New health hazard found due to smoking

A lot has already been said about the dangers of smoking. There is sufficient evidence base, as well as a lot of scientific research on how tobacco consumption affects our body. However, almost all previous studies have focused mainly on the study of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. But new data obtained by scientists from the UK suggests that tobacco smoke can be much more dangerous than we thought.

Smoking could be more dangerous than we thought.

How smoking affects the body

New study published on the siteUniversity of Bristol says that smoking tobacco can increase your risk of developing depression and schizophrenia. Scientists came to this conclusion together with their colleagues from the Bristol Biomedical Research Center (BRC) and the local Department of Epidemiology.

It is well known that a bad habit in the form ofsmoking is much more common among people with mental illness - especially in patients with depression and schizophrenia. However, most of the studies that examined this relationship did not help to figure out what is the root cause in this case. Does a mental illness increase the likelihood of smoking, or is smoking itself a risk factor for mental illness?

In order to find out, the team appliedan analytical approach called Mendelevsky randomization. This method allows us to draw conclusions about causal relationships, based on genetic variants and predispositions that may be the cause of pathology. For this, mapping of human genes is necessary, and such information was available from scientists. After analyzing the data of 462,690 people of European descent (among whom were 8% of smokers and 22% of former smokers), experts concluded that tobacco smoking increases the risk of depression and schizophrenia.

People with mental illness oftenoverlooked as part of smoking reduction programs, says lead author Dr. Robin Wootton. But our work shows that we should make every effort to prevent smoking and encourage smoking cessation due to negative consequences for both physical and mental health.

All people whose data was used tothe experiment, were divided into 3 categories - non-smokers, smokers and those who quit smoking. As a result, it turned out that the second and third groups had signs of depression (and in some cases schizophrenia) 2.2 times more often than those who did not smoke at all. At the same time, interestingly, the duration of tobacco use did not play a special role.

See also: Smoking can cause neck pain

According to scientists, even after a littleperiod of tobacco abuse, after some time, people showed signs of anxiety disorder. The opposite picture, when the violation of mental balance led to the use of tobacco, was practically not observed. So if you suddenly smoke - abruptly quit this habit and replace it with something useful. For example, communication in our chat in Telegram.

Of course, this study is based firstthe turn is on statistical data, but the authors themselves emphasize that there is definitely a relationship between the psychological sphere and smoking. This work encourages scientists to start a full-scale study on the effects of tobacco smoke products on the development of mental disorders, which experts plan to do in the near future.