So I've been cutting down on cigarettes lately and I came up with an interesting theory. Almost all my family members were heavy smokers in the past, yet they are living into their late 70's, early 80's without significant health issues. Could our bodies "evolve" a sort of "resistance" to the harmful effects of tobacco with each generation that passes? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't evolution supposed to help us adapt to less than ideal situations (it being cigarettes) with each generation of offspring? What do you guys think?
Yes, it could be possible. Cancer doesn't make sense to me, some people can get it in a year some not in 70..
Well my father was a smoker up until we moved house when I was like 1, I smoke and my grandfather (RIP) was a smoker, so I think it could be possible. Maybe it will depend if you're from a family that does.
I believe it's all the extra crap that causes the most damage. Our parents smoked pure tobacco. Not like we get today. I also think that the evolution thing would take a bit longer than 2 or 3 generations.
interesting thoery, mush is problably right though, it would prob take a little longer to notice any real adaption/resistance. who knows though, some people dont even smoke and get lung cancer....its luck of the draw. just gotta hope you get dealt aces in the game of life...
Thats a hypothesis not a theory. Use your science words correctly if your gonna use um. And no unless you think Lamarkian evolution is a good explanation. That would mean giraffes got long necks cause there ancestors liked to use their necks alot. No the only way evolution could play a part is if one of your ancestors had like 7 kids, and they all smoked, 5 died young (and didn't reporduce) and the other two reproduced and then they did that for a few generations. The ones that survived would theoretically have some sort of gene that made them not get cancer or whatever, but then again they might have survived for other reasons also, so no.
i dont think we will be able to evolve to become resistant. evolution works by "survival of the fittest" which is basically the ones with the good genes (i.e dont get cancer from smoking) being passed on to the next generation, but people who do get cancer smoking still have kids before they die, so their genes (the "bad" one) are passed on.
it takes more than a few generations. im talking before your family name came into existence... wayyyyy before.
This would be awesome but that is not how natural selection really works. Smoking and cancer would be examples of acquired characteristics which would not be passed on genetically, unless one of your ancesters was born with a genetic mutation that prevented them from the harmful effects of tobacco.