First Sign of Cardiovascular Disease

Fatal heart attack or stroke could be among the first sign of CVD (cardiovascular disease) in some smokers.

CVD (cardiovascular disease) is the leading adverse health effect among smokers. Among the other CVD signs, death from a heart attack or stroke may be the first CVD event in some of the smokers, as per a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open-access journal of the American Heart Association.

Cigarette smoking is associated with premature death due to cardiovascular disease and other diseases such as lung cancer for decades.

Heart Attack - Overview
Heart attack is the death of the heart muscle due to loss of blood supply. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Other names for heart attack include acute myocardial infarction, coronary thrombosis, and coronary occlusion.

‘Fatal heart attack or stroke could be among the first sign of CVD (cardiovascular disease) in some smokers.’

Above 480,000 U.S. adults die every year from cigarette smoking as per the American Heart Association’s Heart and Stroke Statistical Update 2021. Although the ill effects of smoking are evident, still more than 34 million US adults smoke cigarettes.

“There is often more awareness and concern about cancer as a result of smoking than heart disease, so we wanted to better define the risks of smoking related to different types of cardiovascular disease and, most importantly, to cardiovascular death,” says lead study author Sadiya S. Kahn, M.D., M.Sc., an assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

The study team combined data from nine long-term cohort studies in the U.S. to evaluate multiple lifestyle factors as well as cardiovascular and other health outcomes.

Tips to Prevent Heart Attacks
Heart Attack occurs when the flow of oxygenated blood to heart muscles is hindered or stopped due to built-up of plaques in coronary arteries. Heart Attack is the No.1 killer among Indians.

The initial data included those from 106,165 adults (50.4% women; 16.2% Black adults; 50.1% cigarette smokers) between the ages of 20 and 79 years with no history of cardiovascular diseases in the past.

Later the participants were categorized based on smoking status, age, and sex with a follow-up time of 10 to 25 years.

Quiz on Heart Attack
The risk factors that work behind the scene before a heart attack are familiar to many. But do you realize the extent to which your lifestyle choices are putting your life at risk? Can you identify a heart attack when it occurs? Take our quiz and find out.

Smoking and CVD

It was found that middle-aged men and women who smoked, had a 79% (1.5 times) and twice as the risk of having a fatal CVD event as their first sign respectively when compared to those who did not smoke.

How to Deal with a Stroke - Signs - Symptoms - Risk Factors - Prevention
Stroke is a brain attack, which occurs when the blood supply to the brain is interrupted. It affects all age groups; according to the WHO, 15 million people are affected by stroke annually.

In addition, the long-term rates of CVD risk for middle-aged women and men were nearly 10% higher among smokers. Thus, smoking was associated with the development of cardiovascular disease at an earlier age, by 5 years and ~4 years in middle-aged men and women respectively.

The risk for CVD increased even more significantly in young men and women among the age group 20 to 39 years of age.

“Our findings note that preventing a heart attack, stroke or heart failure is vital, yet preventing unexpected sudden death as the first manifestation of cardiovascular disease is clearly a priority. People who smoke may not realize the harm cigarettes are causing their body until it’s too late,” says Khan.

Source-Medindia