Heart Disease - Prevention is better than cure

Dateline: 04/05/98

SMOKING

How can you reduce your risk of heart disease ? If you missed the other parts of this series, check them out now.

Stop puffing away your life.

If you're a smoker, this article is for you.

If you aren't, congratulations. You can move right on to the next step - Keeping Pressure Down.

Smoking and Your Heart

Addiction to the deadly weed called tobacco is single handedly responsible for an impressive array of medical illnesses - heart disease, a variety of cancers, stroke, bronchitis, emphysema and more.

But the encouraging news is that once you stop smoking, in a surprisingly short period your risk of getting heart disease drops dramatically - to the levels of non-smokers.

So its never too late to quit - Do It Now !

The Statistical Evidence

Here are some hard numbers that might help you kick the habit, and improve your quality of life as well.

• In the US, a high prevalence of smoking (>70%) has been reported among patients having acute myocardial infarction
• Cigarette consumption in Africa has increased by over 40% in the past two decades.
• Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of CHD in women, with more than 50% of MIs among middle-aged women attributable to tobacco.
• The magnitude of excess risk, a twofold to fourfold elevation, is similar in women and men.
• Risk of CHD begins to decline within months of smoking cessation and reaches the level of persons who have never smoked within 3 to 5 years.
• Although the prevalence of smoking among US women declined from 34% in 1965 to 24% in 1991, smoking cessation rates have declined more slowly among women than men.

On the basis of current trends, it is estimated that by the year 2000 smoking rates will be higher in women (23%) than in men (20%). These changing demographics of smoking, particularly the unfavorable smoking patterns among younger women, may contribute substantially to the future burden of CHD on women, as well as other smoking-related illnesses.

Next : High Blood Pressure and Heart Disease