We generally believe that smoking is bad for our body, and it also one of the leading causes of death in a world range. It is very smart not to smoke. However, this conclusion is not always true for all of the people. A group of people who are very lucky can smoke without any harms or any kind of illnesses of their body. One research pointed out that one of the oldest guys, Jeanne Calment, was a smoker. How does it happen?
A new research found that some smokes having such long-living aren’t a coincidence. They mind Single nucleotide polymorphism sequence of DNA in some people actually help them better resist and mitigate the damage from habitual smoking. The researcher even identified a set of genetic markers that help promote longevity, which is corresponding to many studies among animals.
The researchers sequenced the genomes of 90 long-lived smokers who reached their 80, and contrasted them with the genomes of 730 smokers who died before their 70. Surprisingly, the result indicates that a net work of SNP indeed have very significant contribution on getting longevity and resisting aging. The likelihood of reaching 90 is tripled u ,and the possibility of becoming a centenarian is 22 percent increased. In conclusion, researchers concluded long lived smoker appear to be very biologically distinct group of people, granted with some resilient gene that can response to some extreme conditions. Like smoking or poisoning situation.
Thus, there is a conclusion that there genes may promote lifespan. That’s why those who exposed to high level of bad habits, like some smoker, may be live longer. However, people who carry those sequences of gene are rare. There is limited knowledge about those gene, and some related technology are still in developing. Probably in the future, people can use this method to help resisting aging and illness.
work cited：
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/09/10/long-lived-smokers-may-be-a-biologically-distinct-group-with-an-extraordinary-gene-network/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/07/16/cigarette-smoking-brazilian-man-may-be-worlds-oldest-person-at-126-years-old/
One of the quotes in your essay that stood out was “of DNA in some people actually help them better resist and mitigate the damage from habitual smoking. ” This made me think of the idea of evolution and survival of the fittest. Maybe one day, a day long after our generation has died, where people will be prone to smoking hazards. What do you think?
Call me old fashioned, but I think smoking is just plain wrong. Anything that you inhale into your lungs that isn’t oxygen is harmful to your body, and tobacco is one of the worst things you can put inside you.
When we briefly discussed this topic in class I was extremely intrigued because how could something that is said to be so bad be an exception for certain people? While I believe that there are people like this, I also think that people should stay away from smoking anyways. The chances of being someone that is not harmed by smoking is still small and it is better to be safe than sorry, especially because it is still not 100% clear which people can smoke without being affected. I really like this study because of the fact that it contradicts everything about smoking from the past 50 years and leaves more questions for scientists to answer in the future.
This post was very relatable to what we discussed in class last week. I agree that there are individuals who poses specific genes which allow them to chain-smoke and not experience the damages that smoking can cause to ones body. Another aspect to this post that I think would be interesting would be to include how rare exactly this genetic make-up is. Also, as the levels of smokers decrease, will the gene eventually die off? There have been hundreds of studies conducted regarding the dangers of smoking which is why I found this post to be interesting because it focused on those who are able to avoid those dangers while still smoking at unhealthy levels.