Smoking can be useful

A case has been recorded when smoking turned out to be beneficial to health

Ilya Vedmedenko, Naked Science

Researchers have found a man for whom smoking has become a kind of "panacea" for anemia. Scientists, however, advise using special antioxidants in similar cases.

A very unusual case was described in the Journal of Biological Chemistry by Bissé et al., Hemoglobin Kirklareli (α H58L), a New Variant Associated with Fe Deficiency and Increased CO Binding. Scientists drew attention to a resident of Germany who has a severe hereditary disease. However, the patient himself can lead a completely normal life, except for very serious physical exertion. "This man could never become an athlete, since his blood is not able to carry large amounts of oxygen, but smoking saves him from developing anemia," says John Olson, representing Rice University in Houston.

At first, scientists were interested in the daughter of a German citizen. A 23-year–old girl was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia, which was caused by a mutation in a gene encoding a component of a complex hemoglobin protein - the a1 polypeptide chain. The final consequence of this is the inability of red blood cells to give the cells the required amount of oxygen.

Having the same mutation, the girl's father, nevertheless, did not suffer from anemia, but at the same time scientists revealed a high concentration of carbon monoxide in his blood. As it turned out, the German was an avid smoker, and the peculiarities of his body gave hemoglobin the opportunity to stabilize in contact with carbon monoxide. So specifically in this case, a bad habit "suffocating" the body really turned out to be a kind of medicine.

Needless to say, even in this case, smoking still causes irreparable complex harm to health. So researchers do not advise taking up cigarettes even with similar symptoms. According to experts, large doses of antioxidants will help to escape from this kind of health difficulties.  

According to the conclusions of WHO experts, tobacco smoking (or rather, diseases associated with it) kills one inhabitant of the Earth on average every eight seconds. Every year tobacco leads to the premature death of five million people across the planet.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  17.02.2017