HHS HealthBeat (October 01, 2007)

Teens who start to smoke

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

For a kid, liking that first cigarette can be a bad sign. Researchers looked into it by seeing what happened over four years to teens who started to smoke in the sixth grade.

Joseph DiFranza of the University of Massachusetts Medical School wanted to know what would indicate that a kid who started couldn’t stop. The study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, is in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ journal Pediatrics.

``On 46 different factors we looked at, the best predictor of which kids got hooked was whether they felt relaxed the first time nicotine hit their brain.’’  (9 seconds)

DiFranza believes cigarettes strongly affect some peoples’ brain chemistry more than others, and you can’t tell in advance if that’s you. He says it’s another reason to avoid even just one cigarette.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May, 26 2008