Whats good...not smoking

It seems like everything is good. It's starting to snow, clementines are back in season and of course science is rocking and rolling. A few interesting studies recently came out about smoking.

Turns out that the first morning cigarette, the one that gets the day going, might be the one that is worst for you. A study at Penn State showed that smokers who had a cigarette within 30 minutes of waking up had a higher level of the nicotine metabolite cotinine (shown on right). The majority of inhaled nicotine is broken down by liver enzymes to cotinine, which serves as a marker of tobacco levels in the blood. Previous research has correlated gender, race and smoking intensity with cotinine levels. This study suggests that the metabolic state of your body might be an important variable in nicotine absorption. The authors admitted that the intensity of inhalation might be the key factor, it just may be that groggy people smoke harder. Either way, if you can't quit cold turkey at least drop that first smoke.

A second study, published in the Environmental Health Perspectives, found DNA from hundreds of bacteria in the content of four popular brand cigarettes. This is the first study to show that cigarettes are contaminated with bacterial human pathogens. Bacteria are everywhere, and further research is needed to explore the feasibility of infection from these organism, but still this is pretty gross.

A joke at every end:

A man walks in to see an eye doctor and says,
"Hey doc, I need some help with my eyes, I think they are getting worse."
The doctor nods his head and says "well ok, let's start with an eye exam. Can you see this sign?"
"What sign?" asks the man.
"The sign that is hanging on this wall," replies the doc.
"What wall?" asks the man.