Heart Attack: One Scare Isn’t Enough?

Excruciating chest pain radiating to the left arm or jaw sends one person into the emergency department where many tests are run. It is determined that a heart attack has happened. Hospitalization is mandatory.

For a smoker, this is the time to quit. There is no smoking allowed on hospital property and the staff encourages cessation. Success is reached while under watchful care. It is the choice a smoker makes when walking out of the hospital that determines mortality. Italian researchers say that ‘resuming smoking after hospital discharge could increase the risk of dying as much as five-fold.’

A study published in the American Journal of Cardiology led by Dr. Furio Colivicchi of San Filippo Neri Hospital in Rome states, people who began smoking again after hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome were more than three times more likely to die within a year as those who successfully quit.

Associate professor of internal medicine at University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City, Dr. David Katz said, “Relapse is a major factor for long term survival.” The chemicals in smoking damage the vessels and arteries in the body and cause plaque build up. This process makes it difficult for the body to deliver blood to and from the heart. For heart patients that remain smoke-free, the body will continue to heal.

To determine the effects of resuming smoking after hospitalization, Colivicchi and his colleagues tracked 1924 patients who reported being regular smokers prior to the heart event leading to admission. All of the patients had successfully quit smoking while in the hospital and, at the time, were motivated to remain smoke-free. Those patients received smoking cessation counseling sessions while admitted, but no further sessions post discharge. Additionally, no further nicotine replacement therapy help was provided.

Patients were interviewed at one-month, six-months, and twelve-months post discharge. Findings concluded that 63 percent of those patients had relapsed within one year. About half of those had begun smoking again approximately twenty days after release.

Of the 97 deaths that occurred during the first year, 81 were attributed to cardiovascular causes. After accounting for patient ages and other variables, researchers determined that continuing smoking increased the risk of death by three times over those who remained smoke free.

The earlier the heart patient picked up their smoking addiction, the higher the risk of death; up to five times higher than those who remained quit.

It is no surprise that people who continue or begin smoking again with damage already showing to the heart and vessels have a higher risk of death. Isn’t it time to eliminate tobacco cigarettes from your life?