Smoking does even more damage to heart health than previously thought, according to a new study.
- According to Public Health France, in 2019, 30% of 18-75 year olds said they smoked and 24% smoked daily.
- According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco kills more than 8 million people every year.
We know that smoking is a scourge for the heart. But even more than we think: not only does it “damages blood vessels”causing cardiovascular diseases and strokes, but it “also directly harms the heart itself”underlines a study presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, which is held at the end of August in Barcelona, Spain.
A bigger, weaker, heavier heart
To reach this conclusion, the research team compiled data from 3,874 participants aged 20 to 99, without heart disease. To find out their smoking history, everyone had to answer a questionnaire to estimate the number of “packet-years”, that is to say the total quantity of cigarettes smoked during a lifetime. For example, a pack-year corresponds to 20 cigarettes smoked every day of the year.
Almost one in five participants (18.6%) was a regular current smoker, 40.9% were former smokers, and 40.5% had never smoked.
After running an ultrasound of the heart on the volunteers, the researchers compared data from current smokers versus non-smokers. To adjust their calculations, they also took into consideration other variables such as age, gender, body mass index, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes and lung function.
Some “reversible” damage
The results are clear: current smokers had larger, weaker and heavier hearts than others. “We found that current smoking and accumulation of pack-years were associated with deterioration in the structure and function of the left cardiac chamber, the most important part of the heart”, explains Dr. Eva Holt, lead author of the study. She adds : “Over a period of 10 years, [les cœurs des fumeurs] were less able to pump blood than those who had never smoked and those who had quit during that time.”
“The good newsconcludes the researcher, is that some of this damage is reversible by quitting smoking.” Some only!