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Smoking just one cigarette a day has a higher risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke than expected. The researchers say their findings have important consequences for many smokers and health professionals who believe that smoking only a few cigarettes carries little or no harm. They argue that smokers should stop completely instead of cutting down to significantly reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke.
Individual studies have reported that smoking only one to five cigarettes per day is associated with a higher than expected risk of heart disease. To investigate this further, a team of researchers led by Professor Allan Hackshaw at the UCL Cancer Institute at University College London analysed the results of 141 studies and estimated the relative risks for smoking one, five, or 20 cigarettes per day. They found that men who smoked one cigarette per day had 46% of the excess risk of heart disease and 41% of the excess risk of stroke associated with smoking 20 cigarettes per day (much higher than the expected 5%).
For women, those who smoked one cigarette per day had 31% of the excess risk of heart disease and 34% of the excess risk of stroke associated with smoking 20 cigarettes per day. Women’s heart disease risk was more than doubled with one cigarette per day, when only studies that controlled for several factors were included in the analysis. Large proportion of the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke comes from smoking only a couple of cigarettes each day.
Cardiovascular disease, not cancer, is the greatest mortality risk for smoking, causing about 48% of smoking-related premature deaths. Any exposure to smoking is too much, there is no safe level of smoking. Smokers should quit instead of cutting down, using appropriate cessation aids if needed, to significantly reduce their risk of stroke and heart disease.
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