Adnkronos Rome, May 15 (Adnkronos Salute) – "Smoking is the most important risk factor for heart attack in young people, under 50, and in women. Women who smoke have a risk of heart attack 6 times higher than non-smokers and women who smoke and use oral contraceptives have a risk of heart attack or stroke 5 times higher than non-smoking women who use oral contraceptives".
Domenico Gabrielli, president of the Foundation for Your Heart and director of Cardiology at the San Camillo Hospital in Rome, explained this during the 56th National Cardiology Congress of the ANMCO (National Association of Hospital Cardiologists), the most important cardiology event in Italy, which began today in Rimini.
"Cigarette smoking - recalls the Anmco - increases the risk of atherosclerosis and heart attack: it can damage the cells that internally line the arterial vessels, favoring the formation of atherosclerotic plaques that at the coronary level can become the cause of heart attack; it can favor platelet aggregation, inducing the formation of clots; by increasing carbon monoxide in the blood, it reduces the availability of oxygen for the heart and other vital tissues; nicotine increases the heart rate and blood pressure. There are other factors that, like smoking, increase the risk of coronary atherosclerosis and heart attack: hypertension, diabetes, high blood cholesterol levels, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. If a smoker has one or more risk factors, the probability of illness or death from coronary atherosclerosis or heart attack multiplies".
"Pipe and cigar smokers - cardiologists point out - also have an increased risk of death from heart attack and stroke; however, the increase in risk is lower than that of cigarette smokers, probably due to the smaller amount of smoke inhaled. E-cigarettes that cause vaping with nicotine, glycerin and glycol should not be absolved either: they are not harmless and in the long term they can also cause damage to the heart, although studies agree that these substances are less harmful than those produced by direct combustion of the cigarette. In fact, the effects of nicotine emitted by e-cigarettes, according to a survey conducted by Swedish researchers on a group of young people, has shown a thickening of the arterial walls (a risk factor for myocardial infarction and stroke) and an increase in heart rate and blood pressure. All of this already in the first 30 minutes after 'vaping'".
"Passive smoking - Gabrielli points out - is instead the main pollutant in closed environments, as it involves the inhalation of harmful agents for the body, resulting from the slow combustion of tobacco contained in a cigarette, a cigar or a pipe, and from the inhalation of smoke exhaled by the smoker, diluted with the air in the environment; these harmful agents, just as they do for the active smoker, affect people's health: the incidence of cardiovascular disease and lung cancer increases by 25-30% and 20-30% respectively for non-smokers exposed to passive smoking. The greatest risks resulting from exposure to passive smoking - he concludes - concern children, since their organism is still developing and, for this reason, more susceptible to the adverse effects resulting from inhaling smoke. The WHO estimates that approximately 700 million children, or at least half of the children in the world, breathe air containing tobacco smoke, especially at home".