Smoking just one cigarette stiffens the arteries of young adults by 25 percent, says a new study.
The stiffer a person’s arteries, the greater their risk for heart disease or stroke, noted researcher Dr. Stella Daskalopoulou, an internal medicine and vascular medicine specialist at McGill University Health Center in Montreal.
She measured arterial stiffness in smokers and non-smokers, ages 18 to 30, at rest and after exercise. To establish a baseline measurement, 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. But the smokers’ arterial stiffness increased 2.2 percent after exercise. 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.
“Our results are significant because they suggest that smoking just a few cigarettes a day impacts the health of the arteries,” Daskalopoulou said in a news release from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. “This was revealed very clearly when these young people were placed under physical stress, such as exercise.”
“In effect, this means that even light smoking in otherwise young healthy people can damage the arteries, compromising the ability of their bodies to cope with physical stress, such as climbing a set of stairs or running to catch a bus,” she said. “It seems that this compromise to respond to physical stress occurs first, before the damage of the arteries becomes evident at rest.”
The study was to be presented Oct. 27 at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009.
(YWN Desk – NYC)
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4 Responses
An “arterial stiffness” increase of 25% after smoking one cigarette? Sounds pretty serious. Maybe they should be banned.
On the other hand, a study in the July 2009 Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that subjects having a breakfast of corn flakes suffered a 160% greater change in another important heart disease measure, Flow Mediated Dilation, than those breakfasting on simple water.
The water group showed a decrease of 1.33% while the KillerKornFlakers showed a decrease of 3.46%. (From private communication with study authors). The Corn-Chompers’ decrease was 160% greater than the Water-Woozlers.
For some strange, arcane, mystical, supercalifragilistic reason, something makes me think that this “One Cigarette Is Deadly” study may just possibly be biased a bit toward producing and promoting a certain desired scary perception.
Next week’s headline: “Seeing Someone Smoke (SSS) Can Give Antismokers A Heart Attack.”
{It’s true you know! Why? Because we SAID so!}
Michael J. McFadden
Author of “Dissecting Antismokers Brains”
Keep smoking McFadden and coming up with cutsie medical “facts” to make yourself feel better about it. As they say “ITS YOUR FUNERAL”!!!
Excellent article. For some reason the evilness of cigarettes is just not permeating our community like it should. Too many feel it is a “permissible” little vice because it’s relaxing etc. Nonsense! Smoking much be realized in our community for what it is: a severe sakana.
Interesting, when we all know that Eretz Yisrael in general, and Israeli yeshiva bachurim in particular, have a reputation for heavy smoking that…. The Gedolim in Eretz Yisrael basically banned smoking on YomTov a few years ago. They based the ban on the fact that although previously the heter was based on the same heter that allows cooking on YomTov, it has now become well known that smoking is not only NOT something that everyone does and needs (like eating), -ad’raba, it is actually something extremely BAD for everyone and therefore does NOT fit into that heter. For some reason, this p’sak has not gotten much P.R. here in the U.S. -perhaps because it is feared it wont be accepted(?)