Lit? Young Smokers Have a Higher Risk for a Heart Attack

Seeing the Surgeon General’s warning label on every cigarette pack when purchasing, people ignore the fact that cigarettes increase the risk of heart disease. While the actual numbers often remain ignored, a new scientific study views the risk of developing heart attack in younger smokers.

Over 16 million Americans live with a disease caused by smoking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

While cancer, heart disease, and stroke are only a few of the conditions caused by smoking, the use of tobacco can also cause lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The CDC report also indicates that 1 in 3 deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) are caused by tobacco and any tobacco-related products.

CVD includes many types of heart conditions. According to Medical News Today (MNT), web-based outlet for medical news, the most common form of CVD in the United States is coronary heart disease, which ultimately leads to heart attacks. This new study examines the link between smokers' age and the risk of developing a specific type of heart attack.

The study was conducted by researchers from the South Yorkshire cardiothoracic center in the United Kingdom. They examined 1,727 adults who were undergoing treatment for a type of heart attack known as STEMI.

According to MNT, STEMI stands for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction which refers to the electrocardiogram pattern that can be seen when a large portion of the heart muscle is dying. This type of heart attack is very serious because it can completely block one of the heart's major arteries.

Published in the journal Heart, about 48.5 percent of the 1,727 patients were current smokers. Just over 27 percent of the patients were former smokers, and a quarter were nonsmokers.

According to MNT, the study revealed that current smokers had a likelihood of developing STEMI three times higher than ex- and nonsmokers combined.

Current smokers also have three times the risk of having peripheral vascular disease than nonsmokers. In vascular disease, fatty deposits have the capacity to build up in the arteries and eventually stop the blood supply to the legs.

Along with former smokers, current smokers were twice as likely to have also had coronary artery disease.

According to the study, the highest risk that was found among smokers under 50 years of age, who were almost 8.5 times more likely to have a STEMI heart attack than nonsmokers and ex-smokers combined.

The risk was contrary with age, meaning as the age increased the risk decreased. The smoking prevalence rate among STEMI patients under the age of 50 was 75 percent, according to MNT.

"This study may also help to tackle the misconception by young smokers that acute STEMI is a disease of the elderly, by showing that this group is very vulnerable and has the highest risk from their smoking," Dr. Yaron Arbel, of the Tel-Aviv Medical Center in Israel, according to MNT.

Since this is an observational study, it cannot explain the reasons why the risk is so much higher in younger adults. Younger smokers typically don’t have many of the other risk factors for heart attack, such as high cholesterol, increased blood pressure, or diabetes, which makes the results more difficult to explain.

The study was limited since it is based on just one regional specialist cardiothoracic center in the U.K., and it did not include patients who died from STEMI before admission.

Another thing to consider from the study is that did not account for those that were considered unsuitable for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) treatment at the center during the study.