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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Quit Smoking To Reduce Heart Disease Risk! Smoking not only causes cancer and chronic lung disease but also one of the top-rated risk factors for heart disease. In the United States, about 33 percent of smoking-related deaths are due to heart disease, and every year, smoking kills about 120,000 people in the United Kingdom. Smoking is believed to be the single most preventable cause of early death in the world. A study published on February 1, 2010 in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 50 percent of the 400,000 deaths from coronary heart disease predicted in the United States in 2010 could be avoided if people could eat healthier food and quit smoking. In other words, the proportion of smokers should be reduced from 25 percent to 12 percent. The study, which was on cardiovascular risk factors, also highlighted positive effect measures that could reduce the risk of developing heart disease, stroke or diabetes. These include avoiding cigarette smoking, adopting health diet, and exercising regularly. Researchers also stated that cardiovascular health has significantly improved since the 1970s because of reduction in bad cholesterol, smoking and increased physical activity. However, the hike of obesity rate has somehow pulled back the positive trend. The report also cautioned that almost a billion adults are overweight worldwide, and the number would cross 1.5 billion by 2015 if no effective action were taken now.
Meanwhile, researchers from University of Wisconsin-Madison found that a smoker’s arteries, a year after quitting smoking, showed signs of reversing a problem that was supposed to lead to heart disease. Stop smoking has been known to lower the risk of getting or dying of lung cancer. But, this is the very first major study to show stop smoking could quickly improve the artery health. Its findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and presented at the group’s annual conference on March 15, 2010. Though the smokers gained an average of 4 kilos after they stopped smoking, their levels of good cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein or HDL in short) also improved in addition to the improvement in artery. The study involved more than 1,500 individuals in Madison and Milwaukee. These smokers were divided into 6 groups. Each of the first 5 groups was given one of the 5 methods to help them stop smoking, namely nicotine patches, nicotine lozenges, drug bupropion, sold as Wellbutrin and Zyban, or a combination of patches and lozenges or drug and lozenges while the sixth group received a dummy treatment. 36 percent of the smokers quitted after a year, irrespective of which method they used. Ultrasound tests were performed to examine how well blood vessel linings relaxed and handled blood flow before the study started and one year after smokers quitted. Comparison of the 2 results showed that the artery function improved 1 percent in the smoking quitters. Though the improvement seems rather small, it actually translates to a 14 percent lower risk of developing heart disease. For the public health bodies, changing people’s behavior has always been a major challenge. And, it is never easy to persuade die-hard smokers to quit smoking. It is hoped that the findings of this study could help convince smokers who are thinking about quitting: they could quickly improve their cardiovascular health if they quit smoking! Some smokers do not want to stop smoking simply because they fear that they could gain weight, as showed in the study. This should not be a big issue if they looked at the benefit (improvement in artery health) they would get. After all, the extra kilos gained would hopefully be lost once they have gotten used to not smoking, according to the researchers.
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