What do cigarettes do to our heart? Scientists looked inside it

It is well known that cigarette smoking destroys arteries and increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke. Little was known about how tobacco affects the structure of the heart. Scientists from Copenhagen have dealt with the topic. What they found should be a warning to all smokers.

1. In smokers, tobacco use is responsible for as much as 50 percent. all avoidable deaths – according to WHO
2. Smoking is also associated with a higher risk of heart failure, where the heart muscle does not pump blood around the body as well as it should.
3. Danish pow scientists sought to look inside the heart and see how smoking affects it
4. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

According to the World Health Organization, tobacco kills more than 8 million people worldwide each year. At smokers the use of tobacco accounts for as much as 50 percent. all avoidable deaths. Half of these cases result from complications of atherosclerosis, such as a heart attack or stroke.

Studies have also found that smoking is associated with a greater risk of heart failure, in which the heart muscle does not pump blood around the body as well as it should, usually because it is too weak or stiff. This means that the body is not getting the oxygen and nutrients it needs to work normally.

The debilitating effects of smoking on arteries and the risk of heart attacks and strokes are well known. So far, however, its influence on the structure of the heart has been rather poorly understood, note the researchers from the Copenhagen Hospital Herlev and Gentofte, who investigated the threat. The European Cadriological Society (ESC) informed about the results of their research.

The Danish scientists therefore investigated whether smoking was associated with changes in the structure and function of the heart in people without cardiovascular disease and as a consequence of changing smoking habits. As it turned out?

«Our study shows that smoking also causes the heart to thicken and weaken. This means that smokers have a smaller volume of blood in the left ventricle and less power to pump it to the rest of the body. The more someone smokes, the more the heart’s functions are impaired. It can regenerate to some extent after quitting smoking, so it is never too late to quit, ”says study author Dr Eva Holt of Herlev and Gentofte Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Her team analyzed the health data on the subject almost 4 thousand people aged 20 to 99 years. The average age was 56 and 43 percent. participants were women. Almost one-fifth of the volunteers smoked now, over 40,9 percent. it used to smoke, and 40,5 – never. Volunteers were carried out, inter alia, ultrasound examination of the heart.

After adjusting for age, gender, BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, diabetes, and lung health, the researchers noted that smokers’ hearts are thicker, weaker and heavier than never smokers. The more cigarettes smoked in a lifetime, the worse the condition of the heart was.

«We found that the current smoking and the accumulation of + pack-years + were associated with a deterioration in the structure and function of the most important part of the heart – its left ventricle. Moreover, we found that over a 10-year scale, people who continued to smoke became heavier, thicker, weaker and less able to pump blood than those who quit, said Dr. Holt.

“Our research shows that smoking not only damages blood vessels but also directly damages the heart. The good news is that some of this damage may be reversed when you stop smoking, ”she adds.

PAP / Marek Matacz