Early smoking causes structural and functional damage to the heart

Smoking from childhood to early adulthood is associated with an increased risk of premature heart damage, according to research published today. jackthe flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology. This early damage to heart structure and function can also significantly increase the likelihood of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) later in life in midlife.

“Our goal is to provide policy makers, clinicians, and public health workers with data on critical timing to prevent smoking and its early effects in youth,” said the study's lead author. said Andrew Agbaje, MD, MPH, PhD, author and senior author and co-investigator. Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Child Health at the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. “Parents and caregivers must lead by example and government agencies must boldly address the risks of preventable heart disease by creating a smoking and nicotine-free nation.Health care costs from smoking-related diseases have more than doubled. “Increasing tobacco taxes alone is not enough.” Why should we use the profits from tobacco taxes to pay for something that is quietly killing our teens? Or? ”

Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland, in collaboration with the University of Bristol, used birth cohort data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) to investigate the effects of smoking during development from childhood to young adulthood and the structural changes in the heart. and the relationship with functional relationships was investigated. Injury.

Cardiac injury refers to damage to the heart muscle or heart muscle, including ischemia (reduced blood flow), inflammationtrauma or chronic illness. Increased cardiac mass is an increase in the size or weight of the heart, often accompanied by cardiac hypertrophy, or thickening of the myocardial wall. Both conditions can affect heart function. Adolescent smoking is associated with vascular injury in adolescence and CVD mortality in midlife. However, since cardiac injury in childhood is usually due to rare clinical events, there are few studies on cardiac structure and function in healthy children.

The analysis included 1,931 young adults aged 24 years who were non-smokers and underwent echocardiography. Smoking rates were 0.3%, 1.6%, 13.6%, 24%, and 26.4% at ages 10, 13, 15, 17, and 24, respectively, and 60% of those who started smoking in childhood were 24 years old. But he continued to smoke. year.

Researchers found that smoking between the ages of 10 and 24 was associated with a 33% to 52% chance of early structural and functional heart damage. Additionally, it was associated with increased cardiac mass even after controlling for competing risk factors.

The main research findings are as follows.

• The prevalence of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy increased from 2.8% to 7.5% at age 24 years.
• The prevalence of left ventricular diastolic (LVD) dysfunction increased from 10.4% to 16.9% at age 24 years.
• High relative wall thickness (RWT) increases the risk of high left ventricular filling pressure (LVFP).
• Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) increased in both unadjusted and adjusted models for ages 17–24 years.

“The increase in heart mass structure after just a few years of smoking should tell us how dangerous the effects are for people who continue to smoke from a young age,” Agbaje said.

“This study shows that smoking in teens not only increases the risk of heart disease later in life, but also causes early and lasting damage to heart muscle and function,” said Emily Bucholz, MD, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics at the university. This shows that it can cause PhD and Associate Editor, Colorado College of Medicine jack. “This is a wake-up call for preventive efforts to protect young minds early on.”

Limitations of this study include insufficient data on social environmental influences such as parental smoking, peer/coworker smoking, and alcohol use. We also could not analyze cotinine levels, which would help quantify actual nicotine exposure. Finally, most of the study participants were Caucasian, so the results may not be generalizable to other racial groups.