The benefits of smoking in skin diseases

Abstract

Cigarette smoking is now the chief avoidable cause of illness and death in the Western world, responsible for one of every five deaths each year. In contrast to its many adverse effects, cigarette smoking might actually be of some benefit in certain diseases. Although the hazards of cigarette smoking in various organ systems have been extensively studied for the past 20 years, the beneficial effects of this habit have received little attention. This is clearly reflected throughout this special issue of Clinics in Dermatology, in which all the chapters are devoted to the adverse effects of smoking in contrast to our lone chapter on its possible beneficial effects. There seems to be a kind of wistfulness to hear something good on smoking, not only on the part of smokers who are under constant pressure to give up their habit, but also on the part of scientists and researchers who are interested in the topic. Revealing the beneficial effects of smoking is not intended to encourage people to smoke or to release them from any pressures to discontinue their habit. Rather, knowledge of the positive effects of smoking on skin diseases is important not only because it might unlock the door to a better understanding of their causes and pathogenesis, but it might also lead to a better understanding of all the effects of smoking, both the good and the bad. Although some of the beneficial effects of smoking have been mentioned in various chapters of this issue of Clinics, concentrating them in a single chapter will provide a more composite picture of what is involved. Moreover, a discussion of the ill effects of smoking would be both incomplete and unbalanced without an attempt to present the other side of the coin, even though, in light of the facts, this will not be a simple undertaking.