Every year, more than 400,000 Americans die of illnesses related to their smoking, and so do thousands of non-smokers who have been exposed to secondhand smoke—a combination of smoke that comes from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar or pipe and the smoke exhaled by the smoker. Non-smokers who breathe in secondhand smoke take in the same toxic chemicals that smokers do, including more than 50 substances that are known to cause cancer in humans or animals. The more secondhand smoke a person is exposed to, the higher the level of these harmful chemicals in their body. For adults, the health effects of exposure to secondhand smoke include respiratory tract infections, lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer and heart disease.
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Most Americans don’t stop to find out if their favorite pizza or that yummy chocolate chip cookie contains a type of protein called gluten, but for someone with celiac disease (CD), it is a big concern. When a person who has CD eats foods containing gluten, their immune system responds by attacking the small intestine, destroying the intestinal villi, thus inhibiting the absorption of important nutrients and depriving the body of nourishment. Left undiagnosed and untreated, CD can lead to weight loss, anemia, osteoporosis, infertility, neurological issues and an increased risk of developing cancer. Symptomatic CD is also associated with an increased mortality rate two to four times that of the general population, but a new study shows that even those with latent or less severe degrees of the disease are at a higher risk of death.
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