The inhaler, which looks like a hollow cigarette holder, works by delivering small doses of nicotine to satisfy the physical cravings as the smoker tries to quit. But it doesn't have the harmful tars and toxins of cigarettes, says McNeil Consumer Products Co., the Fort Washington, Pa., company that makes the product.
Smokers place a nicotine cartridge inside the mouthpiece of the inhaler, close it and puff on it.
In a study of 223 patients, about 20 percent successfully quit smoking with the Inhaler, which is comparable to the nicotine patch and gum. A new sperm-selection technique can increase a couple's chances of having a baby girl to over 90 percent, reports a study in the journal Human Reproduction. The technique, called MicroSort, divides sperm carrying the X chromosome, which conceive girls, from sperm carrying the Y-chromosome, which conceive boys. In a clinical trial of 29 pregnancies to date, 92.9 percent of babies conceived by the method have been female. A father's sperm sample, which is naturally about an even mix, is concentrated into about 85 percent X-sperm and implanted into the mother.