CIGARETTE SMOKE THE KILLER: VITAMIN C THE HEALER*

摘要

Cigarette smoking is the greatest single cause of various life-threatening diseases including cancer of the lung and other organs, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cardiovascular disease. Smoking results in death or disability for half of all people who continue to smoke. Besides mortality and morbidity smoking results in loss of billions of dollars due to loss of productivity and healthcare expenditure. The best and simplest way of prevention of smoke-induced diseases is to quit smoking. However, it has been unachievable because smokers are unable to kick the habit. We consider that an alternative way for prevention of cigarette smoke (CS)-induced diseases is to identify the disease-relevant chemical(s) in CS and inactivate it. We have observed that p-benzoquinone derived from cigarette smoke is a causative factor for smoke-induced pathogeneses. In this review we show that vitamin C, a strong antagonist of p-benzoquinone, prevents CS-induced various diseases.