For a while there it seemed that the auteur of Sleeper was right all along and that there was nothing better for your longevity than a bowl of French fries except a bowl of French fries with whipped cream on top.
But no. We are back to square one: smoking and obesity are bad for you. According to a new study that looks very much like the old studies we grew up with.
Obesity and smoking accelerate aging, say researchers who saw the evidence at the cellular level.
The team measured shortening of telomeres, caps on the end of chromosomes, as an indicator of aging. Telomere length shrinks every time a cell divides, like a chromosomal clock that reflects the aging process.
“Our findings suggest that obesity and cigarette smoking accelerate human ageing,” the team wrote in the June 14 online issue of the medical journal The Lancet.
Cutting out all the minor vices may or may not prolong life, but it damn sure makes it seem longer.
Don’t we want people to die to save SS?
The Lancet Journal? Isn’t that the medical journal that grossly overestimated the shortened lifespans of Iraqis during OIF?
Fit, or not fit, the twenty-five-year-old brain is a lot more creative than the fifty- or sixty-year-old human brain. “Wise” is good, but not the same. We need more 25-year-old brains in America. They’re the ones that change the World. In America, we’re getting a little overstocked on fifty-, and sixty-year-olds at present. So, go ahead, eat, smoke, have fun, make room for the kids.
RBMN ó “Sideways” was written by 25-year-old brains. Any questions? Los Angeles is crawling with brains (and not in a good Samuel Z. Arkoff way) that refuse to grow up. Feh, I say.
Doesn’t this mean that the best way to save Social Security is …
to bring back the Marlboro Man on TV?
plus a sexy fat funny fun-loving sidekick?
Would somebody please tell me why we need yet another study that confirms yet again that fat smokers have shorter lives?
When is there going to be a study that finally reveals to the world that fat smokers live longer, have greater intelligence, and get all the best looking babes?
yeah yeah yeah
and the sun is bad for you, no it is good for you and coffee will kill you, no it might actually keep you alive.
I stopped smoking and gained twenty pounds, so where does this study leave me?
Seriously. These kind of studies are interesting but not very useful. You can be a non-smoker and thin as a rail but it will not guarantee a longer or healthier life. Does anyone remember Jim Fixx (“The Book of Running”) who died from a heart attack in his early forties?
Give me Falstaff. Keep Dorian Grey.
One problem with this scenario is that a major killer of older people is cancer. Cancer cells are immortal precisely because they can rebuild their telomeres
Cancer cells are immortal precisely because they can rebuild their telomeres.
So someone needs to develop a cigarette that kills cancer cells.
Yes, let’s do that, and keep that 25 year-old turd RBMN underemployed.
In response to Terrye’s comment, I wrote about Schwarzenegger’s new program “Smoke Yourself Skinny” about a year ago:
http://letterfromcalifornia.blogspot.com/2004/09/letter-from-california-september-7.html
I think we should consider this…
I stopped smoking and gained twenty pounds, so where does this study leave me?
Come on, Terrye; don’t tempt us with straight lines like that.
I talked about this with a neighbor of mine who has a PhD in physics from CalTech. He reminded me of Schrodinger’s dictum that measuring something changes it. Clearly, if those medical researchers would stop measuring the telomeres, the telomeres wouldn’t be getting bigger. It’s not the cigarettes and the beer; it’s the medical researchers.
Get a kilo scale.
Read it in lbs.
Weigh what you weighed at age 13.
Where’s the ice cream?
Aren’t these the same people who are always telling us that if the study isn’t controlled and double-blind then it’s worthless?
(Think about that for a moment… A study where neither the subjects or their doctors know who is smoking and who isn’t, who is fat and who isn’t… Maybe I’m just weird in that gives me a little chuckle…)
cathy
“…the country is no longer set up for physical exercise,” Dr. McGee said. And that schoolchildren “don’t get a nutritious diet.” And that “there is a lot of high-fat food on the shelves of every supermarket.” But, he said, “that doesn’t tell you much. I’m sure skinny people go to those same restaurants….Skinny kids go to those same schools.”
link
Hey, I’m doing my part! I just focus-grouped some great new hamburgers for a major national chain! (Couldn’t look at meat for two days afterwards, but yum.)
Cigarettes are an anti-depressant. So is food. Your choice.
Smoke Cigarettes – Live Longer
and here is a bit with some info on the genetics of cigarette (and other drug) use.
Genetic Discrimination
Read somewhere that a huge majority–was it 85%?–of schizophrenia sufferers are heavy smokers. Something about dopamine I’d guess.