Smoking leaves ‘footprint’ on your health for at least THREE DECADES after quitting

SMOKING leaves a damaging ‘footprint’ on health that lasts more than three decades after quitting – increasing the risk of cancer and heart disease, suggests new research.
But scientists say the good news is most of the damage is repaired within five years of giving up, meaning it is never too late to stop.

The unhealthy habit leaves its lifelong mark in the form of ‘DNA methylation’, a process by which cells control gene activity.
The findings, published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, suggest it could reveal an individual’s smoking history, offering hope of developing better therapies.

Dr Stephanie London, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in the US, said: “These results are important because methylation, as one of the mechanisms of the regulation of gene expression, affects what genes are turned on, which has implications for the development of smoking related diseases.Read more on: >>> http://naijaoption.com/2016/09/23/smoking-consequences/#.V-UgbhJZDIU