Posted on 09/06/2005 8:03:32 PM PDT by lunarbicep
PEOPLE who smoke are twice as likely to go blind as those who don't, a report warned yesterday.
Experts believe around 54,000 smokers have developed a condition called age-related macular degeneration (AMD) as a result of their habit.
This is the leading cause of blindness in the UK, with around 500,000 sufferers.
The AMD Alliance UK said yesterday the link between smoking and blindness was as strong as that between cigarettes and lung cancer.
Yet only a tiny number of the UK's 13 million smokers are aware of the risk.
A survey of 1,000 people found that only seven per cent knew that AMD affected the eyes.
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But seven in 10 smokers said they would quit if they thought the habit could harm their eyesight.
Pauline Edwards, 50, a nurse from Salford, Greater Manchester, said: "I smoked for years. Now I have AMD, am partially sighted in one eye and am likely to go blind. If I had been told that I could lose my sight because of smoking I would have given up. I stopped the day I found out."
The Royal National Institute of the Blind is calling on the Government to introduce warnings on cigarette packets about the risk to eyesight.
Steve Winyard, head of campaigns at the RNIB and chairman of AMD Alliance UK, said: "Smoking is the only proven cause of AMD that people can do anything about. The message is simple: do not smoke."
Research has shown that the risk starts to decrease 10 years after smokers quit.
Simon Kelly, a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at the Bolton Eye Unit, said: "When people are diagnosed with AMD and learn of the link with smoking they want to stop."
Yesterday, it also emerged that around 8,000 bars would stop serving food to escape a total smoking ban, including many "family friendly" pubs.
I cannot post a logical reply because my glasses are in the other room & I cannot understand what I am posting.
That's not what those of us over 50 were told as prepubescent teens!!!!
Im smoking a Marlboro, right now.
I may quit some time other than during our greatest national disaster.
geez...imagine if you are a masterbating-smoker??!!!!
They don't want you to smoke cigatettes but they don't seem to mind people smoking marijuana. hmmm
"geez...imagine if you are a masterbating-smoker??!!!!"
Thats dangerous, ive tried it.
Now you just hold on. Processed foods containing sodium nitrates may just be good for you.
Hot dog! Preservative may be good for you
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Could the salt that preserves hot dogs also preserve your health?
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health think so. They've begun infusing sodium nitrite into volunteers in hopes that it could prove a cheap but potent treatment for sickle cell anemia, heart attacks, brain aneurysms, even an illness that suffocates babies.
Those ailments have something in common: They hinge on problems with low oxygen, problems the government's research suggests nitrite can ease.
Beyond repairing the reputation of this often maligned meat preservative, the work promises to rewrite scientific doctrine about how blood flows and how the body tries to protect itself when that flow is blocked. Indeed, nitrite seems to guard tissues - in the heart, the lungs, the brain - against cellular death when they become starved of oxygen
But still funny.
Me too. I'm hoping the cigs kill me before the democrats. I don't want to go that way. ;-)
" Me too. I'm hoping the cigs kill me before the democrats. I don't want to go that way. ;-)"
Im hoping I dont run out of cigs during the tribulation.
:o)
They say working out in the sun will wrinkle your skin,
but as I see it, when I'm old I'll be wrinkled anyway.
No warning on cigarette packs about this! I'm getting a lawyer!$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
I never thought of that. A seven year supply? Better stock up now before they go up.
Yeah, but I can still puff a Nicaraguan maduro when I'm blind.
This happened to my mom, and I always blamed it on her heavy smoking. Doesn't smoking reduce oxygenation ? That was my idea.
Yeah, well so are coffee drinkers. Well, anyway, at least coffee drinkers who keep leaving the spoon in the cup!
I guess it depends on what body part is actually smoking...
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