Smoking only about one cigarette per day carries a greater risk of coronary heart disease and stroke that is much larger than expected and about half of it.
Almost everyone knows that smoking can be bad for health. But unfortunately, some people still do it. Smoking is often associated with a large number of health problems, such as asthma, lung disease, stroke, and cancer.
And a recent study published in The BMJ suggests that it does not take much smoking to affect your heart health.
For the study, the researchers analyzed 141 study groups from 1946 to 2015 on smoking and heart disease to try to find out how many cigarettes a day are needed to increase your risk of heart disease and stroke.
The researchers divided the groups into people who smoked one, five, or 20 cigarettes a day and compared them to people who never smoked.
And the result is smoking as much as one cigarette every day can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke significantly.
For men, smoking one cigarette a day increases the risk of heart disease by an average of 48 percent compared to nonsmokers, while smoking 20 cigarettes a day doubles the risk.
Even worse for women: Smoking one cigarette every day increases the risk of heart disease by 57 percent, while smoking 20 cigarettes a day increases the risk by 2.8 times.
Heart disease is currently the number 1 cause of death in the United States, per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and stroke is not far adrift.
Researchers point out that while it is good to reduce smoking if you are a heavy smoker, it is far better to cut the smoking habit completely.
"Smoking just about one cigarette per day carries a significantly greater risk of coronary heart disease and stroke than expected and about half of it for people who smoke 20 per day," the researchers wrote in the study. "There is no safe level of smoking for cardiovascular disease."
Kenneth Johnson, a professor of public health at the University of Ottawa, writes that exposure to secondhand smoke is "too much." If you rethink your smoking habits or try to encourage a loved one to smoke, know that you will have a far better impact on your health if you actually stop the habit.
Almost everyone knows that smoking can be bad for health. But unfortunately, some people still do it. Smoking is often associated with a large number of health problems, such as asthma, lung disease, stroke, and cancer.
And a recent study published in The BMJ suggests that it does not take much smoking to affect your heart health.
 |
| Smoking only one cigarette per day carries a greater risk of coronary heart disease and stroke that is much larger than expected and about half of it. |
For the study, the researchers analyzed 141 study groups from 1946 to 2015 on smoking and heart disease to try to find out how many cigarettes a day are needed to increase your risk of heart disease and stroke.
The researchers divided the groups into people who smoked one, five, or 20 cigarettes a day and compared them to people who never smoked.
And the result is smoking as much as one cigarette every day can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke significantly.
For men, smoking one cigarette a day increases the risk of heart disease by an average of 48 percent compared to nonsmokers, while smoking 20 cigarettes a day doubles the risk.
Even worse for women: Smoking one cigarette every day increases the risk of heart disease by 57 percent, while smoking 20 cigarettes a day increases the risk by 2.8 times.
Heart disease is currently the number 1 cause of death in the United States, per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and stroke is not far adrift.
Researchers point out that while it is good to reduce smoking if you are a heavy smoker, it is far better to cut the smoking habit completely.
"Smoking just about one cigarette per day carries a significantly greater risk of coronary heart disease and stroke than expected and about half of it for people who smoke 20 per day," the researchers wrote in the study. "There is no safe level of smoking for cardiovascular disease."
Kenneth Johnson, a professor of public health at the University of Ottawa, writes that exposure to secondhand smoke is "too much." If you rethink your smoking habits or try to encourage a loved one to smoke, know that you will have a far better impact on your health if you actually stop the habit.
Comments
Post a Comment