Research

Report: Smoking takes 5 hours off life expectancy per day
A recent report assessed how behaviors such as smoking, eating red meat, sitting too long, and drinking too much alcohol impact life expectancy. Through the creation of a unit of measure that corresponds to 30 minutes of life expectancy called a “microlife” in combination with the analysis of other life expectancy studies, the researcher determined that daily heavy smoking (about 15-24 cigarettes per day) can reduce the lifespan by five hours. The author of the article states that lowered life expectancy should be thought of as people aging faster as opposed to losing years at the end of life. In other words, smokers age more quickly than nonsmokers. Smoking is associated with several adverse health effects, and according to this study, increases the aging rate which is another reason for people to quit smoking and seek smoking cessation programs. Click here to read more about this study published in British Medical Journal. Click here to access the report.

Smoking doubles women's sudden death risk
A new study states that smoking doubles a woman’s risk for experiencing sudden cardiac death. Sudden cardiac death is an unexpected death caused by a sudden loss of heart function. This study examined the impact of smoking and smoking cessation on the risk of sudden cardiac death among 101,018 women that participated in the longitudinal Nurses’ Health Study. An association was discovered between the amount and duration of cigarette smoking and risk for sudden cardiac death. Smoking one to 14 cigarettes per day doubled the risk for sudden cardiac death compared to women who were non-smokers. Additionally, for every five years a woman smoked cigarettes, the risk for sudden cardiac death increased by 8%. Sudden cardiac death is the leading cause of heart-related deaths, and is the cause of about 400,000 deaths per year in the U.S. This study provides evidence of the importance of smoking prevention and cessation programs among women. Click here to read more about this study published in Circulation: Arrhythmia & Electrophysiology. Click here to access the study abstract.

Tobacco smoking linked to multiple sclerosis
Research published in Multiple Sclerosis suggests that cigarette smoking increases the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) in young people. Blood samples were collected from participants, and cotinine levels were measured to assess exposure to tobacco. Higher levels of cotinine (more than or equal to 10ng/ml) were found to be associated with a significantly high risk of developing MS. The association was only found in young participants (less than 26.4 years old). The results of this study show that smoking is a risk factor for MS early in life and that interventions created to reduce tobacco use should focus on youth populations. Click here to read more about this study. Click here to access the study abstract.

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