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THURSDAY, Sept. 17, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
Smokers<\/a> have a significantly raised risk of dying from a bleeding stroke<\/a>, a new study warns.<\/p>\n For the study, researchers analyzed data from over 16,000 same-sex twin pairs in Finland. The twins were born before 1958 and followed for about 42 years (between 1976 and 2018).<\/p>\n During the follow-up, there were 120 deaths from subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). This is a type of bleeding stroke<\/a> that occurs under the membrane that covers the brain. The median age at death was about 61.<\/p>\n Compared to nonsmokers, the risk of fatal bleeding in the brain was three times higher among heavy and moderate smokers<\/a>, and 2.8 times higher among light smokers.<\/p>\n The findings were published Sept. 17 in the journal Stroke<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n “Our study provides further evidence about the link between smoking<\/a> and bleeding in the brain,” co-author Ilari Rautalin said in a journal news release. Rautalin is a sixth-year medical and Ph.D. student at the University of Helsinki in Finland.<\/p>\n Unlike previous research, this study found that high blood pressure<\/a>, lower levels of physical activity and being female weren’t significant factors in the risk of a fatal brain bleed.<\/p>\n The paper didn’t have data on nonfatal cases. And the researchers couldn’t assess the impact of previous smoking<\/a> on these brain bleeds, because former smokers and never smokers were combined in the nonsmoking category.<\/p>\n Still, “this long-term study in twins helps to confirm the link between subarachnoid hemorrhage and smoking<\/a>,” said Dr. Rose Marie Robertson, deputy chief science and medical officer of the American Heart<\/a> Association (AHA).<\/p>\n “Not smoking<\/a>, or quitting if you’ve already started, is an essential component of primary prevention<\/a>,” added Robertson, co-director of the AHA Tobacco Center for Regulatory Science. She was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n A previous study of nearly 80,000 twins in Denmark, Finland and Sweden suggested that external risk factors, such as smoking<\/a>, have a much greater influence on subarachnoid hemorrhage than genetics.<\/p>\n — Robert Preidt<\/p>\n![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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