Smokers Get Old Early, Reveals New Genetic Research

Apart from harming the lungs, smoking also makes humans age faster, according to a study involving nearly 500,000 people.

The findings of this study, presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Milan, Italy, showed that smoking shortens the telomeres, the end fragments of chromosomes in the white blood cells of our immune systems.

The length of telomeres indicates the ability of our cells to regenerate and the rate of our aging process.

Each time a cell divides, the telomeres become slightly shorter, eventually becoming so short that the cell can no longer divide successfully, and it dies. This is part of the aging process.

The researchers used genomic data from 472,174 UK Biobank participants, related to current smokers, those who never smoked, and for people who had smoked previously.

They found that current smoking status was significantly associated with shorter leukocyte telomere length, whereas previous smokers and people who had never smoked didn’t show significantly shorter leukocyte telomere length. People who smoked more number of cigarettes had significantly shorter leukocyte telomere length.