Horrifying images reveal what really happens to your body after you die when you smoke.
A new study has shown what the effects of smoking can really do to your body after researchers took a close look at the long term impact that the habit has on your bones.
According to the American Lung Association, smoking kills over 480,000 people per year in the US, while secondhand smoke causes more than 41,000 deaths a year.
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Now, a research team at the University of Leicester has delved into how damaging it can be for your bones.
The researchers have studied the remains of over hundred people buried in England between the years 1150 and 1855 in order to understand health conditions in the past.
They hoped to be able to relate this to ‘current trends’ as this timeframe coincided with the 16th century introduction of tobacco into western Europe.
The human remains that were studied were found to have tobacco smoke left in chemical molecules in the teeth that could stay there forever.
Dr Sarah Inskip, who is a lead author of the study, explained: “Our research shows that there are significant differences in the molecular features contained in bone of past tobacco users and non-users.
“This potentially shows that we can see the impact that tobacco use has on the structure of our skeletons.”
The researchers also noted: “Tobacco consumption affects human health, but no studies have investigated its effect on the bone metabolome, or if any changes are traceable after long postmortem intervals.
“Human osteoarchaeological remains preserve small molecules, making them valuable for studies that aim to examine past conditions.
“We test if there are molecular differences in the metabolome of cortical bone between archaeological individuals who used tobacco and those who did not, and if these differences are distinct enough to assign tobacco use status to individuals with unknown tobacco use.
“Tobacco consumption leaves a metabolic record in human bone distinctive enough to identify its use in individuals of unknown tobacco consumption.
“This groundbreaking research shows that archaeo-metabolomics has a lot to offer in terms of understanding past phenotypes, like tobacco smoking.
“[This] can help us better understand health conditions in the past and their relationship to current trends.”
The study, which is titled Archaeometabolomics characterizes phenotypic differences in human cortical bone at a molecular level relating to tobacco use, can be read in full on Science Advances.