Cigarettes stop colon disease?

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 5

Cigarettes stop colon disease?

NZPA-Reuter Boston Smokers are three times less likely to suffer from a troublesome inflammation of the colon, known as ulcerative colitis, than nonsmokers. according to a report in the "New England Journal of Medicine." The Boston physicians who wrote the study said that more research must be done before anyone could say with certainty that cigarette smoking prevented the disease or alleviated its symptoms. This view was supported by Dr John Bailar. a statistical consultant for the journal. who said that the proved dangers of smoking appeared far to outweigh this relatively unproved benefit. The study, by Dr Herschel Jick, of the Boston University Medical Centre, and Dr Alexander Walker, of the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute. compiled data from the two surveys that included 239 patients with ulcerative colitis. in which an inflammation begins eating away at the rectum and colon.’ Its cause is unknown.