Facts on File Encyclopedia of Health and Medicine

This section, “Lifestyle Variables: Smoking and
Obesity,” presents an overview discussion of
smoking and obesity as they contribute to health
conditions. The entries in this section focus on the
health consequences of smoking and obesity,
including weight management topics. The section
“Nutrition and Diet” features an overview discus-
sion and entries that focus on the broad context of
nutrition and diet in health and the development
of health conditions. Similarly the section “Fit-
ness: Exercise and Health” features an overview
discussion and entries that focus on the broad
context of physical activity in health and the
development of health conditions.

Lifestyle and Smoking

Cigarette smoking attained social status in the
1920s when soldiers returning from World War I
brought their habit home with them. Cigarette
smoking became fashionable across social strata, a
mark of sophistication and success. But as early as
the 1940s doctors recognized that many of their
patients who had heart disease or lung disease,
including LUNG CANCER, were smokers. Numerous
research studies soon confirmed and detailed the
specific health risks of smoking, which are exten-
sive. In 1964 the US Surgeon General released the
landmark report, Smoking and Health: Report of the
Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Pub-
lic Health Service,which presented in fairly stark
detail the known and suspected health conse-

quences of cigarette smoking. The report’s publi-

cation was a wake-up call for doctors as well as

the general public, nearly 45 percent of whom

were smokers.

Over the next 40 years concerted education

efforts resulted in cutting the number of smokers

nearly in half. However, the health consequences

of smoking skyrocketed. CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

(CVD) became the leading cause of death, and ciga-

rette smoking was identified as the leading cause

of CVD. Lung cancer became the leading cause of

death from cancer, and cigarette smoking was

identified as the leading cause of lung cancer.

Over the decades, research unequivocally

linked cigarette smoking with oral cancer, laryn-

geal cancer, ESOPHAGEAL CANCER, PANCREATIC CANCER,

BLADDER CANCER, PROSTATE CANCER, RENAL CANCER,

STOMACH CANCER, and LIVER CANCER. Cigarette

smoking proved responsible for most nonallergic

ASTHMA, CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE

(COPD), and chronic BRONCHITIS. Researchers also

affirmed that ENVIRONMENTAL CIGARETTE SMOKE(sec-

ondhand smoke) caused these same health condi-

tions in nonsmokers and was also responsible for

most chronic upper respiratory conditions in chil-

dren.

By the early 2000s many cities in the United

States outlawed cigarette smoking in public build-

ings and restaurants went smoke-free or estab-

lished separate dining areas for smokers and

nonsmokers. Hospitals also banned smoking. By

LIFESTYLE VARIABLES:

SMOKING AND OBESITY

The two lifestyle variables that have emerged in recent years as the key causes of preventable disease are smoking and
OBESITY. Each represents a complex mingling of contributory factors, many within the reach of individual control.
These variables span health-care specialties; practitioners in nearly all fields of medicine address health issues that
derive from either or both. Between them, smoking and obesity account for nearly all preventable HEARTdisease and
many types of cancer.

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