Smoking Research Latest 2015: Scientists Finally Solve Mystery of Lifetime Smokers with 'Healthy Lungs'
Scientists in the United Kingdom have finally solved the mystery of why some lifetime smokers have healthier lungs compared with their non-smoking counterparts.
British scientists conducted a study involving 50,000 respondents between ages 40 and 60 and found out that genetics has something to do with a person's risk of having smoking-related diseases. This is why some people who have been smoking for most of their life appear to have lesser risk of contracting lung diseases compared with non-smoking people of the same age bracket, according to the Daily Caller (DC).
The British scientists took a closer look at smoking and non-smoking individuals, and those with and without Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Then, they compared those traits with 28 million genetic variants found in all of the study's respondents, the report details.
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The researchers used the UK's Biobank project, which lists the records of 500,000 people, as reference, and found that some patients with a certain genetic code had lesser risk of contracting COPD, which includes bronchitis and emphysema. This disease later on leads to recurrent coughing, chest infections, and difficulty of breathing, The Times Gazette reports.
"There doesn't appear to be any kind of magic bullet that would give anyone guaranteed protection against tobacco smoke," the DC quotes University of Leicester professor Martin Tobin's statement to the BBC. "They would still have lungs that were unhealthier than they would be had they been a non-smoker."
The result of the study also shows that five sections of DNA code could affect an individual's smoking behavior. Part of the research explains how genes affect a brain's response and function in the presence of nicotine in the system. This suggests that some people may be prone to cigarette addiction because of their genetic makeup.
According to the British scientists, the findings of this study could be used in the future to find more effective ways to help people drop their smoking habits.
