Word: kirschenbaum
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...mouth. But experts increasingly believe physiological factors play the largest role. Nicotine, found in tobacco, speeds up physiological functions, especially the rate at which the body metabolizes food. "Though people will tell you they smoke to relax, in reality, they're all charged up," says psychologist Daniel Kirschenbaum of Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital. A smoker's heart rate, for instance, averages 84 beats a minute, compared with 72 beats for a nonsmoker. When smoking stops, metabolism slows down, food is burned more slowly and the pounds can start piling on. Research by psychologist Richard Keesey at the University...
Will the CDC study discourage smokers from snuffing the habit? If so, this would be a terrible mistake, says Kirschenbaum, who adds that the health risk of smoking a pack and a half to two packs a day "is equal to carrying 60 to 80 extra pounds in body weight." Smoking, which leads to 400,000 U.S. deaths a year, "is about the most dangerous thing a person can do," affirms Tausz. "I'd rather see someone be a few pounds heavier and a nonsmoker, than smoke and be skinny." No doctor would disagree, but try telling that...