November is a smoke-free month, and it may be the start of withdrawal and years of sobriety for current smokers. If this study presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) Meeting estimates that it takes 15 years of quitting smoking to regain the level of cardiovascular risk of a non-smoker, it also reveals that a few years of abstinence are enough. to reduce its risk by 38% compared to those who continue to smoke. An encouraging result that should encourage people to quit regardless of their smoking history.
Many studies have previously suggested that the increased risk of cardiovascular disease in smokers decreases a few years after quitting, but these studies did not look at smoking history, including changes in smoking habits, such as variation the number of cigarettes smoked per day. According to these preliminary data, it takes well over 15 years for the risk of developing cardiovascular disease to return to that of a non-smoker.
70% of cardiovascular diseases are concentrated in heavy smokers (who have smoked at least 20 pack-years): in this analysis, the researchers took into account the lifetime smoking history of nearly 8,700 participants in the Framingham Heart Study, free of cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. The midpoint of follow-up among participants was 27 years, during which time the risk of cardiovascular disease was compared among current smokers, former smokers and non-smokers. This analysis finds that:
- more than 70% of cardiovascular diseases in current smokers or former smokers have developed in patients who have smoked at least 20 pack-years, ie the equivalent of smoking one pack a day for 20 years;
- former smokers who had quit within the past 5 years reduced their risk of cardiovascular disease by 38% compared to those who continued to smoke; and this, on average, all antecedents of weaning combined;
- it takes precisely 16 years, since quitting smoking, to regain a risk of cardiovascular disease at the same level as that of those who have never smoked.
Quitting smoking leads quickly, at most within 5 years, to a strong reduction in the risk of heart attack, cerebrovascular accident (CVA) or other forms of risk of cardiovascular disease.
