[stubernx98]

Racking leaves may cause.......constant back pain

Talking back to wife after the look may cause - Fill in the blank

Fill in the Blank _________ may cause ________

I know, I am a PhD

[neverdem]

Tracking the origins of HIV

6 anti-polio workers killed in Pakistan

Overcoming small obstacles (Nanofabrication methods)

DNA hydrogel has a long memory

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[dubyagee]

Perhaps the holiday spirits I have had are having an ill effect on my comprehension, but I read the first two paragraphs and they seem to completely contradict one another. So I stopped...reading, that is.

[elkfersupper]

Since nobody will talk about the gene that theoretically causes male homosexuality and the damage it does, I'm waiting for discovery and elimination of the gene that causes people to hang a bunch of crap from their windshield rear-view mirror.

The amount of that crap swinging around tends to have an inverse relationship to the driver's willingness or ability to control their vehicle and behave like a human being on the road.

[Mears]

Thanks for posting this.

I occasionally have trouble sleeping and I will bookmark this article to read if that occurs tonight.

.

[mrsmith]

“Little George, did you chop down that cherry tree?”

“I cannot tell a lie, my epigenetic modifications made me do it!”

[Just another Joe]

From the article.
None of the modified genes has a direct link to cancer, however, making it unclear whether these chemical alterations increase the risk of developing the disease.

And yet the title of the article is, "Smoking Smothers Your Genes"

What a load of cr@p.

[RegulatorCountry]

Most of human history involves heavy exposure to and inhalation of smoke from fires for cooking and warmth. While I wouldn't qualify this as having been healthy it was necessary. If such “gene smothering” and associated epigenetic changes are detrimental now they were detrimental then and we're living, breathing examples of it walking the earth today.

[nightlight7]

This is another statistical study on non-randomized sample of self-selected smokers/non-smokers, analogous to "discovering" that lung cancer is statistically associated with yellowing of the fingernails (or with any other proxy/marker for smoking). In this study, instead of yellowing of the fingernails, they use epigenetic markers for smoking (such as hypomethylation of 'aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor'/AHRR gene; their 'mouse model' merely verifies smoking <-> AHRR hypo-methylation association).

This type of statistical associations on 'non-randomized samples' are equally indicative of causal role of a substance X (tobacco smoke) in disease D (lung cancer), as it is for protective/therapeutic role of X for D or D's precursors/causes. For example, people taking high blood pressure meds are statistically more likely to suffer heart attacks and strokes than those not taking these medications. This association doesn't mean that these meds cause heart attacks and strokes. In fact they protect against underlying causes of these very same events with which they associate (that's what gives rise to this association).

Since tobacco smoke happens to have potent anti-inflammatory effects and it also upregulates key detox and antioxidant enzymes (nearly doubling glutathione, catalase and SOD), one would expect it to be statistically associated with variety of toxic, including carcinogenic, exposures since it provides relief against the effects of such exposures (e.g. doubling the detox rate and reducing inflammatory reactions).

While there were no genuine randomized smoking experiments on humans, there were thousands such experiments on animals but you will never hear about these findings since they all went the "wrong way" -- smoking animals get fewer cancers and live ~20% longer than non-smoking animals, while staying thinner (by 15%) and sharper into the old age.

You can find references and discussions of the above facts in the longevity/nootropics forum (longecity) in a thread "Smoking is good for you" (I post as 'nightlight'). The TOC of the thread topics is in another post on that site.

[GOPJ]

Yes, I want to live a long time so some liberal death panel can decide my life ends with a withdrawal of food and water. Maybe they’ll pull finger nails out with pliers for extra fun. At a certain age, it’s best to start smoking again...

[vigilante2]

I quit smoking two years ago, best thing I ever did. I can't stand the smell of them anymore. Save a lot of money too.