Tabaquism Increase Two-Fold Risk of Heart Failure, Even if is Stopped

Heart failure is a progressive condition in which the heart loses its ability to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. It’s one of the most common causes of disability and death in developed countries, with more than 6 million adults living with heart failure in the U.S. alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention most recent data. Besides cigarette smoking, risk factors for heart failure include obesity, hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, and advanced age.

There are two types of heart failure: reduced ejection fraction and preserved ejection fraction. In heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, the left ventricle,  the principal cardiac pump, fails to contract sufficiently when pumping blood outward. Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction is more closely tied to coronary artery disease. Treatment includes several medications that improve prognosis.

In heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, the left ventricle fails to relax sufficiently after contracting. Treatment for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is very limited, making its prevention critically important. At the same time, its risk factors are less clear. Some prior studies have linked smoking to higher risk of preserved ejection fraction, while others have not.

Tabaquism increase two-fold risk of  Heart Failure

A new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that people who smoked tobacco cigarettes developed heart failure at twice the rate of those who never smoked. This higher rate occurred in two major heart failure subtypes and confirms that cigarette smoking presents a significant risk factor for both.

Kunihiro Matsushita, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Epidemiology and his colleagues evaluated health records of participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities (ARIC) study. Launched in 1987, the ARIC study includes middle-aged and older adults across the U.S., with substantial representation of Black individuals.

This  new study’s analysis included data from four communities in Maryland, North Carolina, Minnesota, and Mississippi, and focused on 9,345 ARIC participants, ages 61 to 81, who had sufficient records and no diagnosis of heart failure as of the start of 2005.

Over a median follow-up of 13 years, there were 1,215  cases of heart failure in the study, including 492 cases of reduced ejection fraction and 555 cases of preserved ejection fraction. The researchers’ analysis showed that smokers in the group were diagnosed with the two heart failure subtypes at about the same elevated rates compared to never-smokers  ,  2.28 times higher for preserved ejection fraction, and 2.16 times higher for reduced ejection fraction.

Overall, former smokers were 31 percent and 36 percent more likely to have preserved ejection fraction and reduced ejection fraction, respectively, compared to never-smokers.

Also, Smoking cessation significantly reduced the risk of HF, but its excess risk persisted for a few decades after cessation.

As we can see in the results of this study , there is a significantly increased risk to develop Heart failure in any of the presentations, and it depends on how many years you smoke and  how many cigarettes per day , even if the people stop smoking abruptly , the risk still be possible for many years. 

Stem-Cells therapy has the capability to restore, regenerate and repair the damaged tissue overall the body because of the effect of smoking habits, besides of the anti aging benefits too by reducing the oxygen free radicals and modulate the  chronic inflammatory status of this habit. 

At our clinic, we use high doses of mesenchymal stem cells derived from the umbilical cord Wharton’s jelly and use the intravenous delivery method for cardiovascular disease. This delivery method is non-invasive and simple, and studies have shown that when MSCs are injected intravenously into the bloodstream they are attracted to the injured tissue and are capable of engraftment into the heart tissue. 

SOURCE:

Ning Ding, Amil M. Shah, Michael J. Blaha, Patricia P. Chang, Wayne D. Rosamond, Kunihiro Matsushita (June 14, 2022). Cigarette Smoking, Cessation, and Risk of Heart Failure With Preserved and Reduced Ejection Fraction. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735109722047428?via%3Dihub 

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