Smoking has been officially announced as deadlier than we could ever think, due to its tendency of leaving lasting marks on one’s DNA who smokes. A new study says that smoking alters more than 7000 genes, one-third of the known human genes, that can result in the development of a smoking-related disease.
The study is derived from the blood sample of almost 16,000 people, and it states that those who had quit smoking were able to have most of the genes recovered within 5 years of quitting.
Dr. Stephanie London is the author of the study and says that even though smoking has a long term effect on your genes, but the sooner you stopped smoking, the better you are. Her team has found that there are some genetic changes that remain even after 30 years of quitting.
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the world and is accountable for problems like stroke, cancer and heart disease. More than 6 million people die every year due to these disease, which smoking generates. It is said that even after decades of quitting smoking, the chances of getting these diseases remain still high.
Dr. London believes that this information is useful at all times and the message she wants to get across through her study is that, smoking has an excessive and widespread impact on human genes, and even though most of it is reversible yet smoking would impact your genetic makeup in a way which will not be reversible.
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23 September 2016
Jyotsna Amla