Jump to full article: Medical News TODAY(UK), 2009-10-27
Author: Source: Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Intro: A new study from Canada suggests that even light smoking in otherwise healthy young people damages the arteries, reducing their bodies' ability to deal with physical stress such as exercise, running to catch a bus or climbing stairs.
The study was led by Dr Stella Daskalopoulou, an internal medicine and vascular medicine specialist at McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) in Montreal, Quebec, who presented it at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009 that is taking place 24 to 29 October in Edmonton, Alberta. The event is co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.
In fact, Daskalopoulou and colleagues showed that even one cigarette led to serious adverse effects in young adults: it increased the stiffness of the arteries of otherwise healthy 18 to 30 year olds by 25 per cent, she told the conference.
Smoking helps plaque accumulate in the arteries, leading to a higher risk of blood clots, less oxygen in the blood, and higher blood pressure. It also makes the heart work harder and nearly doubles the risk of ischemic stroke . . .
"Young adults aged 20-24 years have the highest smoking rate of all age groups in Canada."
"Our results are significant because they suggest that smoking just a few cigarettes a day impacts the health of the arteries. This was revealed very clearly when these young people were placed under physical stress, such as exercise," she explained. . . .
For the study, Daskalopoulou and colleagues compared the arterial stiffness of young smokers who smoked about five or six cigarettes a day to that of non-smokers. The median age of the participants was 21.
They measured the participants' arterial stiffness in three arteries
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