Scientists in the USA have discovered why smokers may be more prone to chronic gum disease (periodontitis). One of the bacteria responsible for gum disease infection responds to cigarette smoke – changing its properties and the way it infects a smokers mouth.

A new study shows that people who are smokers and have a family history of brain aneurysm appear to be significantly more likely to suffer a stroke from a brain aneurysm themselves. The research is published in the December 31, 2008, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology and will appear in the January 6, 2009, print issue of Neurology.

Health-related quality of life appears to deteriorate as the number of cigarettes smoked per day increases, even in individuals who subsequently quit smoking, according to a report in the October 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Smokers suffer more chronic back pain. This was the result of the analysis of a questionnaire performed by Monique Zimmermann-Stenzel and her colleagues and published in the current edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int, 2008; 105[24]: 441-8).

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that carrying a common genetic disorder doubles the risk of developing lung cancer in smokers and nonsmokers.

Cigarette smokers who were treated for cerebral aneurysms with coil embolization (blocking of a blood vessel) are at greater risk of developing another aneurysm, say neurological surgeons at Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience in Philadelphia in the first-known study of its kind.

Male smokers who consume more magnesium appear to have a lower risk for cerebral infarction, a type of stroke that occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked, according to a report in the March 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

A study in a Wiley-Blackwell journal – Respirology – finds that the development of bullous lung disease occurs in marijuana smokers approximately 20 years earlier than tobacco smokers.

Smokers who have a say in how they quit are more likely to try kicking the habit and are more successful, according to new research at the University of Rochester.

Smokers perform worse at work than non-smokers, finds a study of US navy female service members published in Tobacco Control .