Over 14 Million Major Medical Conditions Linked To Smoking

Countless studies have shown that cigarette smoking is the number one cause of preventable disease and death worldwide, contributing to a host of serious medical conditions that can be fatal.

Recent findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine reveal that as many as 14 million major medical conditions have been linked to the nasty habit in the United States, alone.

"The disease burden of cigarette smoking in the United States remains immense and updated estimates indicate that COPD may be substantially under-reported in health survey data," researchers noted, in a news release.

After analyzing data from the National Health Interview Survey, researchers found that 6.9 million U.S. adults had a combined 10.9 million self-reported smoking-attributable medical conditions.

They utilized statistics from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of self-reported and spirometry (a test of lung function) to determine a link between 14 million cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2009 to smoking.

"Tobacco control has been called one of the most important health triumphs of the past 50 years," concluded Steven A. Schroeder, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, via an editorial commentary piece. "Yet, although we have come a long way, there is still much more to be done, with the number of smokers worldwide now just short of 1 billion people. The article by Rostron et al is a stark reminder of that unfinished work."