smoking<\/a> is declining in many countries around the world, it is growing in Israel, rising in the last few years from one in five adults to one in four. This is due to stress from war and terror, aggressive promotion of new products by tobacco companies, lack of governmental enforcement, and ignorance among younger people that electronic cigarettes and other devices that cause them to ingest nicotine are \u201cnot smoking\u201d when, in fact, they are no less dangerous.\u00a0<\/p>\nAnti-smoking professionals and other activists assembled last week in the auditorium of Jerusalem\u2019s Shaare Zedek Medical Center (SZMC) for a day-long discussion organized by the Medical Society for Smoking Prevention and Cessation of the Israel Medical Association. It was entitled \u201cJust to Breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Prof. Yael Bar-Ze\u2019ev: Smoking is not just a physical addiction, but involves feelings and attitudes. (credit: FLASH90)<\/p>\n
Dr. Ariel Rokach, director of SZMC\u2019s respiratory care unit and the new chairman of the medical society, noted that an average of 33 people died every day and 1,000 per week from tobacco-related smoking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis news should have shaken the country, but it didn\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Graphic smoking images to appear on all relevant products<\/p>\n
He welcomed the fact, however, that in a few months, graphic images of damage from smoking will finally appear on all relevant products. Several years ago, then-health minister Ya\u2019acov Litzman opposed this, saying that such images would \u201cscare children\u201d and suggested that instead, photos of Jerusalem be printed on packets.<\/p>\n
In two years, tobacco\/smoking products will no longer have duty-free privileges in airport shops. Israel officially ratified the World Health Organization\u2019s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005, but until now, it has ignored this prohibition.<\/p>\n
Prof. Zvi Fried-Lender, head of the Internal Medicine D department and a senior pneumologist at Hadassah-University Medical Center, said that \u201cMany more Israelis died from tobacco than from wars. We have failed to stop it. Tobacco companies invest huge amounts in tobacco sales and aim to sell e-cigs at kiosks as close as they can to schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll who are involved in smoking prevention and cessation are saving lives every day,\u201d said Prof. Hagai Levine, a leading epidemiologist and head of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians. \u201cCompanies use manipulations to get more people to smoke; we have to prevent their aggressive marketing. We also want to get help from MKs who oppose smoking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prof. Yael Bar-Ze\u2019ev, a public health physician, behavioral scientist, and epidemiologist at the Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, focuses on tobacco control and smoking cessation.<\/p>\n
She said, \u201cSmoking is not just a physical addiction, but it also involves feelings, thoughts, and attitudes. There is growing research on behavioral therapy, behavioral activation, commitment therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help people quit the habit.\u201d<\/p>\n
CBT, she explained, can break down the connection between thought and the desire to smoke by using mindfulness. Instead of thinking \u201cI must have a cigarette,\u201d one can tell oneself that \u201cI don\u2019t have to; I can stop it according to my ideals.\u201d Bar-Ze\u2019ev added that today\u2019s cigarettes are much more addictive than they were years ago because the manufacturers add substances that cause more dependency.<\/p>\n
Electromagnetic helmet treatment<\/p>\n
A new smoking-cessation technology that is available in Israel is deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (Deep TMS). It is a non-invasive therapy that uses electromagnetic fields to safely stimulate targeted regions of the brain. Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Health Ministry, it\u2019s used not only for treatment-resistant major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder but also for smoking addiction.<\/p>\n
A patented helmet is put on the patient\u2019s head and sends magnetic pulses directly into deeper, broader neural networks in the brain than standard TMS. This process regulates the brain\u2019s neural activity without surgery, anesthesia, or hospitalization while the patient is fully conscious.<\/p>\n
There are usually 20 to 36 sessions, given five days a week over a four- to six-week period. The only reported possible side effect is a mild headache at the treatment site, which usually goes away after the first few sessions.<\/p>\n
Bar-Ze\u2019ev said the technique has helped many heavy smokers to kick the habit. People must pay for it privately, but she hopes it will be added to the basket of health technologies in the future.<\/p>\n
There are also advocates of psychedelic treatment using serotonin receptor agonists that regulate nerve cell communication to manage mood, anxiety, and vascular functions. They are primarily prescribed to treat migraines, depression, anxiety, and gastrointestinal issues, and have been recommended by some to help smokers quit.<\/p>\n
But the one-time treatment has to be monitored closely, because if the patient suffers from psychiatric disease, it could cause trouble, Bar-Ze\u2019ev stressed. \u201cMaybe in the future, it will be a tool for smokers who don\u2019t manage to stop with other treatments.<\/p>\n
GLP-1 receptor agonists \u2013 medications originally developed for Type 2 diabetes that are now widely prescribed for weight management and cardiovascular health because they mimic natural gut hormones to lower blood sugar, suppress appetite, and slow digestion \u2013 have also been used to promote cessation, Bar-Ze\u2019ev revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey apparently work in the same place where the brain affected by nicotine works. Small groups were tested who smoked fewer cigarettes and waited longer to light up when they were offered them, so it might help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Amos Hausner, the chairman of the Council for the Prevention of Smoking, warned that \u201cthe residues of cigarettes sold today will cause deaths in 20 or 30 years in half the users, but the tobacco companies won\u2019t be around to take care of the compensation, as in Canada, where they went bankrupt after they were found liable for tens of millions in compensation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsraeli tobacco users face a time bomb that awaits its turn to incubate and explode in at least half of their bodies. To provide a reimbursement, companies that sell tobacco in Israel should be required to deposit at least NIS 42 billion for the government to help the victims, just as importers of motor vehicles have to make sure there will be spare parts in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hausner also presented two innovative proposals for the enforcement of bans on smoking in public places and the sale of cigarettes to minors: that an offender would have to participate in a course for smoking prevention, just like convicted drivers; and that a phone number must be clearly placed in public places where smoking is banned and where cigarettes are sold, for immediate complaints.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is similar to signs on the back of trucks that if smoke is emitted or the truck driver commits a traffic violation, thus avoiding direct confrontation between the complainant and the offender,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For heavy smokers, the primary test to detect lung cancer early is a low-dose CT (LDCT) scan. Quick and painless, the low-radiation X-ray that creates highly detailed images of the lungs to spot tumors before any symptoms appear is available free for smokers or former smokers aged 60 to 74.<\/p>\n
Prof. Itamar Grotto, a former head of the Health Ministry\u2019s public health department and a former associate director-general who now teaches and does research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, suggested \u201cForest Therapy.\u201d He taught for a while at a school of public health in Cyprus, where he was exposed to forest activities that reduce stress.<\/p>\n
\u201cFully 70% of smokers relapse because of higher stress and cognitive load. Being in the forest for a few hours and doing activities, including mindfulness sessions, can reduce stress even over time compared to a control group. It won\u2019t work by itself, but it could help together with other treatments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Women who smoke and drink alcohol usually go into menopause faster and have worse symptoms than non-smokers, said Dr. Avigail Ma\u2019ayani, a gynecologist who runs smoking-cessation courses for health funds. Half of Israeli women who don\u2019t light up are exposed to others\u2019 smoke.<\/p>\n
Women who smoke have a higher risk of osteoporosis, endometrial and cervical cancer, and severe COPD. They also find it harder to kick the habit than men. They usually smoke to reduce stress, while men are more hooked on the addiction.<\/p>\n
Speakers did not have information about whether AI can help promote smoking prevention and cessation, but I asked ChatGPT for ideas.<\/p>\n
It said that \u201cpersonalized cessation coaching that tailors messages to age, stress levels, relapse patterns, motivation styles, the time of day, and triggers could help.\u201d<\/p>\n
AI could identify moments when someone is most vulnerable. A sophisticated future cessation system might learn a smoker\u2019s daily rhythms, detect high-risk moments, adapt messaging style, coordinate with nicotine replacement therapy, and even identify relapse risk before the smoker consciously notices it. That\u2019s very different from generic \u201cSmoking is bad for you\u201d campaigns.<\/p>\n
Human counselors are valuable but limited in number. AI systems could provide multilingual support, 24\/7 availability, culturally adapted coaching, and personalized follow-up to huge populations at relatively low cost.<\/p>\n
Israel could actually become strong in this area because it already has advanced digital health infrastructure, strong AI, public-health expertise, and extensive healthcare data systems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since Oct. 7, about 2,500 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been murdered\/killed by terrorists. Additionally, more than 22,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5301,345,343,85,46,43,80889,13672],"class_list":["post-547589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-addiction","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-nicotine","tag-smoking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}