Smoking is bad. We know this. It shaves years off your life (more than 10). It gives you diseases. If for some reason, all that still isn't enough to convince you or someone you love to quit, here's a new one: smoking accelerates aging. That's right, smoking makes you old.
Researchers have linked what smoking does to cells in your lungs to what a rare disease called Werner's syndrome does. Basically, in both cases, a key protein is lost. What this means is that the lung cells that normally heal damage are debilitated.
Werner's syndrome is a disease in which people begin rapid aging after adolescence and usually die from cancer or heart disease in their 40s or 50s. It is a genetic condition that effects about 200,000 people in the U.S. What is messed up (to me at least) is that smoking basically causes the same kind of damage to the lungs.
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Researchers have linked what smoking does to cells in your lungs to what a rare disease called Werner's syndrome does. Basically, in both cases, a key protein is lost. What this means is that the lung cells that normally heal damage are debilitated.
Werner's syndrome is a disease in which people begin rapid aging after adolescence and usually die from cancer or heart disease in their 40s or 50s. It is a genetic condition that effects about 200,000 people in the U.S. What is messed up (to me at least) is that smoking basically causes the same kind of damage to the lungs.
Read More on Smoking and Aging
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