Posted on 10/17/2006 1:09:34 PM PDT by trumandogz
TUESDAY, Oct. 17 (HealthDay News) -- A new study finds that at least 1 in every 4 smokers will develop progressive and incurable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a much higher risk than previously believed.
COPD is a respiratory disease that results in blocked air flow to the lungs and grows progressively worse.
For this study, published online in the journal Thorax, researchers at Hvidovre Hospital analyzed data on 8,000 men and women, ages 30 to 60. All were monitored for 25 years as part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study.
At the start of the study, all the participants' lungs were healthy and working normally. However, over the course of the 25 years, the lungs of almost all the male non-smokers continued to function normally, compared to 60 percent of men who continued to smoke.
Among women, 90 percent of non-smokers still had healthy lungs at the end of 25 years, compared to 70 percent of smokers.
Overall, 25 percent of the participants developed moderate or severe COPD over the 25 years. Persistent smokers were six times more likely to develop COPD than non-smokers.
During the 25 years, there were 2,900 deaths in the study group. Of those deaths, 109 were directly attributable to COPD, and nearly all those deaths were in people who were active smokers at the start of the study. Only two non-smokers died of COPD.
The study also found a sharp decline in the risk of COPD among people who stopped smoking soon after the start of the study. Over the 25 years, none of these ex-smokers developed severe COPD.
The fact that no one enjoys the feeling of drowning . . . I've never met anyone who did. Never.
And feeling like you're drowning second after second; minute after minute; week in, week out for months . . . if not a few years . . . what torture.
But even that prospect is . . .
no biggy, my right. I want to be selfish!
How many peer reviewed studies show that? How many were paid for by tobacco companies?
Why? What can possibly change at the cellular level to affect the body 25 years later? And how can they blame it on smoking and not, say, air pollution or Three Mile Island?
I'm not saying smoking doesn't cause it, I'm drilling down here.
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
We have always been at war with Eastasia
Smoking won't kill you
Gabz, the only people I've encountered who go through intellectual hoops as convoluted and as nonsensical as yours in order to justify an unjustifiable ideology are the 9-11 conspiracists. You're in good company.
Would love to see the only ash trays sold made out of slices of such.
Why don't you ask someone who 25 years ago used to work in an asbestos mine about long lag periods? They are common for many types of cancers. If your lungs are coated with tar from smoking, they just don't become uncoated 25 years later. You still have large amounts of carcinogens in you, and they can cause cell damage at any time.
And how can they blame it on smoking and not, say, air pollution or Three Mile Island?
Because researchers can screen for air pollution or three mile island. If you were to take two identical populations -- say 50,000 people who never smoked and 50,000 people who smoked for 10-20 years and then quit 25 years ago -- and you normalize both populations for differences in likely exposure to air pollution and radiation, you'll still see an increase in lung cancer rates in the smoker group. This is how studies are done, and they can conclusively pinpoint smoking.
Automakers used to undercoat autos with a mixture of tar.
I would be happy to do so.
You see, my younger (by 6 years) sister had an asthma attack at the age of several days back in the late 1950's.
Our wise (and wizened) family physician recommended my father blow tobacco smoke at her occasionally.
That was her last asthma attack.
She became a grandmother last April.
Physicians used to prescribe smoking (and caffeine imbibing) to stave off and stop respiratory problems.
I am convinced that more kids have asthma today because they don't get to eat their pound of dirt at an early age, and are not exposed to things like tobacco smoke because of all the hysteria.
It may take a massive civil uprising, along with the accompanying hardship to get people back to relishing campfires, red meat and tobacco, along with all the other politically-incorrect "bad" habits which made our forebears surprisingly healthy and able to create and provide for us.
We're looking forward to celebrating my Father's 80th birthday shortly (smoked at least a pack of cigarettes every day since he was 9).
Any questions?
They pay a lot of taxes for that right, and I, for one, am grateful!
OK, so explain to me why it's one in four?
I have entertained, for a long time, that cancer and other problems created by things like smoking need to be looked at in the same way allergies are. Does that offer anyone an idea about treatment?
Hello? Is anyone in the scientific community actually thinking about anything but the next grant?
Nanny-state fascists being one.
Now that's what I'm talkin' about!
Yup, it makes sense, I am old enough to remember when everyone smoked, and it was not a big deal. People weren't "Allergic" to smoke and we didn't have anywhere near as much asthma as we have today.
You wont ever convince the antis, they have years and YEARS of brainwashing and can only repeat "Smoking bad" over and over again.
This being a conservative forum, it is surprising to find anyone relishing the levying and payment of taxes.
Therefore, you must be mislocated.
"There are a few things worse than lung cancer, but not many."
I figure, if not cured, any cancer anywhere will kill...what is worse than that? My non smoking neighbor died of colon cancer. What is worse than that?
I support the ABSOLUTE RIGHT of people to smoke. It is a freedom thing.
That said, I recently quit smoking after 30 years. It took a drug called Wellbutrin (also known as Zyban) but it worked. This drug is available by prescription only and there are risks. But it worked. After dozens of tries and nothing else working, it worked.
If you want to quit, check this out with your doctor. It works by alleviating the withdrawal symptoms and the craving for tobacco.
It will NOT work if you don't want to quit smoking. I have talked to people who took the drug and did not quit.
BTW. I am one of the four who get a smoking related disorder. I have a very mild case of COPD. Hopefully it will not get worse, but at least I am not wasting money on cigarettes anymore. I feel pretty good about that.
She contended that it was the impurities in commercial tobacco that killed you, not the tobacco itself, so she usually smoked some sort of special "organic" "health food" tobacco. What a waste of a fine woman.
You've never met my husband. Nor have you met me.
"They pay a lot of taxes for that right, and I, for one, am grateful!"
If only we could equally tax the "do gooder holier than thou" citizens for the harms they do to a "free" society.
The same tax collectors have followed us to the new world and are once again in charge.
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