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Stop Smoking if You Had Angioplasty = Longer Life
People who quit smoking after a balloon angioplasty to improve blood flow to the heart live an average of two years longer than those who keep smoking, a new study suggests.
Researchers found people who were undergoing balloon angioplasty in their 50s, on average, and quit smoking within one year after the procedure lived another 18.5 years. In contrast, those who continued to smoke lived about 16.4 years, on average, after angioplasty.
Most (smokers) start smoking in their youth and have a smoking history of 40-50 years.
Most patients think it is too late to quit smoking, but the major message of our study is that it is never too late to stop smoking. Even if you’re not willing to stop smoking (for) yourself, do it for your grandchildren. They can enjoy their grandparents for an additional two years.
Previous studies have shown that smoking contributes to an increased risk of heart-related illness and death.
According to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of 2010 survey data, about 69 percent of smokers want to stop smoking, and about half of these make quit attempts each year. But of those, only about six percent successfully stay off cigarettes.
During coronary balloon angioplasty, also known as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a balloon-tipped catheter is threaded through blood vessels and the balloon is inflated to clear one or more narrowed vessels.
Non-smokers and people who had smoked but quit after surgery were equally likely to die during the follow-up period, but death rates were significantly higher among those who continued smoking.
At 30 years post-surgery, 29 percent of quitters were still alive, compared to 14 percent of those who kept smoking, according to findings published in The American Journal of Cardiology. The pattern held after the researchers accounted for health differences between patients at the time of their surgery.
Since the 1980s, new techniques have been developed to treat blocked blood vessels, such as minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and using bare metal or drug eluting stents to permanently prop open blocked vessels.
The researchers said it’s possible these advances still may not make up for the damage done by smoking on the heart and other organs in the body. But it’s hard to know for sure, according to one researcher not involved in the study.
Showing patients the deleterious effects of smoking doesn’t always inspire them like you think it would. However, the concrete life expectancy gains this study measured could prove to be motivational.
SOURCE: bit.ly/1e7pPCt The American Journal of Cardiology, online July 29, 2013.
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