Smoking Health Effects

Major Heart Attack Risk Eight Times Higher In Young Adult Smokers.

All smokers are at much greater risk, but younger smokers are particularly vulnerable and are over
eight times more likely to have a major heart attack than their non-smoking peers. An awareness of
this strikingly higher risk is an essential public health message.
Reesarcher, Dr.added that many people underestimate the health risks associated with smoking.
“Many patients seem aware there are some risks of a heart attack with smoking, but they were blissfully
unaware that the risks were anything more than slightly higher than usual.”

The study analyzed data collected from 1,727 adults undergoing treatment for a type of heart attack
known as a ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction from 2009 to 2012. A STEMI is the typical pattern
seen on the electrocardiogram indicating that a large portion of the heart muscle is dying. Close to half
of the 1,727 adults (48.5 percent) were current smokers, over 27 percent gave up smoking and just
over 24 percent never smoked.

Researchers also used data from the Office for National Statistics Integrated Household Survey, for
the South Yorkshire region that collects information on the prevalence of smoking in the region.
The researchers found that smokers under the age of 50 are the most vulnerable across all age group
of smokers with their chances of suffering a heart attack being eight times higher than non-smokers.

Researchers also found that smokers between 50- 60 years of age were five times as likely to have
a major heart attack whereas smokers over the age of 65 have a three-fold increase in risk compared
to non-smokers.

“All current smokers must be encouraged into smoking cessation therapy to reduce their risk of acute
cardiac infarction, with a focus on the youngest smokers whose increased risk is often unrecognized,”
Dr. Grech said in the statement.

Source: Journal Heart 29 Novmber 2016

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