Smoking leaves its impression on the human genome

Smoking is hazardous to your health!
American Heart Association found long-lasting impact of smoking on the human genome. DNA methylation, one of the mechanisms of the regulation of gene expression, could be an important sign of person’s smoking history. Smoking-associated DNA methylation sites are associated with more than 7000 genes.
Some methylation sites are linked to genes associated with diseases viz. cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers.
Researchers compared the DNA methylation sites in current and former smokers to those who never smoked. They found that some DNA methylation sites persisted even after 30 years of quitting. The encouraging news is that after quitting smoking, majority of sites return to never smoker levels after 5 years meaning that body tries to heal itself of the harmful impacts of tobacco smoking.