Thursday, June 30, 2011

Prostate Cancer & Smoking

Do you really need another reason to stop smoking?  If you're a male smoker closing in on retirement, check out a study published in JAMA last week concluding that smoking increases all-cause, prostate cancer specific, and cardiovascular mortality.  One has to have quit for at least 10 years for those mortality figures to drop back to baseline non-smokers' levels.

Just how strong is the data?  Well, the authors followed 5,366 men from the Health Professionals Follow Up Study who'd been diagnosed w/prostate cancer.  This prospective observational study included those diagnosed between 1986 & 2006 so the statistics are reasonable and random chance is very unlikely to account for these findings.

The bottom line for you & me?  Don't smoke!  And if you do, now's the day to quit.  If you need help, ask your family doc.  Good luck!  And don't give up!

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