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THURSDAY, July 16, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
If you’re a smoker under 50 and you suffer a heart attack<\/a>, new research suggests kicking the habit may be the best thing you can do to still be around years later.<\/p>\n “These results are definitive: among young people who have had a heart<\/a> attack, quitting smoking<\/a> is associated with a substantial benefit,” said corresponding author Dr. Ron Blankstein, from the division of cardiovascular medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.<\/p>\n “In cardiology, we are always looking for ways to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, be it in the form of new medications or other interventions,” he said in a hospital news release.<\/p>\n “Our findings show the dramatic magnitude of the effect that quitting smoking<\/a> can have for young adults,” he added. “But, unfortunately, we also found that most young patients kept on smoking<\/a> after their heart attack<\/a>, reinforcing that there is a major opportunity for improvement.”<\/p>\n In the study, the researchers analyzed data on 2,072 patients who survived a heart<\/a> attack before age 50 and were treated at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital between January 2000 and April 2016.<\/p>\n Of those patients, 1,088 were smokers<\/a> at the time of their heart attack. Data on smoking<\/a> status one year after their heart attack was available for many of the patients and showed that 343 patients (38%) had quit smoking<\/a> and 567 (62%) still smoked. Both groups were comparable in terms of age and race.<\/p>\n Over the next 10 years, 75 of the persistent smokers<\/a> (13%) died, compared to 14 (4%) of those who had quit within a year of their first heart attack. Of the persistent smokers, 30 died of a heart attack or other cardiovascular event compared to six of those who quit smoking<\/a>.<\/p>\n The study was published online recently in JAMA Network Open<\/i> journal.<\/p>\n The “findings reinforce the critical importance of smoking cessation<\/a>, especially among those who experience a heart attack at a young age,” Blankstein said. “Looking at the trajectories of young patients who quit smoking<\/a> versus those who don’t paints a clear picture of the magnitude of risk compared to the benefit of smoking cessation<\/a>.”<\/p>\n — Robert Preidt<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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