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Some Smokers May Not Know They Have Heart Disease Until It Kills Them

Smoking has long been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but a new study suggests that many smokers don’t realize they’re personally at risk until they have a heart attack or stroke.

事实检查
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心脏病是吸烟者死亡的主要原因。 Yulia Reznikov/Getty Images

At least 1 in 5 men and 1 in 10 women who smoke will ultimately die of a cardiovascular disease event like a心脏病发作或者中风, according to a研究于2021年11月发表在美国心脏协会杂志

这些吸烟者中的许多人都看不到它来了。死于心脏病的吸烟者中风are much more likely than nonsmokers to be unaware that they have cardiovascular disease, particularly when they’re young.

研究发现,在二十多岁和三十多岁的年轻人中,吸烟者的可能性至少是非吸烟者死于心脏病发作或中风的可能性的两倍。四十多岁和五十年代的中年成年人患这些突然死亡的风险大约高出80%,而老年人的风险仍然至少增加30%。

“有风险心脏病有时会被认为是不会影响年轻人的东西,而且很长一段时间。”医学博士Sadiya Khan,助理教授和心脏病专家在芝加哥西北大学Feinberg医学院。

汗博士说:“这些结果强调,即使短期接触吸烟也会产生负面影响。”

死亡将成为心血管疾病的第一个迹象的总体风险相对较低。在女性中,这发生在1.6%的年轻吸烟者,四十多岁和五十多岁的吸烟者中,其中4.9%的吸烟者吸烟。在男性中,这发生在1.7%的吸烟年轻人中,其中4.8%的中年吸烟者和6.7%的老年吸烟者。

But more than 34 million U.S. adults smoke cigarettes, and each year more than 480,000 of them die as a result, according to the美国心脏协会

For the new study, researchers examined data on more than 106,000 U.S. adults who were part of nine previously published studies examining how smoking and other lifestyle factors impact cardiovascular health. None of these adults had cardiovascular disease at the start of the studies, which followed participants for 10 to 25 years to see how many of them developed心脏病or experienced events like心脏病或者中风

这项新研究的一个局限性是,在分析中包括的九项研究中,仅在一个时间点评估吸烟,并且有些人可能会戒烟或在以后的生活中戒烟。另一个缺点是,研究人员缺乏有关人们抽烟或每天抽烟数量的数据,这两者都会影响心脏病发作和中风等事件的风险。

有关的:频繁的大麻使用增加了年轻人中风和心律不齐的风险

早期关于吸烟和心血管疾病风险的大部分研究都集中在老年人上。

15年前发表的一项研究循环例如,遵循没有心血管疾病的50岁儿童,以了解哪些因素可能会增加其心脏病发作和中风的风险。吸烟者的心脏事件风险几乎是寿命较短的两倍。

另一项旧研究,发表在新英格兰医学杂志, focused on the lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease events in adults 45 years and older based on smoking status and other major risk factors such as糖尿病,,,,高血压, 和elevated cholesterol levels

只有这些危险因素之一,男性的心脏病发作的终身机会为37.5%,女性为18.3%。男性中风的终身赔率为8.3%,女性为10.7%。All these odds were far higher for smokers than for people who were nonsmokers and had none of the other major risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

吸烟者可能不了解其心血管疾病风险的升高部分是因为还有许多其他因素,包括糖尿病,肥胖,高血压和高胆固醇- 这也可能导致心脏病发作和中风的风险。Judith Prochaska博士,MPH,医学教授和加利福尼亚州斯坦福大学的烟草研究员。

不是“吸烟疾病”

Smokers can more easily grasp the risk of肺癌Prochaska博士说,因为这种联系比心脏病要明确得多。

“吸烟是迄今为止肺癌的主要原因 - 如果不是为了吸烟,肺癌将是一种罕见的疾病。鉴于心脏病有很多原因,只有大约五分之一的心脏病归因于吸烟。”

This means that even though heart disease is the leading cause of death among smokers, it doesn’t get recognized as a “smoking disease” the way lung cancer does, Prochaska says.

The effects of smoking can also take time to accumulate, says詹姆斯·戴维斯(James Davis),医学博士,北卡罗来纳州达勒姆大学杜克大学医学院的副教授,以及杜克大学戒烟计划的主任。

“斑块不稳定”的风险

Smoking does two things that lead to cardiovascular disease, Dr. Davis says. First, smoking increases the development of plaque — deposits of fatty substances and other debris inside arteries. Second, smoking makes plaque more likely toform clots that can block arteriesand cause heart attacks or strokes, a process known as plaque instability.

“A key finding in this study is that at a population level, we see that smoking is associated with an increase in heart attack as the initial symptom of coronary disease,” Davis says. “This is consistent with smoking leading to plaque instability.”

戴维斯说,研究结果还表明,牙菌斑不​​稳定可能不需要数十年的吸烟。取而代之的是,这可能在年轻人中发生,从而增加了心脏病发作或中风的风险增加,这可能是他们的第一个迹象表明他们患有心血管疾病。

但是,好消息是,当人们戒烟,戴维斯说。“经过10至15年不吸烟,一个人的心脏病风险返回看起来像不吸烟者。”