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The effect of smoking on lung disease and lung cancer
Smoking and alcohol abuse
The effect of smoking on lung disease and lung cancer
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Alcohol and Tobacco: A Deadly Duo
Cancer of the upper respiratory and alimentary tracts claimed over 23,000 lives in 1989 and 57,000 additional cases were diagnosed. The majority of individuals who fall prey to this type of cancer are males who abuse both alcohol and tobacco.
The Risk
The fact that the risk of developing cancer of the esophagus, lip, tongue, mouth, pharynx or larynx, increases dramatically in people who are heavy users of alcohol and tobacco is substantiated by 30 years of collective research. Studies demonstrate that the risk to individuals dually addicted far outweighs the risk to individuals who abuse only one substance. This confirmed link between alcohol and tobacco abuse and an increased risk in upper alimentary and respiratory tract cancer makes this type of disease among the most preventable.
The Correlation Between Smoking and Drinking
It has been observed that individuals who drink alcohol have a greater tendency to smoke than non-drinkers. One of the first studies to establish and quantify the degree of association between drinking and smoking was reported in 1972. The investigation compared 130 alcoholic men hospitalized for alcohol withdrawal to 100 non-alcoholic psychiatric outpatients. Ninety-four perc...
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...chemical carcinogens which must be activated to react with DNA and initiate steps towards carcinogenesis. Important in this activation process are cytochrome P-450 enzymes, which are induced by alcohol in heavy drinkers. Thus, alcohol and smoking are synergistic in increasing cancer risk.
Since alcohol increases the metabolism and hence the need for nicotine, it follows that the success of smoking cessation programs will be improved if drinking habits of patients are controlled. Treatment of incipient alcoholism thus becomes a prerequisite for the ultimate success of behavior modification aimed at the elimination of smoking.
Chinese eunuchs were the original gate-keepers of the imperial palace, menial servants in the imperial harem, and messengers between the emperor, his concubines, and the imperial court. The Chinese inscriptions combing the graphs for ‘male reproductive organ’ and for ‘knife’ have been found on oracle bones dating from about 1300 BCE.1 The context of the inscriptions generally indicates that the castration of captured prisoners of differing ethnicities existed at this early date.2 The word for eunuch, taijan , often connotating a pervert, first appeared in the Chinese language about one thousand years ago.3 Eunuchs were deemed suitable candidates for the emperor’s close aides and attendants because they possessed both a masculine physique and a feminine docility. More important, however, was the use of men deprived from their reproductive power and sexual desires was thought to safeguard the moral purity and sanctity of an emperor’s private chambers.4 Throughout the three-thousand year old institution, the number of eunuchs in the imperial palaces varied between less than 100 in the early years, to more than 100,000 in 1620, roughly 1% of the population.5 The extent, role, and nature of the eunuch presence in Chinese history varied according to specific social and political backgrounds throughout the long existence of the political institution, but identifying some recurring themes of eunuch activities is useful towards reconstructing the social history of eunuchism in China. It is apparent, however, that as imperial power and autocracy increased, the use of castrated men to fill various male jobs in the palace gradually became a necessity.
Vaillant, G. E., & Hiller-Sturmhofel, S. (1996). The natural history of alcoholism. Alcohol Health & Research, 20, pp. 152-162. There is strong evidence to support psychiatric disorders developed as consequences of alcoholism and that alcoholism in most patients is not secondary to other psychiatric disorders.
In 1961, Stanley Milgram, a Yale University Psychologist conducted a variety of social psychology experiments on obedience to authority figures. His experiments involved three individuals, one of them was a volunteer who played the role of the teacher, one was an actor who played the role of the student, and one was the experimenter who played the role of the authority. The teacher was instructed by the authority to administrate shocks to the student (who claimed to have a heart condition) whenever they answered a question incorrectly. The voltage of the shock would go up after every wrong answer. The experimenter would then instruct the teacher to administrate higher voltages even though pain was being imposed. The teacher would then have to make a choice between his morals and values or the choice of the authority figure. The point of the experiment was to try to comprehend just how far an individual would continue when being ordered by an individual in a trench coat to electrically shock another human being for getting questions incorrect. The experiment consisted of administrating pain to different people and proved that ordinary people will obey people with authority. Some of the various reasons are that the experimenter was wearing a trench coat, fear of the consequences for not cooperating, the experiments were conducted in Yale University a place of prestige, and the authority f...
In his 1877 Royal Asiatic journal article entitled “Chinese Eunuchs,” George Carter Stent, an English recruit of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service (CMC) wrote for the first time about the castration process in which Chinese males became eunuchs. In fact, as Melissa Dale writes in her journal article, “Understanding Emasculation: Western Medical Perspectives on Chinese Eunuchs,” western physicians and foreign observers wrote the only known historical accounts of the emasculation procedure during the Qing dynasty.29 During this time period, Western physicians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were fascinated with the Chinese practice of emasculating young boys and men to serve as palace eunuchs. Most surprising to Western observers such as Stent was that Chinese knife experts known as daozijiang would not only cut off and remove a eunuch’s testicles, but would also remove the penis.30...
This practice, which began with the Tang dynasty in tenth-century China, started with the upper class. Mothers began binding the feet of their daughters as young as five years old. “A girl’s foot was made small, preferably only three inches long, by pressing the four smaller toes under the sole or ball of the foot in order to make it narrower. At the same time it was made shorter by forcing the big toe and heel closer together so that the arch raised in a bow shape. As a result the arch was broken and the foot could bear no weight except on the heel.” (Fairbank, 285).
Alcoholism is a very serious disease, which can cause illness, death, injuries, schooling problems, family breakups, and crime. It is a proven fact the alcohol kills more people than any other illegal drugs combined. Yet alcohol courses freely through American society, from college bars to corporate lunches. In a recent article from a journal named: The Scientist it is stated "Technology shows alcohol abuse changes brain's molecular programming and circuitry." Alcohol is a quick fix that will hurt us all in the long run.
... Song times was sometimes blamed on Neo-Confucianism. Foot-binding also began during the Song Dynasty. This is the practice of binding the feet of girls with long strips of cloth to keep them from growing large. Moms wanted them to be judged more beautiful.
“For every family that is impacted by drugs, there are another 10 to 15 families impacted by alcohol abuse. It's a pretty big deal. We have a tendency to only look at part of the puzzle.” (Kevin Lewis). As a society we tend to categorize the severity of addiction in a way that drugs are the most dangerous and alcohol being just a problem. Because alcohol addiction can be a slow progressive disease many people don’t see it in the same light as drug addiction. An addiction to drugs is seen as being a more deadly and dangerous issue then that of alcohol because a drug addiction can happen more quickly and can kill more quickly. Alcohol is something that is easy to obtain, something that is found at almost every restaurant. People with an alcohol addiction can not hide from alcohol as easy as a drug addict. Approximately 7 million Americans suffer from alcohol abuse and another 7 million suffer from alcoholism. (Haisong 6) The dangers of alcohol affect everyone from children with alcoholic parents, to teenagers who abuse alcohol, then to citizens who are terrorized by drunk drivers.
Whiteman, S. D., Becerra, J. M., & Killoren, S. E. (2009). Mechanisms of sibling socialization in normative family development. New Directions For Child & Adolescent Development, 2009(126), 29-43. doi:10.1002/cd.255
In her article "The body as attire," Dorothy Ko (1997) reviewed the history about foot binding in seventeenth-century China, and expressed a creative viewpoint. Foot binding began in Song Dynasty, and was just popular in upper social society. With the gradually popularization of foot binding, in the end of Song Dynasty, it became generally popular. In Qing Dynasty, foot binding was endowed deeper meaning that was termed into a tool to against Manchu rule. The author, Dorothy Ko, studied from another aspect which was women themselves to understand and explained her shifting meaning of foot binding. Dorothy Ko contends that “Chinese Elite males in the seventeenth century regarded foot binding in three ways: as an expression of Chinese wen civility,
Smoking causes many other types of cancer, including cancers of the throat, mouth, nasal cavity, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix, and even leukemia has been found linked to smoking. Also, people who smoke are up to six times more likely to suffer a heart attack than nonsmokers, and the risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. Smoking also causes most cases of chronic obstructive lung disease. Also, approximately 49,400 deaths have been due to exposure to secondhand smoke. 3,000 nonsmoking adults die of diseases caused by exposure to second-hand smoke every year.
Although no definite reason or person has been identified as responsible for the birth of footbinding, there are a few theories. One deals with the Shang dynasty's last empress' malformed feet. Some say she had club feet, bound them in attempts to distil beauty from malformation, and convinced her "spouse to make the compression of feet obligatory for young girls" (Levy, 37). Another scenario involves the Mongols attempting to impair the health of the Chinese women in order to weaken the Chinese. Still another theory, and possibly the most credible, involves the Chinese women attempting to attain greater appeal. Footbinding was not started by women for want of greater self control, nor did it originate from foreign powers. Well bound feet brought honor to the girl's family. Binding feet was even thought to improve other parts of the feminine figure. Footbinding increased attraction by males, which led to a better match. Overall, all the main reasons for binding one's feet, or one's daughters' feet, arise from masculine desires and wants.
Foot binding is a tradition of beauty and torture. Also is a symbol of identity and virtue. Bound foot signifies that a woman had achieved womanhood. The process start before the arc of the foot is fully develop, usually was between the ages 4-9. Binding start in winter to make the foot numb by the cold weather and make the pain would not be extreme. First, each foot would be soaked in warm mixture of herbs and animal blood, this was intended to soften the foot and aid binding. Then, the toenails were cut as far as possible to prevent grow in and infections. Cotton bandage were prepare to submerge into the blood and herb mixture. To allow the size of the feet to be reduced. The toes in each foot were curled under they would have to walk back and forth all day until their toes broke. The broken toes were held tightly against the sole of the foot while the foot was down straight with the leg and the arch of the foot was broken. The bandage had to be tightly to bend the toes to the sole so they would not move. The broken feet requires great attention and care. Each time the feet were unbound they were washed carefully checked for injuries then they were rebound. This procedure had to be at least three times a week and it was made by an elder person. The consequence of refusing to the tradition they would be consider unmarriageable and she would become a servant or a concubine. “for family with marriageable daughters, foot size translated into its own form of currency and
Throughout history women have had to endure horrible things to be deemed beautiful. The ancient tradition of foot binding in China, however, takes the “beauty is pain” concept to a whole new level. Foot binding, also known as lotus feet, is the Chinese custom of applying painfully tight binding to the feet of a young girl to break all of the bones in both feet and to also prevent further growth in order to keep the feet three inches long. Although one may feel that this was completely ridiculous, having this procedure done meant that a girl will be able to get married to a wealthy man and will be referred to as attractive. The cost of beauty comes with a massive price as well. The loss of the ability to walk is the biggest price a Chinese girl had to pay in order to be accepted in the Chinese culture. During the Sung Dynasty period, women have mutilated, bound, deformed, permanently damaged and altered their bodies not only to be accepted in society, but also to satisfy men erotically and sexually as well as weaken themselves to make men feel more powerful.
Alcohol and drug abuse is one of biggest problems in United States today. It is not only a personal problem that dramatically affects individuals' lives, but is a major social problem that affects society as whole. "Drug and alcohol abuse", these phrases we hear daily on the radio, television or in discussions of social problem. But what do they mean or what do we think and understand by it? Most of us don't really view drug or alcohol use as a problem, if that includes your grandmother taking two aspirins when she has a headache or your friends having few beers or drinks on Saturday night. What we really mean is that some drugs or alcohol are being used by some people or in some situations constitute problem with which our society must deal. It becomes a real problem when using or I should say abusing drugs cause accidents, antisocial behavior, broken relationships, family instability, crime and violence, poverty, unsafe streets and highways, worker absenteeism and nonproductivity, and the most tragic one death. The situation in which the drug or alcohol uses accurse often makes all the difference. The clearest example is the drinking of alcohol, when individual begins to drink during the job, at school, or in the morning, we have evidence that indicates a potential drinking problem. If a person takes narcotic drug because he just wrecked his knee while his physician prescribed playing football and the drug, most of us would be not concerned. If, on the other hand, he took the same drug on his own just because he likes the way it makes him feel, then we should begin to worry about him developing dependence. Even use of illegal drugs are sometimes acceptable, but it also depends on situation, for example in some countries smoking marijuana is legal just like drinking alcohol in United States. Some subcultures even in United States that accept the use of illegal drugs may distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable situation, some college age groups might accept marijuana smoking at a party on weekends, but not just before going to a calculus class. Most of people would accept a fact that a bartender or a waiter who is working at a night club is having a beer or a drink on his break or that a landscape worker is having a cold beer with his lunch on a hot summer day. I'm not saying that it is "OK" but we wouldn't complain a...