A drug that lets smokers continue smoking cigarettes while keeping damage at bay....

[mamapaparazzi]

Wow.....

http://io9.com/5496099/a-pill-that-could-halt-cigarette-damage-in-lungs?skyline=true&s=i

What if you could smoke without damaging your lungs? Researchers have discovered that blocking just one protein can prevent the lung inflammation caused by smoking, reducing the risk of some lung diseases in smokers.

One protein, called GM-CSF, appears to control the progress of a common smoker's ailment, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This disease causes inflammation of the lung tissue, which often leads to deadly conditions like emphysema. Researchers in Australia experimented wanted to see what would happen if they used a drug to block GM-CSF - would smoking still cause damage if inflammation didn't result?

The researchers exposed two groups of mice to smoke that would be equivalent to 9 cigarettes per day, for four days. GM-CSF had been blocked in half the mice; the other half were a control group. After four days, the scientists examined the mice's lung tissue for inflammation. Ross Vlahos, who researches lung disease at the University of Melbourne, confirmed that the treatment worked. He said:

Cigarette smoke-exposed mice that were treated with an anti-GM-CSF had significantly less lung inflammation in comparison to untreated mice. This indicates that GM-CSF is a key mediator in smoke-induced lung inflammation and its neutralization may have therapeutic implications in diseases such as COPD.

He cautioned that the results were only short-term, and that they have yet to see if there is long-term benefit for smokers who block GM-CSF. He added that his team's research focused only on COPD, not cancers and other diseases caused by smoking.

The point is: If you want to prevent damage from smoking to your lungs, the best way to do it is to stop smoking. Still the research does suggest that at some point, people might be able to smoke without damaging their lungs quite as much.

via the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

[chaoticmonkey2]

That's great for the cig companies. A way for them to keep smokers alive longer so they can make more money off of them before they die of cancer.

[p88hbear]

I wonder if the same would work for a person who has a family member who smokes... they take it but they aren't the ones smoking... basically, would it work on second hand smoke too?

[Mortiferouslatt]

Quoting chaoticmonkey2:

That's great for the cig companies. A way for them to keep smokers alive longer so they can make more money off of them before they die of cancer.

wow...that sounded really bitchy. You talk about smokers like they are animals.

Hopefully it helps someone.

[mom2ljh]

People know the risks of smoking.  I don't understand why we need to pour money into researching ways to make it safer when it IS a dangerous activity.  If you want to smoke, fine.  You know what you're doing to yourself.
I can agree with a previous poster though in the thought of it benefiting NON smokers who have to be around smokers.  I wonder if this could help benefit those who's right to fresh air is superseded by someone else's right to smoke. Not trying to be bitchy, its just the way it seems to be.  Every day at school I have to walk through numerous gauntlets of smoke to get into the buildings, which is utterly ridiculous.