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A recent study indicates that it might take over 20 years for the likelihood of developing heart disease to return to normal levels following an individual quitting smoking.
For many years, specialists have been aware that inhaling cigarette smoke can lead to considerable harm to the heart.
According to the British Heart Foundation, at least 15,000 fatalities related to heart diseases occur annually in the UK due to smoking.
Now, researchers in South Korea It has been found that it takes an ex-smoker's cardiovascular system approximately 25 years to become similar to that of someone who has never smoked.
Furthermore, the research showed that heavy former smokers who have smoked for over eight years face a comparable risk of an imminent heart attack or stroke compared to individuals who continue smoking.
In the study Published in the journal JAMA, researchers analyzed health records of over 100,000 former smokers along with those of more than 4 million individuals who had never smoked.
A decade following their cessation of smoking, the former smokers were revisited.
Additional information recorded included their age, the age at which they began smoking, the number of daily cigarettes consumed, and the age at which they stopped smoking.
The study found the link between smoking and cardiovascular disease risk was dose-dependent — meaning those who were light smokers saw their risk plummet relatively soon after stopping.
But for heavy ex-smokers, who had smoked for at least eight years, the researchers concluded it could take 25 years for the risk of heart attack and stroke to reduce to that of someone who has never smoked.
According to the study’s authors, "Individuals with heavy smoking histories should be regarded as having a cardiovascular disease risk similar to those who currently smoke."
Smoking kills around 78,000 people in the UK every year, with many more living with illnesses due to their habit.
Half of all smoking-related illness in the UK is cardiovascular, such as heart problems and stroke.
Dozens of studies have shown smoking is linked with heart failure — when the heart muscle does not pump blood around the body as well as it should, usually because it is too weak or stiff.
As a result, the heart cannot supply the body's organs and tissues with the oxygen and vital nutrients it requires to work normally.
The 7,000 chemicals in tobacco — including tar and others — can damage blood vessels that supply the heart, which is thought to be behind some of the damage smoking inflicts on the organ.
Meanwhile, nicotine — a highly addictive toxin found in tobacco — is heavily linked with dangerous increases in heart rate and blood pressure.
Smoking also unleashes poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide into the body, which further reduces our oxygen supplies.
Around one in eight Brits and Americans currently smoke, compared to nearly half of the adult population in the 1970s.
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