New Findings On Chantix

New Research Confirms Electronic Cigarettes as Smoking Cessation Tool

(Photo:   http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110830/CG59632 )

Electronic cigarettes are not FDA approved as smoking cessation products. The administration classified them as a tobacco product in April, 2011.Now, a growing number of survey-based evidence shows that the e-cig are successfully used by smokers to stop smoking, the majority had already tried FDA-approved therapies for nicotine replacement (NRT) without success. It's their main reason to start using the e-cig, especially for long-term smokers. Perhaps more importantly, why the e-cig seems to work fine for those who want to quit smoking is that it so closely mimics the cigarette while eliminating the risk of smoke inhalation.In fact, the results show a high proportion of e-cig users to completely replace the cigarette e-cig use much higher than any FDA-approved gums, patches and drugs.

Curiously, organizations like the American Lung Association (ALA), the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the FDA, who stand to protect and promote health, are alleging the risks associated with the use of electronic cigarette without substantial evidence or research to back their claims.  They assert that there is no scientific evidence about the safety of electronic cigarettes and that they are not a safe alternative to cigarettes. Yet, along with other independently published research, they recommend that smokers use FDA approved NRT's which they deem acceptable permanent substitutes for smoking.  

Nevertheless, even the highest daily dose of e-cig liquid contains the same amount of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (carcinogens) as a one-day supply of FDA-approved nicotine patch. Chantix initially dubbed a miracle drug, has such adverse effects including depression and suicidal thoughts that both the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration required that personnel operating aircrafts and/or missile crew members not take the drug. Furthermore, all FDA-approved NTR's fail to compensate for an important physical element of cigarette-smoking, the hand-to-mouth gesture. Yet they continue to recommend them over other smokeless tobacco alternatives.

New findings links heart risks to anti-smoking drug Chantix ...

According to the study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the drug varenicline (brand name Chantix) is linked to a 72 percent greater risk of hospitalization due to a serious adverse cardiovascular event like a heart attack or arrhythmia.

“We have known for many years that Chantix is one of the most harmful prescription drugs on the U.S. market, based on the number of serious adverse effects reported to the FDA” (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), said study lead investigator Curt Furberg of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

“It causes loss of consciousness, visual disturbances, suicides, violence, depression and worsening of diabetes,” he said in a statement. “To this list we now can add serious cardiovascular events.”

Pfizer promptly responded to the accusations and critiqued the study’s methodology, noting that “the difference of 72 percent reported in the Singh analysis also needs to be put into appropriate context.”

The firm said the actual difference in cardiovascular complaints between patients using Chantix and those using a placebo reported in the study analysis was less than 0.25 percent.

The FDA has asked Pfizer to conduct several clinical studies that cross-prescribe Chantix and placebo groups to different patient groups.

As of the beginning of the year, more than 1,200 complaints had been filed in U.S. courts about the side effects of Chantix.

The drug is sold in nearly 90 countries and used by seven million Americans.

The European Medicines Agency and national agencies issued a warning as early as December 2007 over the risks of depression, suicidal ideas or suicide attempts in people who use the drug, known as Champix in France, to quit smoking.

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