Washington, Feb 2 (Inditop.com) It’s never too late to quit smoking. Research shows saying no to cigarettes, even after a heart attack, can have a positive effect.
A new study from Tel Aviv University (TAU), the largest and most comprehensive of its kind, found that quitting smoking after a heart attack has about the same positive effect as other major interventions such as lipid-lowering agents like statins or more invasive procedures.
“It’s really the most broad and eye-opening study of its kind,” says Yariv Gerber of TAU’s Sackler School of Medicine.
“Smoking really decreases your life expectancy after a heart attack. Those who have never smoked have a 43 percent lower risk of succumbing after a heart attack, compared to the persistent smoker,” adds Gerber.
But even those with a history of smoking can see their risk sharply decline once they give up the habit.
“We found that people who quit smoking after their first heart attack had a 37 percent lower risk of dying from another, compared to those who continued to smoke,” Gerber says.
Researchers looked at data collected by TAU senior cardiologist Yaacov Drory, a professor. The data covered more than 1,500 patients, 65 years old or less, who were discharged from hospitals in 1992 and 1993 in central Israel, all after their first acute myocardial infarction or heart attack that interrupts blood supply to part of the heart, causing some heart cells to die, said a TAU release.
Symptoms are shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, palpitations, sweating and anxiety.
At the time of their first heart attack, 27 percent of the men in the study had never smoked, some 20 percent reported being former smokers, while more than half admitted to being current smokers.
The study results were reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
