Having recently buried my mother-in-law following an extended illness caused by her smoking, this story interests me to no end.

Scientists say they have pinpointed a genetic link that makes people more likely to get hooked on tobacco, causing them to smoke more cigarettes, making it harder to quit, and leading more often to deadly lung cancer.

The discovery by three separate teams of scientists makes the strongest case so far for the biological underpinnings of the addiction of smoking and sheds light on how genetics and cigarettes join forces to cause cancer, experts said. The findings also lay the groundwork for more tailored quit-smoking treatments.

"This is kind of a double whammy gene,'' said Christopher Amos, a professor of epidemiology at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and author of one of the studies. "It also makes you more likely to be dependent on smoking and less likely to quit smoking.''

I lost my grandfather to such an illness four decades ago, and so avoided smoking out of fear that i would follow in my footsteps. A good move, in my eyes, as my mothers siblings who smoked were both dead before sixty -- while my mother is still going strong in great health in her mid-70s. had i started smoking, I'm sure I would already be gravely ill -- likely because of this gene. Fortunately, free will does come into play on the initial decision to smoke.

And I already see some of my teenage students smoking -- hooked on that nicotine -- in the tenth grade, which has made m wonder to what degree there was a genetic link rather than a social one. How many will die young because of the impact of this gene?

Posted by: Greg at 10:11 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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