People who smoke only a few cigarettes a
day significantly raise their risk of having a heart attack and dying prematurely, a study claims.
Danish heart doctors closely tracked the smoking habits and cardiac health of 12,000 men and women from 1976 to 1998. During this period, 2,883 men and 2,305 women died from all causes - 872 men and 476 women had a heart attack.
Compared with non-smokers, men doubled their risk of a heart attack if they smoked six to nine cigarettes a day. Even if they did not inhale, the risk still increased by 13 per cent, the study found.
Women were at even greater threat. Inhaling the smoke of just three to five cigarettes a day doubled a woman's chance of a heart attack or death from all causes. Smoking six to nine cigarettes a day, but not inhaling, boosted that risk by almost 60 per cent.
Women appear to be especially vulnerable because they are more prone to respiratory disease than men, and smoking affects levels of oestrogen, a hormone known to protect against cardiovascular disease, the authors say.
The study appears in the Journal of the Epidemiology and Community Health published by the British medical Association.
AFP