Vitamin D to help control asthma?
Besides making bones strong, higher levels of Vitamin D can also help children with asthma become more resilient to harmful respiratory effects caused by indoor air pollution, say researchers. “Asthma is an immune-mediated disease,” said lead author Sonali Bose, Assistant Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “From previous scientific studies, we knew that vitamin D was a molecule that may influence asthma by impacting antioxidant or immune-related pathways.” The researchers observed that having low blood vitamin D levels was related to harmful respiratory effects of indoor air pollution from sources such as cigarette smoke, cooking, burning of candles, and incense, among children with asthma. Conversely, in homes that had the highest indoor air pollution, higher blood vitamin D levels were associated with fewer asthma symptoms in children.
how Hookah affects heart health
Smoking tobacco through Hookah results in inhaling more toxic chemicals than a cigarette. The study published in the American Heart Association’s journal, called Circulation, states that a single session of hookah, that typically lasts 30 or more minutes, results in greater exposure to carbon monoxide than a cigarette and that the toxic chemicals, in addition to tobacco, harm the heart and blood vessels. Hookah has a water bowl containing tobacco, has a head with holes in the bottom, a body, a flexible hose with a mouthpiece, and burning charcoal that is placed on top of the tobacco bowl. The tobacco for hookah comes in various flavours and the sweetness of the flavours masks the harshness of smoke that makes it easier to continue smoking it.
kidney risk and Passive smoking
Besides affecting your heart and lungs, exposure to passive smoking can also raise the chances of chronic kidney disease (CKD), which can lead to renal failure, warns a new study. The findings showed that individuals with less or more than three days of exposure per week had nearly double the risk of having kidney disease when compared with participants with no second-hand cigarette exposure. “Second-hand smoke exposure is still prevalent despite legislative actions prohibiting public smoking,” said Jung Tak Park from Yonsei University in Seoul. “This exposure was found to be related with CKD, even with less frequent amounts of second-hand smoke exposure,” Park added. For the study, the team included 131,196 non-smokers and were classified into three groups: No-exposure, less than three days per week of exposure, and three or more days per week of exposure. Cigarette smoking and exposure to second-hand smoking have been linked with higher risks of various diseases.
