People have smoked tobacco for centuries, possibly thousands of years, and cigarettes were first machine made in France in the 1880's. In the US, smoking peaked in the year 1965 when 50% of men and 33% of women smoked, with a per capita consumption of over 4000 cigarettes per year. When health effects of smoking began to be widely publicized, particularly its association with lung cancer, cigarette smoking began to decline. Nicotine, the psychoactive ingredient in cigarettes, is addictive , producing a withdrawal syndrome that is at least partially relieved by nicotine replacement. Cigarette smoking, though, also has cultural meaning, which has contributed to its popularity. For decades therapeutic nicotine replacement has been available to people who want to quit smoking, first only by prescription, but now over the counter since the 1990's. The first product, a nicotine chewing gum, was released in the late 1970's, followed by a patch, a nasal spray and finally an inh...
The cost of health care in the US is higher than anywhere else in the world, and yet we are not healthier than our peer nations. In fact, in terms of such measures as infant mortality and life span, we don't measure up. Why is this? Many people involved in providing or receiving care have some pretty good ideas about what costs so much, and what we can do to reduce costs and improve quality. Sharing these stories is an important step in creating affordable universal health care.