Tag Archive for: smoking

The Genetics of Smoking

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The study I’m examining this week is profound for a number of reasons. Identifying the genes that are affected by direct contact with the toxins in cigarette smoke provides one piece of a very complex puzzle. For example, they showed the difference in genetic mutations in the same type of tumors between smokers and non-smokers. The smokers had the genetic mutations while the non-smokers didn’t. So why did they get that type of cancer? That’s why I said it’s one piece of a puzzle. There are undoubtedly other factors involved.

With the information that . . .

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Smoking and Cancer Update

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A fascinating research paper was recently published in which researchers compared the genetic mutations found in 14 different types of tumors from chronic cigarette smokers and those who never smoked. They were attempting to see the differences in the genetic damage that occurred in tumors from the same organs between people who smoked and those who had never smoked. While they occur less frequently in non-smokers, some types of lung cancers still occur in those who never smoke.

This was complicated research to say the least. The research group had developed an algorithm that would look at over 90 . . .

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How Long Can Third-Hand Smoke Last?

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Researchers were interested in finding out how long the residual particulates and substances last in people who quit smoking and in their environment. They recruited 90 smokers to participate in the study and tested the verified quitters for third-hand smoke pollutants at baseline, one week, and one, three, and six months after they quit.

The subjects were tested in two ways: their fingers and their urine were checked for metabolites of third-hand smoke. They also tested the dust in their environment. As you might expect, the bodies of the ex-smokers saw a dramatic decline in smoking metabolites . . .

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The Tenacity of Third-Hand Smoke

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Recently I found a moving box full of my mother’s recipes. When I opened the box, I was hit with the smell of stale, old, cigarette smoke. My mother was a smoker for over 45 years, so the smell makes sense. What you should also know is that she died over 20 years ago. That’s how long the smells can linger from the residual parts of cigarette smoke.

Cleaning her home after she died, I had to use a full strength cleaner without diluting it in water, then rinse. One pail of water would last for a section . . .

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Smoking and Exercise

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What are we doing well when it comes to health habits? Based on the study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, we seem to be getting the message that we shouldn’t smoke tobacco: 71% of all Americans don’t smoke based on the data from the NHANES data set. This wasn’t just a questionnaire; the participants had their blood tested as part of their participation in the study. You can lie on a questionnaire, but you can’t fool a blood test for metabolites found in cigarette smoke.

Better doesn’t mean good enough in my opinion. I . . .

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Keeping Track of Life’s Simple 7

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To complete American Heart Month, here’s an easy way to track your heart health called Life’s Simple 7 (LS7), developed by the American Heart Association. LS7 has been around since 2010 but it escaped my attention until recently. For those of you who like to track your progress to see how you’re doing, this is a great tool; you may remember I mentioned it last month, but I think you need the details to really understand how LS7 can work for you.

There are seven different categories of variables to track, hence the name Life’s Simple . . .

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