Smoking Found to Be Worse Than Previously Thought

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that smoking is linked to five more diseases, which adds approximately sixty thousand deaths per year to the previous numbers.

The study examined almost a million people over the age of fifty-five and their diseases, health issues, and mortality over ten years. In addition to the list of diseases already linked to smoking—lung cancer, artery disease, heart attacks, lung disease, and stroke—researchers found that smoking increased the risk of kidney disease, infection, intestinal disease, and other illnesses not previously linked to smoking (Wilkerson, 2015).

According to the New York Times, “this study is not considered as strong as experiments in which participants are assigned at random to treatments or placebos and then compared” (Wilkerson, 2015). However, the study does suggest that the health risks related to smoking are more wide-ranging than previously thought.

References

Wilkerson, M. (2015). Smoking more harmful than thought, says new study. Retrieved from http://www.thefix.com/content/smoking-more-harmful-thought-says-new-study