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Why Smokers Should Quit?
 

Being one of the most significant risk factor for many chronic health ailments including heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure) and lung cancer, tobacco-smoking kills almost 6 million people a year. It is a bad habit that smokers should quit.

Stop smoking means nicotine withdrawal that will be accompanied with symptoms including feeling down or sad, slower heart rate, feeling restless and jumpy, having trouble sleeping and having trouble thinking clearly and concentrating. Some smokers might even gain weight that will raise their cardiovascular risks. Perhaps that is why many smokers who want to quit yet put their plan on hold.

However, a study conducted by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston University and Harvard Clinical Research Institute suggested that post-smoking weight gain would not increase smokers’ risk of cardiovascular disease or death even they had diabetes.

They pointed out in a paper published on March 13, 2013 in the ‘Journal of the American Medical Association’ that people without diabetes who stopped smoking reduced their risk for heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death by about 50 percent. The reduction in risk did not change with gaining weight. Diabetics who were ex-smokers had the same reduction in risk regardless of how much weight they gained.

Data on 3,251 people enrolled in the Offspring Cohort of the landmark Framingham Heart Study were analyzed. Since 1971, people in the Offspring Cohort underwent regular physical examinations when they were weighed, their body mass index (BMI) was calculated, their cholesterol and blood glucose levels were measured and their smoking habits were recorded.

Smokers, nonsmokers and long-term quitters (those who had stopped smoking for 4 or more years) were found to gain an average of 1 to 2 pounds between study visits that occurred every 4 years. Recent quitters (those who had quit within the previous 4 years) gained about 5 to 10 pounds.

At their first examination, 31 percent of people in the study smoked and by the fourth examination, about 13 percent did. Among people who were non-diabetics gained nearly 6 pounds while long-term quitters gained about 3 pounds and smokers gained about 1 pound. Among diabetics, recent quitters gained nearly 8 pounds on average while smokers gained nearly 2 pounds, non-smoker gained 1 pound but long-term quitters did not gain weight.

During about 25 years of follow-up, it was found that 631 cardiovascular events had occurred: 337 (53.4 percent) were heart attacks and 147 (23.3 percent) were strokes. Among non-diabetics, recent quitters were 37 percent less likely to have a heart attack; long-term quitters were 68 percent less likely; and nonsmokers were 81 percent less likely. Among diabetics, recent and long-term quitters were 60 percent less likely than smokers to suffer a heart attack; and nonsmokers were 85 percent less likely.

According to researchers, only 3 of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease (diabetes, smoking, hypertension, high cholesterol and age) are influenced by weight gain. People who gain weight tend to have a higher blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

People who quit smoking typically gain between about 7 to 13 pounds within the first 6 months. For each 5-unit rise in BMI, the risk of death from cardiovascular disease increases by 40 percent. This is equivalent to a weight gain of 30 pounds for a person who is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 180 pounds.

But in the study, the weight gain was not so huge. The study participants gained just a few pounds in the middle distribution of weight from heavy to a little heavier. Undoubtedly, the most significant risk factor for heart attack or stroke is still smoking. The elevated blood pressure, blood sugar or cholesterol levels because of a little weight gain can hardly harmful enough to overcome the benefits of not smoking.

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