More bad news for smokers – even light smokers....

Today's Post: Friday, 10-30-2009

Two days ago on Wednesday, 10-28-2009, HealthDay News had a story with this headline.:

“Even Light Smoking Affects Young Adults' Arteries” & this subtitle.:

“Smoking just one cigarette stiffens the arteries of young adults by 25 percent,
says a new study.”

The researcher who did the study noted that the stiffer a person's arteries, the greater their risk for heart disease & stroke.

(This is because the stiffer a person's arteries the higher their blood pressure. And high blood pressure tends to trigger or make worse heart attacks, strokes, and kidney disease. And, that effect is made worse when not only are your arteries made worse by this stiffening effect, build- up of arterial plaque on the inside of your arteries makes less space for your blood to circulate and your arteries even stiffer. Tobacco smoke reliably causes and accelerates plaque build-up too.)

The researcher who did the study, Dr. Stella Daskalopoulou, an internal medicine and vascular medicine specialist at McGill University Health Center in Montreal, measured arterial stiffness in smokers and non-smokers, ages 18 to 30, at rest and after exercise.

To establish a baseline measure, the smokers, who smoked five to six cigarettes a day, were asked to refrain from having a cigarette for 12 hours before their first exercise test.

Before the second exercise test, smokers were allowed to have one cigarette. Before the final test, they were asked to chew a piece of nicotine gum.

After exercise, arterial stiffness in non-smokers decreased 3.6 percent. (It went DOWN.)

But the smokers' arterial stiffness increased 2.2 percent after exercise. (It went UP.)

In smokers, arterial stiffness increased 12.6 percent after they chewed nicotine gum and 24.5 percent after they had one cigarette.

There was no difference in arterial stiffness between smokers and non-smokers at rest.

That means that even smoking as little as 5 cigarettes a day is dangerous.

"Even in otherwise young healthy people who smoke very little, their ability to safely things to respond to respond to physical stress, “such as climbing a set of stairs or running to catch a bus," she said."

She found that this occurs even in young people long before they have the additional damage of their arteries their arteries that causes them to be less flexible at rest & compromises the ability of their bodies to cope with physical stress was compromised, “such as climbing a set of stairs or running to catch a bus," That also means that if they do vigorous exercise for any health reason or particularly if they participate in any kind of athletic competition, their safety is at risk

Her study was scheduled to be presented Oct. 27 at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009. (And, since the story was dated a day later, it probably was.)

This study is far more important than the reporter may have realized because of its many implications.

For example, on of the key reasons why smokers don’t try to quit or fail when they do is that they haven’t a clue they are actually being damaged RIGHT NOW and FOR SURE instead of the “maybe not” and “sometime later if at all” most of them now believe is the case.

That’s particularly the case for young smokers. So in addition, to being able to show smokers and young smokers their ability to breathe has become similar to much older people and their homocysteine and other heart disease risk indicators are already elevated into the danger zone from their smoking right now and for sure, we have this additional new indicator we can show them.

Next, many of the people who don’t try to quit smoking are those who smoke about 5 cigarettes a day as they think they are not being harmed. This test can be used to show them they are quite wrong and putting their safety at risk.

This also means that coaches and gym teachers should ask any of the children, teenagers, or adults ahead of time that are thinking of participating if they smoke at all or are exposed to second hand smoke. If they are, at the very least they should get the disclosure they would be at extra risk if they chose to participate due to this effect.

Lastly, second hand smoke, particularly second hand smoke you are exposed to regularly, was long thought to be relatively harmless. This study is one of many that shows that even small amounts of second hand smoke occasionally is not safe and should be outlawed and avoided by people who value their health.

So, for anyone that makes public policy on exposure to second hand smoke, anyone who still smokes even if only 5 cigarettes a day or so, any young person who smokes, any doctor who wants his or her patients to stay well, AND any smoker who is trying to quit, should know of this study.

It’s that important.