Study finds some individuals have genetic variants that allow them to have long-term exposure to a carcinogen without developing lung cancer.
We take a look at some stats... Researchers at 'Action on Smoking and Health' have reported that a 30-year-old smoker can expect to live about 35 more years, whereas a 30-year-old non-smoker can expect to live 53 more years.
May 12, 2022 – Some smokers might not get lung cancer because of their DNA, researchers report in a new study. These people have genes that help limit mutations, or changes, to DNA that would turn cells malignant and make them grow into tumors, the researchers say.
The mystery of why some people appear to have healthy lungs despite a lifetime of smoking has been explained by UK scientists. The analysis of more than 50,000 people showed favourable mutations in people's DNA enhanced lung function and masked the deadly impact of smoking.
Your lungs have an almost "magical" ability to repair some of the damage caused by smoking - but only if you stop, say scientists. The mutations that lead to lung cancer had been considered to be permanent, and to persist even after quitting.
Your lungs are self-cleaning, which means they will gradually heal and regenerate on their own after you quit smoking. However, there are certain lifestyle behaviors you can practice to try and accelerate the rate at which your lungs heal.
Many are poisons. At least 70 are known to cause cancer in people or animals. People who smoke cigarettes are 15 to 30 times more likely to get lung cancer or die from lung cancer than people who do not smoke.
Summary: Cigarette smoking is overwhelmingly the main cause of lung cancer, yet only a minority of smokers develop the disease. A study suggests that some smokers may have robust mechanisms that protect them from lung cancer by limiting mutations.
This leveling off of mutations could stem from these people having very proficient systems for repairing DNA damage or detoxifying cigarette smoke." The findings could help explain why 80 to 90 percent of lifelong smokers never develop lung cancer.
But with others making it to 100 despite their smoking and drinking, scientists have long suspected it could be something in the genes that decides who lives long and who dies young. New research in Japan has found such a genetic link.
Background: Heavy smokers (those who smoke greater than or equal to 25 or more cigarettes a day) are a subgroup who place themselves and others at risk for harmful health consequences and also are those least likely to achieve cessation.
While drinking can be a threat to your health, smoking is certainly worse. Unlike alcohol at low or moderate levels, there is no benefit to tobacco use at any level. When you smoke, you inhale various chemicals that can injure cells, causing both cancer and artery damage (e.g. heart attacks and strokes).
If you quit smoking, whether you're 40, 50, 60, or 70, there is a great amount of data that says you will live more days and more years from that point forward.
Research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirms that even if you're 60 or older and have been smoking for decades, quitting will improve your health.
There is no safe level of smoking. Smoking 1-10 cigarettes per day increases the risk of getting smoking-related cancers and other diseases. Even smoking less than one cigarette per day is harmful. One study found that it significantly increases the risk of dying early compared with people who have never smoked.
In fact, smokers generally are much less healthy than nonsmokers. Smokers' overall health is worse and they are sick more often than nonsmokers. Smokers need to go to the doctor more often and they are admitted to the hospital more often than nonsmokers.
Roughly 40% of lung cancer cases occurred in people who had quit smoking more than 15 years before their diagnosis.
As a result, a former smoker's risk of lung cancer will always be higher than for someone who never lit up. For those who used to smoke heavily, the lung cancer risk is 3 times higher than it is for people who never smoked, according to a 2018 study. That's true even 25 years after heavy smokers quit.
Generally if you haven't smoked for 12 months or more, you're considered a non-smoker.
About 10 to 15 percent of smokers develop COPD, but the optimal strategy to identify those most at risk is unknown.
Generally speaking, some of the short-term inflammatory changes to the lungs can be reversed when people quit smoking, Edelman said. In other words, swelling subsides on the surface of the lungs and airways, and lung cells produce less mucus, he said.
Quitting smoking reverses lung cell damage even for decade-long smokers. It's never too late to quit smoking, as a new study shows the lung's ability to heal and regrow damaged cells caused by cigarette smoking, even if they smoked for decades.