In life, there is always a voice saying: Someone who has smoked cigarettes all their lives has not gotten lung cancer? The more you smoke, the more your body will automatically get used to it, and there is not that much harm at all, is that really true?

A recent study may answer the question of why some people smoke all their lives without developing lung cancer.

I. Research: People who smoke the most may have a powerful “self-protection mechanism”

It stands to reason that the more cigarettes you smoke, the longer you are exposed to their carcinogens, and the greater your risk of developing lung cancer.

But recently, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the United States conducted a study in which researchers compared the proximal bronchioles of nonsmokers and smokers of different ages. Mutations in basal cells were found:

People who smoked the most did not necessarily have the most somatic mutations.

Since aging and smoking both lead to the accumulation of cellular mutations in the human body, this study aimed to distinguish the effects of these two factors on cellular mutations.Finally, 14 non-smokers aged 11-86 and 19 smokers aged 44-81 were selected as experimental subjects.

Researchers focused on the relationship between smoking and cell mutation, and found thatsomatic mutation does not It has been rising with the increase in smoking, mainly with “23 pack years” as an inflection point. After the smoking pack·years reached 23, the number of somatic mutations stopped increasing, and tended to be stable or even decline.

Why does this happen? The researchers proposed two possible reasons:

1) For DNA damage, the repair ability of heavy smokers may Stronger;

2) Heavy smokers may metabolize harmful substances in cigarettes faster, thus reducing the risk of cancer.

Second, it turns out that nicotine is not carcinogenic

to say If the above research breaks through common sense, nicotine does not cause cancer and also breaks the public’s cognition.

Nicotine, as the main active ingredient in cigarettes, is an alkaloid. For a long time, many people have thought that nicotine is a carcinogen.

In fact, authoritative report data including the 2014 US Surgeon General’s Report and the US FDA both pointed out that nicotine is not directly causally related to cancer, and is in the International Cancer Research Nicotine is also not present in the agency’s four carcinogens.

In fact, the main harm of nicotine is its addictiveness, its addiction level is very similar to that of cocaine and greater than alcohol 6-8 times.

There are nicotine receptors in the human brain. The nicotine inhaled during smoking enters the brain and specifically binds to the nicotine receptors, and then the brain releases a large amount of dopamine in a short period of time. , this dopamine produces feelings of pleasure and satisfaction.

Since nicotine is quickly cleared from the body, dopamine levels in the body will decrease once non-smoking, and people will become irritable at this time. In order to maintain the brain At nicotine levels, the smoker wants to smoke one after the other.

Third, is it wrong that smoking is harmful to health? Is this cigarette safe to smoke?

Some people may think that after the first and second points, they can safely smoke, or that smoking is not very harmful. This is a big mistake.

First of all, it’s worth noting thatthis study in the United States does not say that more smoking is associated with a lower risk of cancer. Because all smokers have a higher number of somatic mutations than non-smokers, they are also at greater risk of developing lung cancer.

In addition, no one can be sure that he is a “super repairer of DNA damage”, or a “detoxifier of cigarette carcinogens”, smoking is risky.

And the evidence that smoking is harmful to health is solid. Even if nicotine is not carcinogenic, the main carcinogen in tobacco is methylene nitrosamine, and the concentration of nicotine metabolite cotinine in urine is similar to that of methylene nitrosamine. Amines are related.

In other words, nicotine is addictive and makes people smoke more, which inevitably leads to more methylene nitrosamines, carbon monoxide and other harmful substances , is not good for health.

Tumors that have been causally linked to smoking include: lung cancer, oral cancer, Pharyngeal cancer, gastric cancer, bladder cancer, cervical cancer, laryngeal cancer, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, acute non-lymphocytic leukemia.

Look at a set of data: “China Smoking Harmful Health Report 2020” shows that in 2018, the smoking rate of people over 15 years old in my country was 26.6%, and more than 1 million people smoked tobacco every year. And lost lives if not taken soon with effective smoking cessationAction,The number of annual tobacco deaths is projected to increase to 2 million by 2030 and even 3 million by 2050.

Smoking is bad for your health, so do you still want to smoke?

The slogan “smoking is bad for your health” is everywhere, but many people still join The “smoking army”. Smoking not only harms your own health, but also the second-hand smoke it produces will also harm the people around you, so please quit smoking!

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