Friday, 13 November 2009

• Stress/Vice Round-up: Cigarettes & Chocolate

  
  
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  For the first time in 14 years, the percentage of smokers in the U.S. increased from 2007 to 2008. The increase was small—the current number is slightly less than 21 percent of Americans, up from 19.8 percent in 2007—but some experts believe this reversal is significant, signaling that public health officials have "hit a wall" in their battle to reduce U.S. smoking.
  
  Increased taxes have help officials deter smokers in the past, but experts say tobacco companies have been discounting their products in an attempt to counteract the taxes—and it's worked. The Associated Press notes that adult smoking fell by 15 percent between 1997 and 2004, when the price of cigarettes increased by about 63 percent. But smoking decreased by only 1 percent between 2004 and 2008, when cigarettes became only 2 percent more expensive.
  

  
  

  The AP didn't mention this in its article, but I'd think that the recession had something to do with the increase in adult smokers. People smoke when they're stressed out, and the last thing you want to try to do when your life is a mess is quit smoking—that's sort of a rainy day activity. Then again, cigarettes are expensive, so maybe I'm wrong.
  
  But, if you're looking to relieve stress without putting yourself at risk for cancer or heart disease, you might want to read up on some new research on dark chocolate, which scientists say lowers stress hormones.
  
  How do you handle stress? What factors do you think have lead to an increase in U.S. smokers?
  
  

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