Where there’s smoke there’s not necessarily fire

The observation by Maisonneuve and colleagues 11 that alcoholic pancreatitis develops earlier in smokers than in non-smokers is similar to that reported previously by Bourliere and colleagues. 12 However, both of these studies have been confounded by the fact that compared with non-smokers, a higher proportion of smokers were also heavy drinkers. [...]the groups being compared were potentially different with respect to two variables, alcohol intake and tobacco consumption.