DENVER – Cigarette smoke is not good for you: we all know that. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 400,000 deaths can be directly attributed to smoking every year. Overall, 1 in 5 deaths are smoking related in one way or another. Smoking related cancers rose steadily between 1960 and 1990, with deaths from lung cancer increasing more than 400%. The research is clearly stacked up in opposition to smoking.

However, there hasn’t been any specific research on how cigarette smoke affects allergy. Since smoking suppresses the immune system, researchers went looking for a connection to allergies, expecting to find that cigarette smoke actually increases your chance of having them.

The resulting study looked at over 1,000 individuals and followed them from birth to adulthood, which ensured that long-term effects were observed. The study looked at two kinds of exposure: exposure to smoke as a child (passive smoking), as well as active smoking in adolescents and adults.

Interestingly enough, both active and passive smoking was associated with reduced incidence of allergy development in people with a family history! Smoking was not an actual treatment for allergies, though. If you already had allergies by age 13, smoking didn’t reverse the condition.

Researchers believe that the immune-suppressant effects of cigarette smoke is behind this surprising result, but the actual way in which the cigarette smoke is accomplishing this is unknown.

The study is not an endorsement of smoking. Keep in mind that individuals who have allergies may be much more sensitive to cigarette smoke, especially if they have allergies to airborne irritants. In fact, if you have existing allergies, research shows that smoking may aggravate them. 

Asthmatic family members could find breathing problems triggered by smoke. Cigarette smoke may also reduce the effectiveness of your steroid asthma medication. Another potential problem with smoking is that your spouse and children could have more respiratory infections of all kinds.

So, while the findings are intriguing as to the connection between allergies and cigarette smoke, the study should not be taken as a reason to smoke.

(Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology)