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Nicotine gum linked to mouth cancer

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Published Date: 23 April 2009
By LYNDSAY MOSS
CHEWING gum and lozenges containing nicotine could be linked to mouth cancer, research suggested yesterday.
Tobacco replacement therapies are designed to help people quit smoking by providing them with doses of nicotine – the addictive substance in cigarettes. But research funded by the Medical Research Council and published in the journal PLoS ONE suggests that these therapies could have the potential to cause mouth cancer.

Experts, however, said the research should not stop people using nicotine replacement therapies to help them quit smoking. Unlike other ingredients in cigarettes, such as tar and carbon monoxide, nicotine has not been linked to cancer.

Researchers from the Institute of Dentistry, Queen Mary University London, found nicotine increased the levels of a gene called FOXM1. They also found FOXM1 was increased in the early stages of mouth cancer.



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  • Last Updated: 22 April 2009 10:01 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Cancer research
 
1

Alternative (High-Octane) Fuel Head,

Edinburgh 23/04/2009 09:46:23
Just carry on smoking then.

This nicotine gum and patches are just a marketing ploy in any case. If people continued to smoke soley because of an addiction to nicotine, then eating this gum and/or sticking patches all over them would enable them to quit cold turkey with no problems.

It doesn't, so clearly it isn't about an addiction to nicotine. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder whether nicotine is addictive in the first place. So far, the only people I've heard say that it is are anti-smokers. Nicotine is very similar to substances found in a good many root vegetables, yet i've never heard of anyone being addicted to carrots.

My advice to people who smoke excessive numbers of cigarettes is to take up smoking a pipe. You don't inhale a pipe and that will get them out of the habit of inhaling. It is inhaling smoke rather than just puffing which causes the majority of problems. Cut that out and most of the risks vanish.
2

Horrible Cankers @Cyber Shebeen,

23/04/2009 09:56:16
1...aha....laugh...I nearly had a wee accident...
3

Alternative (High-Octane) Fuel Head,

Edinburgh 23/04/2009 10:35:29
Just keep reading the propaganda, Horrible.
4

english charlie,

23/04/2009 11:15:53
ASH promote NRTs and should be stopped from doing so. Big Pharma should be sued for selling these killer products.
5

Horrible Cankers @Cyber Shebeen,

23/04/2009 16:54:41
3...Seriously beginning to believe that you work for the baccy industry Fuel Heid...
6

Anonym,

22/05/2009 02:53:52
Fuel Head, I think that there are both chemical and psychological aspects to cigarette addiction, and that the matter is not as straightforward as you say.

If, as you claim, nicotine is not addictive, then your own observation,(that people are NOT able to quit cold turkey without any problems as a result of chewing gum and sticking patches on), does not support your conclusion!

Also, if it were purely a psychological habit(lighting up and sucking), then herbal cigarettes would be sufficient. As would a pipe, but I think it more likely your ex cigarette smoker would start to inhale, despite your contention that you don't inhale a pipe.

Besides. Why would anyone give up cold turkey? It's nice with a bit of cranberry jam.

 

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