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Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

#51

Post by itmag »

DevX101 wrote: post #43
melling wrote: post #26

The top comment is from a healthy smoker of 65. People always love to discuss how they or someone they know has smoked their entire life and never had a problem. I know lots of smokers who still aren't convinced of the health issues. Seems like there's still a long way to go.

Susceptibility to lung cancer due to smoking is at least partly genetic. If you have certain variants of a specific gene (don't have time for the lit search right now), smoking won't significantly increase your chances of lung cancer. The problem is not everyone has this gene variant, and you probably don't want to be playing Russian Roullette with your health.

Does this mean a person can potentially get tested for this, and find out that they have a free pass to smoke as much as they want?

Re: Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

#52

Post by vijayr »

itmag wrote: post #51
DevX101 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Susceptibility to lung cancer due to smoking is at least partly genetic. If you have certain variants of a specific gene (don't have time for the lit search right now), smoking won't significantly increase your chances of lung cancer. The problem is not everyone has this gene variant, and you probably don't want to be playing Russian Roullette with your health.

Does this mean a person can potentially get tested for this, and find out that they have a free pass to smoke as much as they want?

That would be a very interesting scenario. few hours of testing, and we get a report like this

"Here bob, you can smoke these (a, b, c) but you can't smoke these (d,e,f). Also you can drink everything, except these (1,2,3). Now go have fun"

Re: Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

#53

Post by pbourke »

itmag wrote: post #51
DevX101 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Susceptibility to lung cancer due to smoking is at least partly genetic. If you have certain variants of a specific gene (don't have time for the lit search right now), smoking won't significantly increase your chances of lung cancer. The problem is not everyone has this gene variant, and you probably don't want to be playing Russian Roullette with your health.

Does this mean a person can potentially get tested for this, and find out that they have a free pass to smoke as much as they want?

Smoking also causes heart disease, lung problems, etc.

Re: Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

#54

Post by vijayr »

ukgent2 wrote: post #28
melling wrote: post #26

The top comment is from a healthy smoker of 65. People always love to discuss how they or someone they know has smoked their entire life and never had a problem. I know lots of smokers who still aren't convinced of the health issues. Seems like there's still a long way to go.

It depends on the person, I got a nan, 96, walks to town 3 times a week, still rides her bike, been smoking 60 a day for 40 years, and recently cut back to 40. If i compare her to my other nan 86 frail and pretty much falling apart, now guess which one has had the better lifestyle? the second, very well off always comfortable. At 96 i think she gets up to keep smoking, and if that keeps her alive then keep doing it.

60 a day, at 96 years old???!! wow, that is unbelievable

Re: Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

#55

Post by _delirium »

nsxwolf wrote: post #46
xer0 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately you have to live your whole life to discover whether you're an exception or a statistic. I'll go with the statistics for my personal choices.

But most smokers will be exceptions. Most smokers will not get cancer. They get cancer significantly more often than non-smokers, but that's not scary sounding enough, I guess.

To give specific numbers, according to one study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7895211), the lifetime risk of developing lung cancer is:

   male smokers: 17%
   female smokers: 12%
   nonsmokers: 1%

Re: Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

#56

Post by [deleted] »

itmag wrote: post #51
DevX101 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Susceptibility to lung cancer due to smoking is at least partly genetic. If you have certain variants of a specific gene (don't have time for the lit search right now), smoking won't significantly increase your chances of lung cancer. The problem is not everyone has this gene variant, and you probably don't want to be playing Russian Roullette with your health.

Does this mean a person can potentially get tested for this, and find out that they have a free pass to smoke as much as they want?

[deleted]

Re: Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

#57

Post by nsxwolf »

_delirium wrote: post #55
nsxwolf wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But most smokers will be exceptions. Most smokers will not get cancer. They get cancer significantly more often than non-smokers, but that's not scary sounding enough, I guess.

To give specific numbers, according to one study ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7895211 ), the lifetime risk of developing lung cancer is: male smokers: 17% female smokers: 12% nonsmokers: 1%

Which backs up what I said. It's really unusual to see anyone talk about the actual lifetime risk. It's not as scary as saying "your chances are X times greater"... greater than what?

If those numbers are accurate, and entirely due to the effects of smoking (not just other lifestyle behaviors more common with smokers, like drinking) that's easily reason enough to quit. But even in the worst case, the fact remains, most smokers will not get cancer.

Re: Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

#58

Post by absconditus »

nsxwolf wrote: post #46
xer0 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately you have to live your whole life to discover whether you're an exception or a statistic. I'll go with the statistics for my personal choices.

But most smokers will be exceptions. Most smokers will not get cancer. They get cancer significantly more often than non-smokers, but that's not scary sounding enough, I guess.

Smoking causes problems other than cancer.

Re: Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

#59

Post by absconditus »

_delirium wrote: post #55
nsxwolf wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But most smokers will be exceptions. Most smokers will not get cancer. They get cancer significantly more often than non-smokers, but that's not scary sounding enough, I guess.

To give specific numbers, according to one study ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7895211 ), the lifetime risk of developing lung cancer is: male smokers: 17% female smokers: 12% nonsmokers: 1%

What about heart disease?

Re: Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

#60

Post by nsxwolf »

isamuel wrote: post #35
ukgent2 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the person, I got a nan, 96, walks to town 3 times a week, still rides her bike, been smoking 60 a day for 40 years, and recently cut back to 40. If i compare her to my other nan 86 frail and pretty much falling apart, now guess which one has had the better lifestyle? the second, very well off always comfortable. At 96 i think she gets up to keep smoking, and if that keeps her alive then keep doing it.

This is like saying the dangerousness of Russian roulette "depends on the person," because you have a grandmother who's played a bunch of times and didn't die.

That's probably not correct. The grandmother playing Russian Roulette is truly the beneficiary of random chance. She's still susceptible to bullets.

The centenarian smoker likely was never susceptible to smoking-induced lung cancer in the first place.

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