Heart Disease Prevention - Why And How Smoking Should Be Curbed?

Smoking is responsible for many other cancers and health problems that include lung disease, heart disease, blood vessel disease, stroke, and COPD. Quit smoking seems to be the only way to prevent from getting all those diseases mentioned. The earlier one quits, the greater the health benefits. While some benefits of quitting smoking occur quickly, others happen over time. To find out more, you may want to view the following article.

Heart Disease Prevention - Why And How Smoking Should Be Curbed?

Heart Disease Prevention - Will Passive Smoking Cause Heart Disease?

In 1992, a paper published in the ‘Journal of the American Medical Association’ estimated that second-hand smoke exposure was responsible for 35,000 to 40,000 deaths per year in the United States in the early 1980s. The absolute and attributable risk increase of heart disease due to second-hand smoke was 2.2 and 23 percent respectively. Click the following link to find out more!

Heart Disease Prevention - Will Passive Smoking Cause Heart Disease?

Link Between Second-hand Smoke And Heart Disease

People are already aware that smoking is linked to many medical disorders including heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke, lung cancer and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

But how about second-hand smoke that affect non-smokers?

Second-hand smoke is also known as environment tobacco smoke (ETS) and it is a mixture of 2 forms of smoke coming from burning tobacco, namely sidestream smoke (smoke that comes from the end of a lighted cigarette, pipe, or cigar) and mainstream smoke (the smoke that is exhaled by a smoker).

Non-smokers are said to have involuntary smoking or passive smoking when they are exposed to second-hand smoke. The more they are exposed to, the higher the level of those harmful chemicals will be inhaled into the body.

Researchers from the Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing found that people regularly exposed to second-hand smoke might raise their risk of dying from various causes including heart disease and lung cancer, comparing to those who lived and worked in a smoke-free environment.

The findings of a long-term study based on 910 adults (439 men and 471 women) who were followed over a period of 17 years were published in the May 2012’s issue of journal ‘Chest’. At the outset, 44.2 percent lived with a smoker, while 52.9 percent inhaled second-hand smoke at work.

249 participants (150 men and 99 women) died over the following years. The risk of death from heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and emphysema were 2 to 3 times higher for people who were exposed to second-hand smoke.

11 percent of the 271 men exposed to second-hand smoke died of stroke, comparing to 6.5 percent of the 168 men who lived and worked in smoke-free surroundings. Though the study could not prove that second-hand smoke was the culprit, they did find evidence of dose-response relationship, which is key to building the case for a cause-and-effect relationship.

The study also revealed that second-hand smoke exposure is highly prevalent in China, the largest producer and consumer of tobacco in the world. In 2010, about one-third of the world’s cigarettes are consumed by China’s 301 million smokers.

Nicotine-Free Cigarettes On The Way, Are You Sure?

Smoking is bad for the health of smokers as well as non-smokers through second-hand smoke. Besides cancers, nicotine contained in cigarettes can cause heart disease, stroke and many other diseases.

Recently, Japanese researchers had identified a gene that transports nicotine through tobacco plants, which could help manufacture cigarettes free of carcinogen. Carcinogen is a substance or agent that can cause cancer or increase its propagation.

In a joint study by Kyoto University's Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere and Ghent University of Belgium, the experts found the gene Nt-JAT1 transports nicotine to vacuoles, or bags accumulating water and other substances in the cells of tobacco leaves. In their experiments, they confirmed that yeast with Nt-JAT1 carry nicotine. They published the results in the online version of the Proceedings of National Academy of Science in January 2009.

Tobacco plants were already known to produce nicotine in their roots and carry it to their leaves. The new finding makes it possible for the cigarette manufacturers to produce tobacco free from nicotine in the leaves.

This would not only help smokers stem nicotine addiction without the use of anti-smoking goods, but also benefit non-smokers as tobacco smoke is free from nicotine. Besides tobacco industry, such discovery could also be used for medical and agricultural purposes.

No one can actually predict whether cigarettes with little or no nicotine would well be accepted by the smokers, but the researchers argued that the gene could also transport compounds, which can be used as medicine.

It has been known that nicotine is part of a group of compounds known as alkaloids. In fact, some alkaloids extracted from plants are employed for fighting cancer. This new discovery could be used to make plants build up higher levels of useful alkaloids.

It is believed that other genes could be involved in carrying nicotine through tobacco plants, but the research on these genes has yet to be completed.

Can Smoking Ban Really Prevent Heart Disease?

Smoking is one of the risk factor that can develop not only heart disease but also a variety of cancers, stroke, and emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

COPD is a progressive disease that makes a person difficult to breathe, and it can cause coughing that produces large amounts of mucus, wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and other symptoms.

Smoking not only harms the smokers but also the people around the smokers through second-hand smoke. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Untied States, the heart disease rates in adult non-smokers could be raised by 25 to 30 percent through long-term exposure to second-hand smoke. Every year, an estimated 46,000 Americans died of second-hand smoke.

Therefore, cities around the world have been implementing measures to ban smoking officially in the public places. However, people, especially smokers, may wonder whether this measure effective in preventing disease?

The answer is yes!

CDC announced on 31 December 2008 in the their weekly report on death and disease that the smoking ban helped reduce heart attack by more than 40 percent in one United States City and the decline actually lasted 3 years.

In 2003, Pueblo in Colorado passed a municipal law to refrain smoking in workplaces and public places. Meanwhile, CDC officials also commenced a study to track hospitalizations for heart attack after the smoking ban.

The findings showed that there were 399 hospital admissions for heart attacks in Pueblo in the 18 months before the ban, and 237 heart attack hospitalizations in the next year and a half. In other words, there was a drop of 41 percent. Such effect lasted for 3 years.

As explained by CDC, people’s cardiovascular systems are harmed almost immediately by exposing to second-hand smoke, and prolonged exposure to second-hand smoke can cause the non-smokers to develop heart disease, too.

In conclusion, the new study further confirms the existing evidence that smoking ban can really reduce illness and deaths from heart disease.

Can China Be Spared From Epidemics of Lung and Heart Disease?

With the consistent high economic growth over the years, the living standards of Chinese people have been raised. This means that they can now eat better food usually with high fat, and their waistlines are correspondingly expanded. They also enjoy sedentary lifestyles because they travel more by car instead of bicycle they used to, and spend more time watching television.

In fact, more than 25 percent of Chinese adults were now considered overweight or obese, according to a report published in the US journal Health Affairs in July 2008.

A recent study published in “The Lancet” medical journal on October 20, 2008 warned that if efforts are not made to tackle the worsening diets and other unhealthy lifestyles of Chinese, epidemics of lung and heart disease seem unavoidable.

In the paper, the researchers believed that the pace and spread of behavioral changes including changing diets, decreased physical activity, high rates of male smoking and other high-risk behaviors has already accelerated to an unprecedented degree.

For instance, 177 million Chinese adults suffer from hypertension, partly because of high salt consumption. Another 300 million people smoke (majority of them men), and 530 million are exposed to second-hand smoke.

If present smoking rate is left to continue, it is estimated that 100 million Chinese men will die between 2000 and 2050, with many of their family members spending their life savings with an attempt for treatment.

Hypertension, unhealthy high-fat diet and smoking are possible risk factors for heart disease and, smoking, including second-hand smoke is closely related to lung disease.

Therefore, the China's government is urged to take necessary action (for example, launch campaigns) to discourage smoking and the intake of salt and fat. If steps are not taken in time, the burden of chronic diseases, preventable morbidity and mortality and associated health-care costs could then increase substantially. As a result, China would have to face a looming health crisis in the very near future.

Is Smoking Ban In Public A Right Decision?

Smoking is bad for health! This message has been publicized and circulated for years, yet how many smokers have accepted the advice and kicked the habit.

Being a risk factor for heart disease, lung cancer, and many other ailments, smoking can not only harmful to the smokers themselves, but also to the people around them through second-hand smoke. According to World Health Organization (WHO), smoking kills about 4 million people each year, causing a quarter of deaths related to heart disease.

In recent years, many Western nations have begun varying types of smoking bans in public places like restaurants, pubs, cafes, etc to protect people from second-hand smoke. On June 30, 2008, WHO has also published a report indicated that “smoking bans are an effective way of preventing heart disease, getting cigarette users to quit, and protecting children from second-hand smoke.”

These policies have undoubtedly achieved their aim of protecting the health of non-smokers by decreasing exposure to second-hand smoke. In addition, they have many effects on the smoking behavior that compound the health benefits.

The scientists at the WHO's International Agency for Cancer Research, who are responsible for the report, reviewed more than 900 studies and government reports looking at the impact of smoking bans across the world. They also cited studies that suggest smoke-free workplaces have lead to a 10 to 20 percent decrease in hospital admissions for heart disease a year, after a smoking ban.

They believe that implementation of such policies can have a broader population effect of increasing smoke-free environments.

As indicated in a separate report released by Cancer Research UK on June 30, 2008, England's ban adopted a year ago has spurred more smokers to kick the habit, and it was predicted the restrictions would prevent 40,000 deaths over the next 10 years.