Smoke Gets In Your Genes, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Study

While the iconic singing group "The Platters" crooned that Smoke Gets in Your Eyes in their 1958 hit tune, researchers have now found that smoking actually leaves its "footprint" on the human genome in the form of DNA methylation, according to a new study ("Epigenetic Signatures of Cigarette Smoking") in Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics. The new findings suggest that DNA methylation could be an important sign that reveals an individual's smoking history and could provide researchers with potential targets for new therapies.