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“If they continue to show in the marketplace the same kind of efficacy results that they’re showing in clinical trials, there could be a lot of word-of-mouth promotion … that could lead to this being a blockbuster kind of drug,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine that any drug is going to be a quick cure to the loss of the No. 1-selling drug in the world, Lipitor, but … there’s a sense that every little bit helps.”
As of June, nearly 2.5 million people in the United States had filled prescriptions for Chantix — about 5% of the estimated 45.1 million smokers in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 21.9% of Michigan adults use tobacco products daily, according to the Michigan Department of Community Health in 2005. An estimated 16,000 Michigan residents die each year from tobacco-related illnesses.
If not covered by health insurance, Chantix costs about $320-$360 for the 12-week dose.
The drug’s success may be tied to its relative newness and the fact that it works differently from nicotine replacement therapies like gums, patches and inhalers, said Dr. Ron Davis, director of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention for the Henry Ford Health System. “When a new medicine comes out, smokers are often motivated to try to quit again, even though they might have tried and failed several times in the past,” said Davis, a smoking cessation advocate who is serving a term as president of the American Medical Association. When a smoker inhales, nicotine attaches to brain receptors that release dopamine, a chemical that causes feelings of pleasure. Chantix works by activating those receptors and blocking nicotine from attaching to them. The drug — which does not contain nicotine — thus blocks the pleasurable response to nicotine, said Dr. Jotham Coe, a Pfizer chemist who helped develop Chantix.
A July 2006 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 44% of smokers taking Chantix quit over three months, compared with 30% taking Zyban — a GlaxoSmithKline smoking cessation drug — and 17% taking a placebo. The one-year quit rate for Chantix was 23%.
About half the people who take a smoking cessation class with the American Lung Association of Michigan take Chantix, said Angy Webb, the association’s tobacco programs manager. The success rate among those who take it is 80%-90% — much higher than the quit rate with other products.
Chantix was designed to help smokers quit, but it won’t replace willpower, said Coe, the Pfizer chemist and former smoker.
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Posted by john on August 19th, 2007 — in Zyban News
New Ground Breaking Medication Offers Kiwi Smokers One of the Best-Ever Odds of Quitting
Kiwi smokers throughout New Zealand now have access to a ground-breaking new product called CHAMPIX® (varenicline) which offers them one of their best-ever odds for breaking their addiction to nicotine.
CHAMPIX® is a non-nicotine prescription-only medication that has a unique dual mechanism of action and has been developed exclusively by Pfizer Inc as an aid to smoking cessation in adults over 18 years of age.
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Two international clinical trials suggest that a 12-week course of treatment with CHAMPIX® increases the odds of quitting for motivated quitters by approximately four times over a placebo and approximately two times compared with another leading product, Bupropion (also known as Zyban®).
The product was registered in New Zealand in April 2007. CHAMPIX® was launched in the United States in July 2006 and the European Union in December 2006 and has assisted an estimated 1.5 million smokers in the US alone with their efforts to break their addiction
Pfizer Portfolio Manger, Don Budge said that the company was proud to be launching the product in New Zealand in 2007 and that it represented a major step forward for the country’s public health.
“Smoking is estimated to kill between 4,300 and 4,700 New Zealanders a year, and reduces average life expectancy by ten years,” Mr Budge said. “Launching CHAMPIX® is a very important development for Pfizer New Zealand and for smoking cessation efforts in New Zealand, and it offers smokers wishing to quit an effective new therapeutic approach.
Mr Budge said that CHAMPIX®’s unique dual mechanism of action was what made it so effective.
“CHAMPIX® simultaneously reduces the reward from smoking and combats the cravings and withdrawal symptoms that smokers report,” he said. “The former is particularly important, and some smokers taking CHAMPIX® will even stop smoking prior to their quit date because they find smoking less enjoyable.”
Pfizer representatives have briefed the Ministry of Health and leading smoking cessation organisations including ASH New Zealand and Te Reo Mārama on CHAMPIX®. The company has also provided information on the product to all GPs and other key health providers in New Zealand to ensure that they have information in advance of potential enquiries. CHAMPIX® will retail for approximately $200 per month, significantly less than the cost of smoking one packet of cigarettes per day over the same period. The standard course of CHAMPIX® is three months.
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Mr Budge cautioned that CHAMPIX® may not work for everyone. “For many smokers quitting is a major decision that should be taken seriously and, where possible, with the benefit of medical advice. In order to increase the chances of quitting smoking with CHAMPIX® patients need to be motivated to quit and it is recommended that they receive counselling or be enrolled in a support programme. However, for the motivated quitter, the research data suggests that CHAMPIX® is a highly-effective and safe product, and makes quitting smoking easier and more likely to be long-term.”
The product’s main side effect is nausea, experienced by approximately 30% of users in clinical trials, although discontinuation rates due to adverse events are comparable to placebo. If you want to quit smoking ask your doctor or pharmacist for the available therapeutic options and about the various cautions and possible side effects. Champix requires a prescription from your doctor.
ENDS
Attached: Champix Consumer Information
–
CHAMPIX® (varenicline tartrate) is a prescription medicine used as an aid to smoking cessation. Consult your doctor to see if CHAMPIX is right for you. Do not take this medicine if you are pregnant, if you are under 18, using other stop smoking medicines, or have an allergy to the active or other tablet ingredients. Precautions: people with kidney disease or those undergoing haemodialysis treatment, a history of mental illness, a history of repeated fits or convulsions, or women who are breastfeeding.
Possible side effects include nausea, headache, difficulty in sleeping, abnormal dreams, dizziness, weakness, constipation, indigestion, bloating, dry mouth, vomiting, increased appetite and changes in taste. Always
read the label and use strictly as directed. If you have side effects see your doctor. You will need to pay for this medicine and normal doctor’s fees will apply. Champix is being monitored on the intensive medicines monitoring programme Contains varenicline 0.5mg & 1mg. Further medicine
details are available at www.medsafe.govt.nz. Pfizer New Zealand LTD PO Box 3998, Auckland. Level 3 Pfizer House, 14 Normanby Rd, Mt Eden Auckland. TAPS Approval No: NA 2371
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Posted by john on August 15th, 2007 — in Zyban News
Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report related to the worldwide pharmaceutical industry is now available to its catalogue.
Global Smoking Cessation Market Analysis & Forecasts - Preparing for the first blockbuster
http://www.reportlinker.com/p056723/smoking-cessation-market.html
Cigarette smoking is the most important source of preventable and premature morbidity worldwide. Currently, the number of smokers across the globe is estimated at 1.3 billion. Political moves are leading to national bans of smoking in public places, with the long-term aim to reduce the cost to the health sector. But what will be the short-term spending on smoking cessation therapies?
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In 2007 the publisher believes the anti-smoking market to be worth $1.7 billion. This is a growth of 37% from the year before. This report, Global Smoking Cessation Market Analysis & Forecasts - preparing for the first blockbuster, explains just how this market will experience growth over the medium term future. Also do you know what the drivers and restraints of the market are? This report not only reveals these, but also details what strategies can be used to maximize profits from the drivers and restraints.
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Posted by john on August 10th, 2007 — in Zyban News
Smoking cigarettes remains the third leading cause of death in the United States. But learning how to quit smoking for good is so difficult despite its glaringly harmful consequences?
Could it be that the true reason behind cigarette addiction dwells deep within the subconscious mind?
Rick Beneteau and Rick Saruna the co-creators of the Quit Smoking For Good Right Now program believe that’s exactly where the key to cigarette addiction resides.
According to Beneteau and Saruna the only way to permanently quit smoking is to use specialized NLP (Neuro-Linguistis-Programing), a popular form of hypnosis therapy.
Beneteau, a self confessed life long smoker who puffed away at cigarettes for 39 years, was finally able to permanently quit his smoking habit after using advanced NLP techniques as applied by Saruna. The whole process took a mere three hours to complete.
He said all I had to do to was set aside three hours of my time and pick the date for what I now call D-Day, or done-day? expresses Beneteau, ?I believed in the power of the mind and all?but Rick’s promise to quit smoking for good would have been an absolute miracle in my case!, he adds.
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But in the end it did work and Beneteau has been smoke free ever since.
According to the Quit Smoking Right For Good Now program, there are strong unconscious thought patterns that govern a nicotine addict?s mind, preventing the smoker from kicking the habit.
These include false notions that may have been slyly put in place over years of exposure to the tobacco industry?s special advertising campaigns.
Beneteau and Saruna believe that in addition to these false beliefs, a general lack of knowledge regarding the physical realities of smoking and the extremely addictive ingredients laced into cigarettes, prevent successful quitting among the %90 who try to quit smoking.
Beneteau and Saruna contend that the only way to permanently quit smoking for good is to remove these false ideas from the subconscious mind and learn the truth behind nicotine addiction. It was your mind that convinced your body to start smoking in the first place and it is only your mind that can convince your body to quit, argues Beneteau.
The Quit Smoking Right For Good Now program does not involve any medications, supplements, special diets or exercise programs, instead the program relies on the use of NLP hypnosis therapy to permanently eliminate nicotine and cigarette addiction in a matter of hours.
Rick Saruna is not a newcomer when it comes to hypnosis therapy. He is certified as a master in advanced NLP and medical hypnosis therapy. He currently heads a successful clinic specializing in the use of hypnosis and NLP treatment for a wide range of conditions.
He has joined forces with Rick Beneteau, a successful internet entrepreneur, in order to bring his program online. The Quit Smoking Right For Good Now program is available online.
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Posted by john on July 29th, 2007 — in Zyban News
I can’t believe my good luck. The news arrived just in the nick of time.
Medical researchers have concluded that it’s not too late for me to start living a healthier life.
Scientists at Medical University of South Carolina have tracked thousands of Americans who were between 45 and 64 in the late 1980s, and found those who picked up four specific good habits decreased their risk of heart disease and death by as much as 40 percent in just four years.
I think that’s amazing. Even more amazing — I can wait another three years before I have to adopt those new habits.
But wait. The news is not all good. The lifestyle changes required are no small music.
Eat five or more fruits and vegetables every day, exercise for at least 2 1/2 hours a week, keep your weight down and don’t smoke.
This might be a bit more difficult than I expected.
Five fruits or vegetables every day? Definitely a problem. It’s not the fruit that gives me pause. Fruit is just fine. It’s the vegetables.
I can count on the fingers of two hands, and have a couple of fingers left over, the vegetables I will willingly eat. I’d rather die young than eat sweet potatoes, okra or cauliflower. Life is too short to spoil it with peas. There is just no excuse for something as nasty-tasting as lima beans or beets. I really hate beets. On the other hand, broccoli is particularly tasty, especially when it’s drenched in cheese sauce. I do like spinach, especially when it’s lightly sautéed for a wilted salad, and asparagus is okay, too. Now that my tomato plants are yielding fruit, I’m eating a lot of tomatoes just to keep up with production. Maybe, at least in the summer, I’m okay on this part of the regimen.
Getting exercise for 2 1/2 hours per week doesn’t sound too bad, but I’m pretty sure that walking to and from my golf cart 18 times doesn’t count as exercise. An evening stroll at a leisurely pace doesn’t count for much, either. Sitting in front of a keyboard isn’t consuming a lot of calories.
What does work is a forced march that makes you sweat, a spin around the neighborhood in your Nikes, maybe a half-marathon every few weeks. At least the sweating part won’t be difficult, not in the middle of a typical Missouri summer, anyway. So maybe I’ll wait until the fall to start that part of the lifestyle change.
Until recently, keeping my weight down hasn’t been a problem. I was a very skinny youngster, with extremely picky eating habits that have continued into my adulthood. My weight hasn’t varied much in the last 25 years. My father was tall and thin, my mother short and somewhat stocky - I’ve always said I got the best of both, since I’m short and thin. And I’ve always taken a lot of satisfaction that people who teased me to the point of tears when I was a skinny child had to (this is too easy) eat their words when I turned out to be a slender adult, while they watched their thighs grow larger every year.
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Unfortunately, at least part of being able to stay thin was smoking. What we’ve all been told — that the reason we gain weight when we quit is that we eat more — is just not true. What really happens is that our metabolism changes, and most people gain weight when they quit no matter what else they do. Fortunately, it’s not impossible to lose the weight gained, but it takes some real work.
I’ve quit smoking more times than I can count. I’ve used every method known — cold turkey, Zyban, the patch, the (ugh!) gum. It’s been suggested that it takes quitting as many as seven times before it really happens. I’m a long way past seven tries. The truth is, all those methods of quitting do work. Until last September, though, it was hard to keep my hands off the cigarettes for very long. I’m hopeful this time. My cravings are few, so I’m beginning to think it’s going to stick. Unfortunately, something else that appears to be sticking is an extra ten pounds or so since I had that last cigarette. The last two lifestyle changes suggested by the study obviously go more or less hand-in-hand.
You’re probably not surprised to learn that among those study subjects who made the changes, losing weight was the least popular change. Tough as it is to quit smoking, it’s even harder to take off unwanted pounds.
What stands out in the study results is that only those subjects who made all four of the recommended changes were able to gain the full benefit. Picking up just three of them conferred only modest benefits. Thus, you can eat beets and lima beans by the bushel, get on a treadmill for maybe 30 minutes a day and lose a few pounds, but unless you also quit smoking, it won’t do you much good. Likewise, if you quit smoking, exercise at least 2 1/2 hours per week, and lose some weight, but don’t eat those beets and lima beans, you’re out of luck.
I’m not entirely convinced that these or other lifestyle changes can really make a significant difference in your overall longevity. What I do believe very strongly is that eating well, getting regular exercise, keeping your weight low and not smoking can certainly extend the quality of life for the over-60 crowd, if not its length.
My mother, who religiously avoided exercise of any kind because it made her sweat, whose only weight-watching involved watching the scale register higher and higher numbers, and who smoked for more than 20 years, died at age 86 after several strokes and several years of ill health and reduced mobility.
Her younger sister, who was always health-conscious and energetic, who never smoked, who ate a very balanced and mostly vegetarian diet, who took no daily medication except handfuls of vitamins, and who was physically active throughout her life, died at age 82, also of a stroke.
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Posted by john on July 25th, 2007 — in Zyban News
Like Dot Cotton in EastEnders, I am finding it hard to quit. As the ban on smoking in enclosed public places comes into force in England, hundreds of thousands of nicotine addicts like us will try to stop.
The Department of Health has set aside £112m for this year and next for the NHS Stop Smoking Service which runs a national network of clinics providing support and advice on aids to giving up, such as nicotine replacement therapy and the prescription-only, nicotine-free drug bupropion hydrochloride, trade name Zyban.
Another anti-smoking drug varenicline, known as Champix, has just been given draft approval by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
In a recent storyline, although Dot publicly refuses all offers of aids to quit, she almost passes out, with a look of ecstasy on her face, after a long, deep inhalation of nicotine from a nasal spray.
Nicotine replacement therapy is not for me. All the products - gum, patches, lozenges and microtabs - are addictive, although they don’t cause cancer. Ex-smoker friends are still chewing gum and taking the lozenges years after stopping.
I decided to try Zyban which had worked for two friends. But when I asked my north London GP for a prescription she said the practice had a policy not to prescribe Zyban. Why? First she said it was not clinically proven to be effective, though there have been studies in the US and the UK showing Zyban is an effective aid to quitting when accompanied by counselling. The drug affects the brain’s chemistry in a way similar to nicotine and is supposed to reduce the craving and withdrawal symptoms.
A Department of Health guidance paper in February 2007 said: “A smoker who tries to quit with the NHS Stop Smoking Service and NRT/Zyban is up to four times as likely to succeed than by willpower alone.”
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Asked what other reasons the surgery had for refusing to prescribe Zyban, my GP cited side effects such as headaches, high blood pressure, difficulty sleeping, seizures and even psychotic behaviour; patients would have to be monitored regularly. Maybe they didn’t want hundreds of ex-smokers needing regular check-ups and counselling?
So where could I get this drug, available on the NHS since 2000? I was referred to an NHS Stop Smoking clinic at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, funded by a different primary care trust, a half-hour Tube ride away. After filling in a four-page questionnaire and a pep talk from a Stop Smoking adviser (now my “buddy”, who I will see every week for support), I received my prescription. Puzzled why my surgery refused to prescribe Zyban, she said: “It’s available in some areas and not others. It’s a postcode lottery.”
As I write, I have been taking Zyban for two weeks. For the first week you take a tablet a day and smoke as normal. You set your “quit day” then take two tablets a day for the next eight weeks. I am on day seven. The first two days of not smoking I was agitated. But by 4am on day three, when presumably the Zyban had worn off, I had strong physical cravings.
I cracked on day four, while with friends in a smoky bar. I am now once more a determined - sort of - non-smoker. But, I worry, for how long? A UK study found only 15 per cent of people who quit using NRT or Zyban remain smoke-free after 52 weeks.
As I write, Dot is still blissfully smoking. But when she and I are unable to smoke in restaurants, bars and pubs like the Queen Vic, I for one will be relieved.
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Posted by john on July 22nd, 2007 — in Zyban News
About 25 years ago, Fredon Corp. President Roger Sustar thought offering incentives for employees to stop smoking was an infallible plan to ensure the health of his workers.
After witnessing some of them accept up to $500 in rewards only to revert back to smoking soon thereafter, Sustar is still unsure how to keep their lungs intact. For that reason, he applauds a recent employment decision by Cleveland Clinic.
The medical center in June announced that it would enact a Cotinine testing policy for job applicants, beginning Sept. 1. Cotinine is a nicotine metabolite found in cigarettes and other tobacco products, said Dr. Michael Roizen, Cleveland Clinic’s chief wellness officer.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Sustar said. “We’ve had guys in our plant die because of smoking.”
Cleveland Clinic is in the process of an incremental rollout of the policy. Until Sept. 1, applicants who test positive for Cotinine will have free access to smoking cessation programs with no effect on their employment status.
On and after Sept. 1, positive testers will not be considered for employment, Roizen said. Those applicants will be referred to the cessation resources to be paid for by the Clinic.
After 90 days, an applicant successful in quitting will be encouraged to reapply. The policy does not apply to current employees, who will still have access to the Clinic’s cessation classes, seminars and forums.
“The message is we believe we need to get toxins out of every place of work,” Roizen said. “We think part of our job is to help (employees) learn how to quit - maybe they’ll then be advocates for getting patients to quit.
“How can I follow what a nurse is telling me if she does things that are unhealthy?” Roizen said. “We want to help them to be role models for everyone else.”
Roizen said the tests would not aim to “pick hairs” in weeding out the occasional smoker or those who have been victims of second-hand smoke. He said the intricacies of the test results will identify someone who smokes 10 cigarettes per day - the type of person the Clinic does not want to hire.
The policy arrives two years after Cleveland Clinic outlawed smoking on its campus. With its area health centers and locations in Florida, Cleveland Clinic has 37,500 employees, Roizen said. The wellness officer hopes those numbers help convince potential applicants that all is not lost if the job they applied for is given to someone else while they complete a cessation program.
“At any given time, there’s something like 1,500 vacancies at Cleveland Clinic,” Roizen said. “There is usually not a shortage of jobs here.”
Very few employers have instituted such a policy before, said Marty Mordarski, manager of workplace research at Mayfield Village-based Employers Resource Council. While the World Health Organization and Weyco Inc. in Michigan are two entities known to have nicotine testing, Mordarski said he is not aware of any Northeast Ohio companies with such a policy.
In a written statement, Gary Robinson, Lake Hospital System’s vice president of marketing and business development, said LHS would not follow in Cleveland Clinic’s footsteps regarding Cotinine testing.
Much like the Clinic, LHS forbids smoking on its campuses and offers smoking cessation programs for its employees.
“We believe this policy adequately addresses our desire to ensure a healthy smoke-free environment for our patients, friends and family members while they are in our facilities,” Robinson said, “and we don’t anticipate any changes to this policy in the near future.”
Other area employers were even more defiant in saying their employees would not be subjected to testing.
“I don’t go along with that at all,” said Paula Arra, a co-owner of Jack Arra’s Salon & Spa in Concord Township. “That’s like saying they can’t hire you because of your race or because you have diabetes.”
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About 20 people work at the salon and spa, including five or six smokers, Paula said. She believes smoking has no bearing on a workers’ productivity.
“As long as it’s not in the building, what they do is totally up to them,” she said of her employees’ smoking habits.
American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio Director Chris Link says she has received some recent inquiries and complaints regarding the Clinic’s policy.
But Link, who describes Ohio as an “employment at will” state, says Clinic applicants cannot do much to change the policy without the proper legislation in place.
“(Cleveland Clinic) is a private employer and property owner, so they have every right to control what happens on their property during an employee’s work hours,” Link said. “It’s when the arm of an employer reaches out past work hours is where we feel there are privacy issues.
“Unfortunately in Ohio, employees have few rights,” Link said. “Except race and gender, employees have little protection.”
Robert Gandee, chief executive officer and president of Backtrack Inc. in Mentor, is concerned with workers’ protection, but also believes the Clinic’s cause is a good one. He says about 40 percent of his 75 employees smoke.
Backtrack is a pre-employment drug test and background check provider for about 500 companies in the country. Gandee said 5 percent of his clients have asked about nicotine testing and its cost, but none have implemented it.
“I’m not so sure if I’m in favor of not employing someone because they have that habit because I know how difficult that habit is to quit,” said Gandee, who was a smoker for 20 years. “I think employers ought to provide incentives and assistance.”
But Sustar says he has no clue how to get about 10 of his 60 employees to stop smoking.
“I could offer them a round trip to Las Vegas and they won’t stop,” Sustar said.
Roizen would not say how much money the Clinic will spend to effectuate the testing and provide cessation programs. However, he did say cutting health care costs did not play a factor in the not-for-profit center’s decision.
To that end, Gandee believes employee health is the cause for the increased medical costs that some employers experience. For him, instituting policies like the Clinic’s is not necessarily the answer to worker health issues.
“Society in general needs to recognize that the solution to our incredibly expensive health care is better health,” Gandee said. “Our families, schools and employers all need to work together to drive people’s attention toward it because we all suffer because of it financially.”
Roizen, a past chair of a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee, says tobacco is responsible for about 16 percent of U.S. health care costs.
“We believe testing is the right thing to do so we can set a tone,” Roizen said. “We’re a model for health, so we want to walk the walk and talk the talk.
“We need to get tobacco out of America and set an example.”
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Posted by john on July 17th, 2007 — in Zyban News
Like Dot Cotton in EastEnders, I am finding it hard to quit. As the ban on smoking in enclosed public places comes into force in England, hundreds of thousands of nicotine addicts like us will try to stop.
The Department of Health has set aside £112m for this year and next for the NHS Stop Smoking Service which runs a national network of clinics providing support and advice on aids to giving up, such as nicotine replacement therapy and the prescription-only, nicotine-free drug bupropion hydrochloride, trade name Zyban.
Another anti-smoking drug varenicline, known as Champix, has just been given draft approval by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
In a recent storyline, although Dot publicly refuses all offers of aids to quit, she almost passes out, with a look of ecstasy on her face, after a long, deep inhalation of nicotine from a nasal spray.
Nicotine replacement therapy is not for me. All the products - gum, patches, lozenges and microtabs - are addictive, although they don’t cause cancer. Ex-smoker friends are still chewing gum and taking the lozenges years after stopping.
I decided to try Zyban which had worked for two friends. But when I asked my north London GP for a prescription she said the practice had a policy not to prescribe Zyban. Why? First she said it was not clinically proven to be effective, though there have been studies in the US and the UK showing Zyban is an effective aid to quitting when accompanied by counselling. The drug affects the brain’s chemistry in a way similar to nicotine and is supposed to reduce the craving and withdrawal symptoms.
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A Department of Health guidance paper in February 2007 said: “A smoker who tries to quit with the NHS Stop Smoking Service and NRT/Zyban is up to four times as likely to succeed than by willpower alone.”
Asked what other reasons the surgery had for refusing to prescribe Zyban, my GP cited side effects such as headaches, high blood pressure, difficulty sleeping, seizures and even psychotic behaviour; patients would have to be monitored regularly. Maybe they didn’t want hundreds of ex-smokers needing regular check-ups and counselling?
So where could I get this drug, available on the NHS since 2000? I was referred to an NHS Stop Smoking clinic at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, funded by a different primary care trust, a half-hour Tube ride away. After filling in a four-page questionnaire and a pep talk from a Stop Smoking adviser (now my “buddy”, who I will see every week for support), I received my prescription. Puzzled why my surgery refused to prescribe Zyban, she said: “It’s available in some areas and not others. It’s a postcode lottery.”
As I write, I have been taking Zyban for two weeks. For the first week you take a tablet a day and smoke as normal. You set your “quit day” then take two tablets a day for the next eight weeks. I am on day seven. The first two days of not smoking I was agitated. But by 4am on day three, when presumably the Zyban had worn off, I had strong physical cravings.
I cracked on day four, while with friends in a smoky bar. I am now once more a determined - sort of - non-smoker. But, I worry, for how long? A UK study found only 15 per cent of people who quit using NRT or Zyban remain smoke-free after 52 weeks.
As I write, Dot is still blissfully smoking. But when she and I are unable to smoke in restaurants, bars and pubs like the Queen Vic, I for one will be relieved
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Posted by john on July 15th, 2007 — in Zyban News
My pill was smaller this month than it normally is. When I called my pharmacy, they said they gave me a lower dosage of the same drug by accident. Suzy, I think you should tell readers how to cut down on medication errors.
– D.W., Coconut Creek, Fla.
A: You’re fortunate that your medicine was just a lower dose, rather than the wrong drug altogether. Dispensing errors are bound to happen; pharmacists are human and some drugstores time their pharmacists to see how efficiently they work. Despite the demands for high quality customer service, and the pressure, most pharmacists have a really good track record considering that they fill thousands of prescriptions each week. (If pharmacies had the track record of my local fast food drive-thru, we’d be in deep trouble. What’s so hard about heavy mustard, no onions?)
Even though pharmacists do occasionally make a medication dispensing error, they catch, exponentially, more errors than they make. Most you never know about because by the time you’re handed your bag at the register, the pharmacist has already called to lower a potentially toxic dosage, or asked your doctor to change your medication altogether because of an allergy or potentially harmful interaction. The conversation might go something like this: “Hey, Dr. So-and-So, did you really mean Zoloft for allergies, because this drug is for depression? You meant Zyrtec instead, right?'’ Or, “You wrote a prescription for Mr. Puffer for Zyban, to help him quit smoking, but his psychiatrist just ordered Parnate for depression and this combination could trigger a seizure.'’
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To improve your safety at the pharmacy counter, follow these seven sensible steps:
1. Don’t hurry the pharmacist. Pressuring anyone who has your life, literally, in their hands is never smart. Plan ahead.
2. Get into the habit of dropping off prescriptions and coming back the next day for them. It’s considerate because it allows the pharmacist time to fill “waiting” prescriptions for people in pain who’ve just left the hospital.
3. Call your refills in at least a day ahead.
4. Have your doctor write your prescription(s) legibly. Do you think it matters if you get Plavix or Paxil? Lisinopril or Lipitor? You bet your life it does.
5. Don’t put several different pills in one bottle (or pocket). You might chug the blue pill when you meant to take the white one.
6. Stick to the same pharmacy. I know those ‘Transfer Your Prescription’ coupons are tempting, but how can your pharmacist effectively screen for interactions, or brainstorm with your physician, if some of your meds are missing from your profile?
7. Call your pharmacist immediately if there’s a change in the color, size or shape of your medications.
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Posted by john on July 9th, 2007 — in Zyban News
ONE of the thousands of smokers prompted to quit by the new ban is keeping an online diary of her progress for the M.E.N.
Claire Thompson, 28, a content editor for Channel M News, the M.E.N’s sister TV station, started smoking when she was 16 and now gets through around 10 a day.
After many failed attempts to quit using patches, inhalers and chewing gum, she is trying a new drug called Champix, which doctors claim is one of the most effective stop-smoking aids.
Claire, who will be recording her experience on a blog called What A Drag on our website manchestereveningnews.co.uk, said: “The physical craving leaves you after three or four days. It’s the psychological rub that gets me every time.”
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Champix, or Varenicline tartrate, reduces the smoker’s craving for nicotine by influencing the nicotine receptors in the brain to reduce withdrawal symptoms. It also reduces the satisfaction a smoker gets from a cigarette.
Tests showed that after a 12-week course, 44 per cent of smokers stopped, compared to 30 per cent of those taking another anti-smoking drug, Zyban.
Claire began the Champix starter pack on July 1.
All being well, she expects to be smoke-free by next Sunday.
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