How much would, say, a pack-a-day habit of smoking regular filtered cigarettes negate the benefits of other, healthful habits such as exercising and eating right? This may or may not have a single correct answer, but I thought it was more of a fact than opinion question, so here it is.
I have a friend (really), 30 years old and male, who smokes about a pack a day, but also exercises regularly on an elliptical machine for an hour at a time. He also tries to eat a generally healthy diet (lots of veggies, no fast food, etc.).
I know he’s doing *some *good, but is the pack-a-day habit negating the benefits of the exercise and diet?
I sometimes do graphics for a local major hospital. Which means I do lots of graphs for slide shows, studies and books. A recurring theme is various risk factors and how they affect patient’s health. Invariably, the #1 risk factor is smoking, followed by obesity, regardless of other factors. Smoking is the worst thing you can do to your body.
Obviously I can’t prove this, but I suspect your friend would be better off giving up exercise, giving up his healthy diet . . . and giving up smoking.
While it is pretty certain that smoking has very serious health effects I can’t find any studies that actually account for smokers other poor life choices.
However the AHA claims that the risk of inactivity is similar to smoking.
Seeing as heart disease is the #1 killer of smokers and people in general I would also be interested if others have information.
Yeah, I didn’t think there would be a simple canceling-out relationship between smoking and doing other healthful things. But I see this alot around where I live, with the friend I mentioned in the OP and with several of my colleagues and students. They smoke like chimneys but then go to the rec center on campus regularly to work out. I keep thinking to myself, “What wasted effort! To be perfectly healthy and die of coronary disease, cancer, emphysema, or some other nasty smoking-related illness.”
One reason I did get from a professor who smokes and loves to run. He says he runs so he can keep smoking!:eek:
The physical activity may protect against cardiovascular and bronchial diseases, but it won’t stop the carcinogens in tobacco smoke from maybe triggering lung cancer.
According to recent research, each of those packs introduces just over one mutation in the dna of his lung tissue. It may take 20,000 mutations to cause cancer, but all his fitness and good eating will not stop that from happening. It could also take less if he is unlucky.
And also: Many heart surgeons will not operate on a patient who still smokes; but I’ve never heard of one who won’t operate on someone who eats junk food.
I read somewhere (can’t find a cite for this precisely at the moment) that while most smokers acknowledge they are put at risk by smoking, most believe they personally are less at risk than a “typical smoker” because they have have modifying factors - e.g. “I don’t smoke heavily”, “I get regular exercise” , “I eat lots of fruit and vegetables”.
I’m sure your friends are telling themselves that the healthy aspects to their lifestyles at least reduce the risks of smoking. However, I think they’re probably overestimating the benefits of the healthy activities and underestimating the risks of smoking.
