Lung cancer: Around 9 out of 10 cases of the disease are caused by one particular activity - smoking.
Smoking cigarettes is like playing Russian roulette with your life. If you smoke, quitting smoking is a guaranteed way to improve your health and longevity.
Smoking is the primary cause of lung cancer and also a major factor in heart disease, stroke, thrombosis and numerous other ailments. (Smokers are 50% more likely to develop dementia for example.)
However, we acknowledge that nicotine is a highly addictive substance and whilst many people enjoy smoking and don't want to stop, many others would like to stop but can't.
The following information may help to protect your cigarettte-smoking loved ones from lung cancer - NTFC
Back in the 1980s a study of 265,000 people in Japan found that those with a low intake of beta-carotene (the form of vitamin A found in fruit and vegetables) had a higher risk of lung cancer.
Furthermore, a study of employees of Western Electric, published in the Lancet medical journal, found that beta-carotene status was as significant as smoking in determining risk of lung cancer.
In this study they found that 6.5% of heavy smokers with a low beta-carotene status developed cancer. This percentage dropped to 0.8% for heavy smokers with a high beta-carotene status.
Conversely, non-smokers with a low beta-carotene status also had a 0.8% risk, while non-smokers with a high beta-carotene status had no risk at all.
These studies demonstrated that smoking and diet each play important roles in the lung cancer process - Patrick Holford
People with lung cancer have been found to have much lower than normal blood vitamin A and carotenoid levels, and there is a strong link between the risk of lung cancer and vitamin A and beta-carotene status.
People with low dietary intake of vitamin A have twice the risk of lung cancer as those with the highest vitamin A intake.
Similarly a high intake of beta-carotene from raw fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of lung cancer in smokers and non-smoking men and women as well as reducing the risk of cancer of the stomach, colon, prostate and cervix - Patrick Holford
People with plenty of a B vitamin in their blood appear to be at a reduced risk of lung cancer, even if they smoke, a European study suggests.
High levels of vitamin B6 and the amino acid methionine cut the risk by half, a study of 400,000 people suggested.
But experts told the Journal of the American Medical Association that stopping smoking remained the best way of reducing lung cancer risk - BBC Ceefax 2010
Smoking one pack of cigarettes a day depletes 500mg of vitamin C from your body - Hazel Courteney
(NB: It is strongly advisable that smokers take a daily good quality, high potency vitamin C supplement.)
Lycopene is a carotenoid that is better known as the red pigment in tomatoes. Cooking tomatoes releases five times more lycopene than raw tomatoes. Lycopene makes up at least 50% of all carotenoids found in the human body...
After accounting for smoking , people with the lowest levels of lycopene are three times more likely to develop lung cancer than those with the highest intakes - Dr Sarah Brewer
Vitamin D may also improve survival rates among lung cancer patients, according to a Harvard study reported in 2005. Patients who received surgery for lung cancer in the summer, when vitamin D exposure from sunshine is greatest, and had the highest intake of vitamin D, reported a 56% five-year survival rate. Patients with low vitamin D intakes and winter surgeries had only a 23% survival rate - Fox News, 'Six Foods That Fight Cancer'
[Smokers is a major factor in the onset of heart disease:
In the Cambridge Heart Antioxidant Study (CHAOS) involving over 2,000 people with coronary heart disease, taking vitamin E (400 i.u. or 800 i.u. daily = 268 mg or 536 mg) was found to reduce the risk of a heart attack by 77%. Not only was the difference highly statistically significant, it seemed the group treated with vitamin E were at no greater risk of a heart attack than people without coronary heart disease
- Dr Sarah Brewer 'The Essential Guide To Vitamins And Minerals']
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