Social Smoking takes a lasting toll

[Jenny]

Interesting article for those folks who smoke "socially".  I think it reinforces what we all know and that is that no amount of smoking is safe. 

 

Source: New York Times Magazine
Date: October 8, 2008
Author: STEPHANIE SAUL

 

Among the 45 million smokers in the United States, about 19 percent don’t smoke every day. These occasional smokers — people who smoke only on the weekends or just a few times a week in social situations — often believe they are avoiding the health worries typically associated with smoking.

But new research shows that even occasional cigarette smoking can impair artery function, a sign of looming heart disease.

In a small study, researchers at the University of Georgia recruited 18 healthy college students, half of whom were nonsmokers. The other half were occasional smokers, puffing less than a pack a week and had not smoked for at least two days before undergoing testing. The study, published online in the journal Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, used ultrasound scans to measure how the students’ arteries responded to changes in blood flow.

“We wanted to determine whether occasional smoking can impair flow-mediated dilation and found that repeated bouts of cigarette smoking — even if classified as occasional — appear to increase the risk for developing cardiovascular disease in otherwise healthy, young people,” said lead author Lee Stoner, a former doctoral student and now a researcher at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand.

The researchers said the lasting effect of occasional smoking on artery health was surprising.

“Most people know that if they have a cigarette or two over the weekend that it’s not good for their arteries,” said study co-author Kevin McCully, a professor of kinesiology in the University of Georgia College of Education. “But what they may not be aware of is that the decrease in function persists into the next week, if not longer.”

 

[jimmy]

great post jenny  :D B)

[action]

Thanks Jenny - I did not know that!