Have you stopped yet? Cigarette is increasingly associated with various diseases

Already introduced in our teens as a symbol of rebellion or independence, cigarettes can accompany a person for a lifetime - or at least until the first signs of the ills it causes begin to appear.

According to an article on the Mother Nature Network website, cigarettes are associated with so many diseases because their components are extremely toxic. This is not new, but the article wants to alert the subject and discuss some statistics about smoking.

Smoking vs. Health

Although cigarettes have been associated with status and elegance in the past, research into its effects on the body has begun in the 1960s. Decades after the first report from the United States General Surgery in 1964 warned of the link Between smoking and lung cancer, research continues to identify more diseases caused by smoking.

Cigarette smoke contains thousands of compounds, including 69 known to be carcinogenic. These carcinogenic agents can result in tumors by damaging the genome or disrupting cell metabolic processes. What's worse, it's not just smokers who get hit, but also those around - like kids whose parents smoke.

Smoking accounts for over 90% of lung cancers. However, traces of carcinogenic tobacco substances reach several other areas of the body, studies have shown. For example, parts of DNA linked to carcinogens have been found in breast tissue and breast milk, according to the report's authors, who have conducted new research over the past few years.

"These carcinogens are absorbed systemically. They are not only in the lungs, they are also carried by blood to various organs, " said Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research at the University of California, San Francisco.

Risks and Evidence

According to studies, colorectal cancer is another case of disease that can be caused directly by smoking. Reviewing previous large studies, the researchers found such an increased risk, especially in people who smoked for two or more decades. In some surveys, smokers were up to twice as likely to develop this disease as nonsmokers.

The report's authors also looked at other cancers, such as prostate cancer, and concluded that smoking is not a cause for this particular disease, although it increases the risk of death for those diagnosed with this cancer. Regarding breast cancer, the researchers concluded that the evidence suggests that smoking may cause the disease.

Other new entries on the official list of pathologies caused by smoking include type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction, macular degeneration (which can blind older people) and cleft palate birth defects.

"In addition to carcinogens, there are a lot of inflammatory agents in cigarette smoke, " said Stanton Glantz. Observing the last 50 years of the war on smoking, the report's authors warned that the risks of smoking-related illness in women have risen sharply and are now equal to those in men's pathologies for lung cancer and other lung and heart disease.

Since the 1964 historical report, nearly 21 million people have died prematurely from smoking or from secondhand smoke exposure, according to the survey. In addition, heart and metabolic diseases attributed to smoking accounted for 40% of tobacco-related deaths.

* Posted on 1/22/2014

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