|
One to four
cigarettes daily triples risk of dying of heart disease, lung cancer
Newswise — Smoking just one to four cigarettes a day almost triples
a smoker’s risk of heart disease and lung cancer, reveals a large
study in Tobacco Control.
The impact is stronger for women, the
study shows, and quashes the cherished notion that “light” smokers
escape the serious health problems faced by heavier smokers.
The researchers tracked the health
and death rates of almost 43,000 men and women from the mid 1970s up
to 2002. All the participants were aged between 35 and 49 at the
start of the study, when they were screened for cardiovascular
disease and diabetes.
Although a significant proportion
of the light smokers increased their daily consumption, this had not
exceeded 9 cigarettes a day. And almost as many had given up as had
increased their consumption.
Taking account of risk factors
likely to influence the findings, the data nevertheless showed that
light smoking endangered health. The steepest risk occurred between
nought and four cigarettes a day.
Compared with those who had never
smoked, those who smoked between 1 and 5 cigarettes a day were
almost three times as likely to die of coronary artery disease.
While there was little difference
in the risk of dying from any type of cancer, this was not the case
for lung cancer.
Men who were light smokers were
almost three times as likely to be killed by lung cancer. And women
were almost five times as likely to die of the disease as their
non-smoking peers.
Light smokers also had
significantly higher death rates from all causes - 1.5 times - than
those who had never smoked, with the death rates corresponding to
the number of cigarettes smoked every day.
As the light smokers had smoked
for fewer years than the heavy smokers, the researchers analysed the
projected impact of smoking at this level for five years.
This indicated that the risk of
death from coronary artery disease would have been 7% higher, and
the risk of lung cancer would have been 47% higher in women.
Click here to view the paper
in full:
http://press.psprings.co.uk/tc/september/315_tc11932.pdf
|
Now,
keep up to date with daily feeds of newly posted stories about America's
Seniors...click on the box to the left