how can a woman who has smoked since age 16 (she's 74 now and still puffin a pack a day) not have cancer?

Question

or other issues? My mother in law has smoked since she was 16 and she is 74 and smokes almost 2 packs a day. I know cause we buy them for her daily. (not with our money, she too feable to go in the store).

She takes all kinds of heart pills, vitamin e, is on oxygen at night and during the day sometimes. I do not get how someone that has smoked that long and smokes 2 packs a day does not have cancer. She does have a collapsed left lung and copd and emphezyma, but that is it and still smokes. Goes to the emergency room once a month for "breathing problems".

My uncle has smoked since he was 15 and has had 1 triple bypass, has large cell lung cancer, his right lung has collapsed already, is only 46, and is in the hospital now to get cured of pneumonia that he has had for 2 months. I dont get it. People who get cancer must have to have the gene, what do you think?

Answer 1

Cancer has been proven time and again to be hereditary (Genes). Sometimes there are other factors such as radiation exposure or chemicals.

Answer 2

Well all I can tell byou is from oersonal experience and family history. My mom is 63, smoked for half that time, no signs of being a smoker. though your mom shows signs of being a smoker, she may have a healthy enough diet that is preventing the cancer itself. My mother's lings, etc do no t show signs of being a smoker. I have been exposed since i was a baby, and I have smoked snce I was about 12. I have a chronic illness, so My lungs are`chekecd almost every 6 months, mine dont even indicate I am one. or even any exposure. even with Lupus. Some people who never smoke get it, some who do never get it. There is a genetic compononent to all cancers. also diet palys a role, if she eats foods rich in antioxidents, even with her other issues, she may not die of cancer per-say, but of other ocmplicaitons..
She does have empasyma and breathing problems, and seemingly copd. if told that i would quit. I know, with all the antioxident I take in, lung cancer is the least of my worries. I also know a woman my age 40, with copd. so genetics depends a lot. Not all smokers get cancer.

even for her length of time, the likelyhood is low, and i she does, it would still give her a few years. Cancer, of anytype, is hit and miss, in my family lets say, they do not die of cancers, but of old age, or alzheimers. Your right, it is a gene that may trigger the cancer, she just dosnet have it, however, the smoking, has cause severe damage and she should quit. I have an autoimmune disease, which can attack anything, but heart and lungs always look very good, whic suprises me to no end. What will happen when I am 60 or 70, no clue, but that paticular cancer gene does not seem to be present.

I have also seemed to notice that its usually the ones that quit, who after a few years, seem to develope lung cancer. Its all very strange. so there is no real cut and dry answer. Luck and God may be with her, but emphysema may still get her, as well as COPD, if severe. The reality, like many illnesses, lung cancer is luck or unluck of the draw. I am 40 years of exposure, my own and second hand smoke, why does it show, Ive never been exposed a day in my life? Its all a mystery. so is why your mom has not developed it yet. other then that I have no explanation, then luck, genetics, and an obiovious, non-predempsidy ( im a poor dpeller sorry), to mot getting, cancers.

Good luck with you and her. she sounds like a spit-fire
Chris

Answer 3

It's the luck of the draw! I've got eschemic heart disease (probably from smoking) at age 48. Nothing like a stent in your artery to get you to stop!! Just imagine how healthy your mother in law would be if she didn't smoke!! My mum is also 74, hasn't smoked for about 10 years. She's out and about all the time. There is nothing that she can't do!! Don't let your mother-in-law's situation fool you into thinking that smoking is OK, 'cause it's really not!!

Answer 4

How can you say she doesn't have "other issues"?

She has heart problems (you mention the heart pills), emphysema which requires oxygen, and a collapsed lung.

She may have dodged the lung cancer bullet until now, but she most definitely has issues related to her smoking. And, she could develop lung cancer tomorrow.

Answer 5

There is no hard and fast rule in these things. Smoking is a big risk factor but every rule has an exception. Statistics talk of populations and averages but not of individuals. Your mother-in-law is just lucky and let her enjoy her smoke as long as she can.

Your uncle is in a way fortunate since he will be forced to give up smoking and adopt a healthy life style in general.

Answer 6

I think you have hit the nail on the head. I believe some of us are luckier than others and its our genitic make up that protects or submits us to certain conditions.
I think ma is lucky to be alive puffing two packs a day. at 74 dont harrass her about it. You cant change a lifetime habit and if she dies from doing it then she is dying happily.

Answer 7

We don't know.

Ask the world's foremost lung cancer expert and you won't get a solid answer, what do you think you're gonna get from Yahoo, Honestly?

Answer 8

this is something you call luck. my granddad was smoking two cigarettes every day from 14 to 93 years old. he eventually died of old age.

Answer 9

You just never know - why have some people who eat healthy, excercise every day suddenly die while jogging? You just never know when your time is up.

Answer 10

Anybody who is buying her the stuff is cruel, since she can't get it herself.