It is said that the smoking rate in the United States has reached a new low. The smoking rate among people over 18 is only 13.9%.
You may think that 13% is not too low. ... Look at the pre-smoking data. Between 1955 and 1965, the smoking rate was 55% for men and 35% for women. In other words, at the time, nearly 90% of Americans were probably smoking.
Let's take a look at the smoking situation in our country. According to the published data, more than half of the men in China smoke, the smoking rate is 52.1%, and the number of women is not small, 2.7%.
With regard to lung cancer, our focus is always on "smoking". In areas where smoking rates are high, the incidence of lung cancer is bound to be low. In recent years, the related cases and data have slowly shifted our focus from "smoking men" to "non-smoking women".
New high-risk groups: women who do not smoke
This view sounds unbelievable. Even though we usually know that second-hand smoke and even three hand smoke can do harm to the body, in our cognition, these hazards are far less than that of direct smoking. But we can't deny the fact that the incidence of lung cancer is increasing among non-smoking women. There are even estimates of future cancer trends based on current data that predict a 43% increase in lung cancer mortality among women worldwide by 2030.
Why is that?
Passive smoking is more dangerous.
To tell the truth, under the current high smoking rate in China, even if I do not smoke, I believe it is difficult to escape the "smoking" problem.
The National Cancer Research Center of Japan reported in 2016 that non-smokers who smoked passively had a 1.3 times higher risk of lung cancer than smokers.
In other words, non-smokers who are exposed to a variety of "smoke" over a long period of time have a very high risk of lung cancer.
Air dust particles kill and invisible
In recent years, PM2.5 is also widely concerned. Air pollution affects health.
As we all know, particulate dust in the air can cause damage to the respiratory system, certainly not small impact on the lungs. Data show that there is a certain correlation between lung cancer and air pollution. However, there is still not enough data and evidence to support this.
Cooking fumes
In addition to air pollution, tobacco, automobile exhaust and so on, what else will be exposed to tobacco? Kitchen.
A study in Britain suggested that under poor ventilation in the kitchen and inefficient combustion of the stove, the practice is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Cooking fumes, often thick and choking, have a considerable impact on the eyes, nose, throat and lungs.
Other studies show that people who cook food every day are several times more likely to develop lung cancer than those who don't cook much.
Hormonal changes
Clinically, many of the female patients with lung cancer have been diagnosed after pregnancy.
Experiments have shown that there is a common genetic change in the occurrence of lung cancer and breast cancer. The occurrence of breast cancer is related to hormones, so the occurrence of lung cancer may also be related to hormone changes.
Previous studies have shown that estrogen can stimulate cell proliferation, activate related signaling pathways, regulate related metabolic enzymes, or release free radicals, causing a certain degree of DNA damage and so on. But whether estrogen is associated with lung cancer needs more experiments to prove it.
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Of course, this does not mean that smoking will be less risky. Please put down your cigarette and listen to me. Cancer may be caused by many different factors. Although non-smoking is not 100% non-lung cancer, smoking can actually significantly increase the risk of lung cancer.
Or the old saying, smoking is harmful to health.