How Second Hand Smoking Causes Liver Diseases By Samuel Peterson At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Research has revealed that non alcoholic fatty liver diseases can be caused by second hand smoking. NAFLD is a very common disease and causes injury to the liver. In the disease fat accumulates in the liver of those who drink less or no alcohol.

NAFLD is caused by exposure to second hand smoking and this eventually leads to the dysfunction of the liver. Human cells have two fat regulators which control lipid or fat metabolism. The tow regulators are Sterol Regulatory Element binding protein or SREBP which increases the synthesis of fatty acids in the liver and the second regulator is AMPK, i.e. Adenosine Monophosphate Kinase which turns the SREBP on and off.

Second hand smoking reduces the activity of AMPK which increases the activity of SREBP. More fatty acids get synthesized in the body when SREBP increases and this result in NAFLD. Exposure to tobacco is a big reason to develop NAFLD. The study also reveals a new aspect that AMPK and SREBP levels can help to reverse the effects of NAFLD which is caused by passive smoking. This means that drugs can be developed which increase the levels of AMPK and thus reduce levels of SREBP which would lead to reduces levels of production of fatty acids in the liver.

The study now shows that with reduced levels of smoking one can control heart diseases, cancer, pulmonary diseases and also liver diseases. Passive smoking combines the smoke exhaled by a smoker and the smoke emitted from the burning end of the tobacco product. The smoke that is emitted while smoking and is inhaled by non smokers is a harmful toxicant that is said to affect children and also the elderly. This is one of the main reasons that smoking has been prohibited by the government in public places. The diseases that passive smoking causes are heart ailments, cancer, atherosclerosis, asthma and bronchitis.

Many studies in the past have shown the disastrous effects passive smoking can have on breathing and heart diseases but there are very few which talk about the liver ailments like NAFLD that it causes. NAFLD is said to be victimising many patients but the new finding that it can be caused by second hand smoking are new and eye opening. Second hand smoking results is liver fibrosis.

Many findings reveal that smoke and alcohol affect the health adversely but the combined effects of both when consumed together are all the more disastrous. Consumption of both alcohol and cigarettes results in fibrosis of the liver. Fibrosis is a tissue in the liver and this leads to cirrhosis. Passive smoking kills about 53,000 non smoking people in America as it causes diseases like lung cancer, low birth weight, heart diseases, and lung ailments and as per the new study also liver problems like NAFLD.

The new studies are truly an eye opener both for smokers and non smokers. For smokers to show apart from running their life they cause problems to the others around them and for non smokers to know how smoking can affect them even if they do not smoke.

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