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Heavy smokers' heart disease risk takes 10-15 years to return to normal after quitting

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A study of 8,800 people, including 2,371 people who had smoked a pack of cigarettes every day for at least 20 years, found it takes around 10-15 years for a heavy smoker's heart disease risk to return to levels seen in non-smokers, according to US scientists. However, heavy smokers shouldn't feel discouraged from ditching the smokes - quitting reduced the risk of heart disease within five years, compared with people who continued to smoke.

Journal/conference: JAMA

Link to research (DOI): 10.1001/jama.2019.10298

Organisation/s: Vanderbilt University, USA

Funder: Dorothy and Laurence Grossman Chair in Cardiology, Evans Medical Foundation and the Jay and Louis Coffman Endowment from the Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, the William Anderson Spickard Jr Chair in Medicine and the National Cancer Institute Moonshot Initiative, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Media Release

From: JAMA

How Many Years After Quitting Heavy Smoking Until Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Similar to Not Having Ever Smoked?

Bottom Line: An analysis of Framingham Heart Study data examined the association of the time between quitting smoking and new cases of cardiovascular disease (CVD). This analysis included nearly 8,800 individuals, including 2,371 heavy smokers who smoked 20 or more pack-years, which is equal to smoking one pack of cigarettes daily for 20 years. Over an average follow-up of 26 years, 2,435 first CVD events (heart attack, stroke, heart failure or cardiovascular death) occurred in the entire group, with 1,095 among heavy smokers. The authors report quitting smoking was associated with lower risk of CVD within five years for former heavy smokers compared with current smokers but their risk remained higher for 10 to 15 years after cessation compared with people who never smoked. Limitations of the study include its smaller sample size compared to some previous studies, and participants in the study were primarily white individuals of European ancestry, potentially limiting the generalizability of the findings to others.

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