Think of Four Smokers You Know…One WILL get heart disease
A study involving over 8,000 people aged 30-60 over a 25-year time period has found that AT LEAST a quarter of long-term smokers WILL develop an incurable lung condition called ‘chronic obstructive pulmonary disease’ (COPD).
Of the 8k people involved in the study, 5280 were smokers, 1513 were non-smokers and 1252 were ex-smokers. At the end of the 25-years, the study revealed that at least a quarter of the participants who did not have any of the initial symptoms of COPD had developed ‘clinically significant’ symptoms while approximately 40% had developed ‘some’ signs of the condition.
It is worth noting at this point that COPD is the sixth most common cause of death in England and Wales, killing more than 30,000 a year. The World Health Organisation have predicted that it will be the 3rd biggest killer worldwide in 2020 – and there is no cure.
The study was conducted by UK and Danish researchers at the Hvidovre Hospital in Denmark and sends another stark message to smokers. As pointed out by Dr Peter Lange, a member of the research team:
“Our finding is quite simple: the longer people smoke, the higher the risk of developing COPD”
So, wheras in most other posts I suggest eating well and exercising as a way to stay healthy – for COPD the message is far more simple: don’t smoke.
Remember, you literally CANNOT smoke AND be healthy. It just doesn’t work.
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Smoking is a big world problem. It is easy not to begin smoking because it gives addiction and tomorrow it may be too late to quit. At this moment statistics are very worrying but luckily more and more people are making efforts to give up this bad habit.