Tobacco.org

Air Pollution Sickens Seniors  

50% Indian smokers don’t know it can kill  

138m Indian smokers unaware that puff causes stroke 

Of the 275 millions Indians who consume tobacco, nearly 138 million do not know that smoking causes stroke.

As many as 92 million aren't aware that tobacco causes heart disease. According to a report released by the World Heart Federation (WHF) on Friday, half of all Chinese smokers and one-third of Indian smokers are unaware of the risks tobacco pose to our heart. Awareness of the risk of secondhand smoke is even lower.

According to WHF, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the world's leading cause of death, killing 17.3 million people every year. Around 80% of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries like India, which are increasingly being targeted by the tobacco industry.

Tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure causes about 1/10th of global deaths from CVD.

Secondhand smoke exposure increases the risk of heart disease by 25% and more than

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• Significant gaps in public awareness about cardiovascular risks from tobacco use, secondhand smoke 

A report released today at the World Heart Federation World Congress of Cardiology in Dubai reveals significant gaps in public awareness regarding the cardiovascular risks of tobacco use and secondhand smoke. The report, entitled "Cardiovascular harms from tobacco use and secondhand smoke", was commissioned by the World Heart Federation and written by the International Tobacco Control Project (ITC Project), in collaboration with the Tobacco Free Initiative at the World Health Organization.

According to the report, half of all Chinese smokers and one-third of Indian and Vietnamese smokers are unaware that smoking causes heart disease. Across a wide range of countries, including India, Uruguay, South Korea and Poland, around half of all smokers - and over 70 per cent of all Chinese smokers - do not know that smoking causes stroke. Awareness of the risk of secondhand smoke is even lower. In Vietnam, nearly 90 per cent of smokers and non-smokers are unaware that secondhand smoke causes heart disease. In China, 57 per cent of smokers and non-smokers are unaware of the link. Even in countries with well-developed health systems and tobacco control regulation - such as Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia - between a third and a half of smokers do not know that secondhand smoke can damage cardiovascular health.

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Smokers unaware of tobacco's impact on heart, stroke risk 

Candy is not dandy when it comes to tobacco products 

Menthol Cigarettes Raise Stroke Risk 

Poor old Tobacco coming under fire again. This time, it's a study on the non cancerous effects of menthols, that gives us new insight into the dangers of smoking. Menthols have previous been flagged for seeming more attractive and less harmful and also being preferred by women, youngsters and African Americans.

This week, research was published in The Archives of Internal Medicine by Nicholas T. Vozoris, M.H.Sc., M.D., from St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. He has investigated the links between mentholated cigarette smoking and cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, looking at data from more than 5,000 people over the age of 20, who were part of the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination between 2001 and 2008.

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Menthol smokers have more strokes: study | Reuters 

Smoking Menthol Cigarettes Tied to Stroke  

Action Points

* Current smokers participating in a CDC study were found to have an increased risk of stroke if they smoked mentholated as opposed to nonmentholated cigarettes.

* Note that self-reports of other cardiopulmonary conditions (hypertension, MI, heart failure, COPD) were not more common among those smoking menthol cigarettes.

People who smoke menthol cigarettes were more likely to have a history of stroke than smokers who prefer regular cigarettes, an analysis of federal health survey data indicated.

Among 5,167 current smokers participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2001 to 2008, those who reported that they usually smoke menthol cigarettes were more than twice as likely to have had a stroke as those smoking nonmenthol cigarettes, according to Nicholas Vozoris, MD, MHSc, of St. Michael's Hospital and Queen's University in Toronto.

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• Could Menthol Cigarettes Pose Even Higher Stroke Risk? 

Menthol cigarettes may pose an even greater risk for stroke than other types of cigarettes, especially for women and non-black smokers, says a new, large study.

In the latest look at the hazards of menthols vs. regular cigarettes, Canadian researchers found the stroke risk for those who smoked menthols was more than twice that for regular-cigarette smokers. And for women and non-blacks, the risk was more than three times higher.

But no elevated risk was seen between mentholated cigarette smoking and high blood pressure, heart attack, heart failure and the lung disease chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the researchers said.

Exactly how, or if, smoking menthol cigarettes raises risk of stroke more than other cigarettes types is not fully understood.

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Lifetime Risks of Cardiovascular Disease 

BACKGROUND

The lifetime risks of cardiovascular disease have not been reported across the age spectrum in black adults and white adults.

METHODS

We conducted a meta-analysis at the individual level using data from 18 cohort studies involving a total of 257,384 black men and women and white men and women whose risk factors for cardiovascular disease were measured at the ages of 45, 55, 65, and 75 years. . . .

CONCLUSIONS

Differences in risk-factor burden translate into marked differences in the lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease, and these differences are consistent across race and birth cohorts. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.)

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• Smoking, diabetes increase risk of heart attacks, strokes, death  

They're called "risk factors" for a reason - people with high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and/or a smoking habit are much more likely to have heart attacks, strokes and other manifestations of cardiovascular disease, including death.

A new study coming out in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine analyzed health data on more than 250,000 adults to confirm that those who had any of these risk factors were in greater peril than those who didn't. The more risk factors a person had - and the more severe they were - the greater the lifetime risk of a "cardiovascular event." This trend held for both men and women, and for both whites and blacks.

The raw data in the new study came from 18 so-called cohort studies - including the Framingham Heart Study, the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial, the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Artherosclerorisis - that examined people at least once when they were around the ages of 45, 55, 65 and 75.

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Your stroke risk profile may also help predict your risk of memory problems 

A new study shows a person's stroke risk profile, which includes high blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes, may also be helpful in predicting whether a person will develop memory and thinking problems later in the life. The research is published in the Nov. 8, 2011, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Researchers in the REGARDS study followed 23,752 people with an average age of 64 who were free of stroke and cognitive problems at the start of the study. Participants underwent a Framingham Stroke Risk Profile, which is used to determine a person's risk of stroke by measuring their age, blood pressure, education level, history of heart disease, smoking and diabetes status, and whether they have left ventricular hypertrophy (a thickening of the heart muscle) and an abnormal heart rhythm.

After an average of four years of follow-up, 1,907 people had developed memory and thinking problems.

The study found the higher a person's score on the Stroke Risk Profile, the greater the chance of developing cognitive problems four years later. Fifteen percent of people who scored among the highest 25 percent on the Stroke Risk Profile test (greater than 11.99 points) had cognitive problems compared to three percent of those who scored among the bottom 25 percent with a score below 3.4 points.

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Vascular risk factors and cognitive impairment in a stroke-free cohort 

Conclusions: Total FSRP score, elevated blood pressure, and LVH predict development of clinically significant cognitive dysfunction. Prevention and treatment of high blood pressure may be effective in preserving cognitive health.

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Your stroke risk profile may also help predict your risk of memory problems 

A new study shows a person's stroke risk profile, which includes high blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes, may also be helpful in predicting whether a person will develop memory and thinking problems later in the life. The research is published in the Nov. 8, 2011, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Researchers in the REGARDS study followed 23,752 people with an average age of 64 who were free of stroke and cognitive problems at the start of the study. Participants underwent a Framingham Stroke Risk Profile, which is used to determine a person's risk of stroke by measuring their age, blood pressure, education level, history of heart disease, smoking and diabetes status, and whether they have left ventricular hypertrophy (a thickening of the heart muscle) and an abnormal heart rhythm. . . .

The study found the higher a person's score on the Stroke Risk Profile, the greater the chance of developing cognitive problems four years later. Fifteen percent of people who scored among the highest 25 percent on the Stroke Risk Profile test (greater than 11.99 points) had cognitive problems compared to three percent of those who scored among the bottom 25 percent with a score below 3.4 points.

"Overall, it appears that the total Stroke Risk Profile score, while initially created to predict stroke, is also useful in determining the risk of cognitive problems," said study author Frederick Unverzagt, PhD, of Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis.

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