A major new study has found that even people who smoke just a few cigarettes each day face a much higher risk of heart problems and early death than those who never smoked.
This risk remains high for many years—even decades—after quitting. The study was led by Michael Blaha from the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and was published in the journal PLOS Medicine.
It’s already well known that smoking is harmful to the heart, but this study looked deeper into the risks for people who only smoke a little. Many people today are smoking fewer cigarettes than in the past, so researchers wanted to understand if “light smoking” is safer. The answer, according to this large study, is no.
The research team reviewed data from over 300,000 adults who took part in 22 different long-term studies. These studies followed people for nearly 20 years. During that time, researchers recorded more than 125,000 deaths and over 54,000 serious heart-related events, including heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure.
The results showed that people who smoked just two to five cigarettes a day were still at much greater risk than people who never smoked. These low-intensity smokers had a 50% higher risk of developing heart failure and a 60% higher risk of dying from any cause.
There is some good news, though. People who quit smoking saw their heart risk drop, especially in the first 10 years after quitting. The longer a person went without smoking, the more their risk decreased. However, even 30 years after quitting, former smokers still faced more health risks than lifelong non-smokers.
This study shows that quitting early is much better than simply cutting back. While some people think smoking less is good enough, the research clearly shows that the only way to truly reduce your health risks is to stop smoking completely—and to do it as early as possible.
The authors of the study say that these findings are among the most reliable to date. They used high-quality data and followed people over long periods. They said it’s “remarkable how harmful smoking is” and pointed out that even small amounts of smoking can do serious damage.
Public health experts hope these results will remind people that smoking in any amount is dangerous. Programs that help people quit smoking—and efforts to prevent young people from starting—remain critical to protecting public health.
In summary, even smoking just a few cigarettes a day can lead to serious heart problems and early death. The best step anyone can take is to quit smoking completely and as soon as possible. The longer you stay smoke-free, the more your health can improve.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk, and Vitamin K2 could help reduce heart disease risk.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about how to remove plaques that cause heart attacks, and results showing a new way to prevent heart attacks, strokes.
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