Scientists from Amsterdam University found that smoking cessation adds the same number of heart disease-free years to life as three preventive medications combined.
They found that kicking the habit appears to be as effective as taking three medications for preventing heart attacks and strokes in those with a prior heart attack or procedure to open blocked arteries.
Patients could gain nearly five years of healthy life.
The research was presented at ESC Preventive Cardiology 2022 and was conducted by Dr. Tinka Van Trier et al.
In the study, the team used data from 989 patients aged 45 years and older who were still smoking at least six months after having a heart attack and/or undergoing stent implantation or bypass surgery.
The average age was 60 years and 23% were women. Patients were generally well treated with standard preventive medications (antiplatelets, statins, and blood pressure-lowering drugs).
The researchers found that the estimated benefit of quitting smoking appeared to be comparable to using all three pharmaceutical treatments.
Smoking cessation resulted in a gain of 4.81 event-free years while the three medications together provided a gain of 4.83 event-free years.
This indicates that smoking cessation is a very important step toward adding healthy years to one’s lifetime.
It is important to remember that the analysis did not even account for the other advantages of giving up the habit—for example, respiratory illnesses, cancer, and longevity.
Scientists know that cigarette smoking is responsible for 50% of all avoidable deaths in smokers, of which half are due to heart disease.
Giving up cigarettes after a heart attack is linked with improved survival compared with persistent smoking.
The team says if you are considering becoming smoke-free, or would like more information about it, please talk to a health professional.
Your motivation is key to successfully quit, but beating an addiction becomes easier with medical and psychological assistance.
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If you care about smoking, please read studies about why some non-smokers get lung disease and some heavy smokers do not, and smoking cessation drug may help treat Parkinson’s disease.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about new way to prevent heart attacks, strokes, and results showing this very common drug for heart disease may reduce COVID-19 risk.
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