Smoking
| The dangers of tobacco smoking are being increasingly recognized and discussed. This has likely led to the 47% decrease in smoking among US adults since 1965.2 Most people now recognize the pulmonary hazards of smoking (eg, lung cancer and emphysema), but smoking also has many other serious deleterious effects, including cardiovascular effects, which may not be as widely recognized among the general public. According to the Centers for Disease Control, cigarette smokers are 2 to 4 times more likely to develop CHD than nonsmokers and have a 2- to 3-fold increased risk of dying from CHD.2 Current cigarette smoking is a powerful independent predictor of sudden cardiac death among patients with CAD.51 Smoking also doubles a person's risk for stroke. On average, women who smoke die 14.5 years earlier than their nonsmoking counterparts.2 According to a report of the Surgeon General, a study of women younger than 44 years found a strong dose relationship between smoking and MI, with a risk of 2.5 (compared with nonsmokers) for those who smoke 1 to 5 cigarettes daily and 74.6 for those who smoke >40 cigarettes daily.2 In another study of females who smoke, the highest risk for MI (6.8) was among women younger than age 55.2 |
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