Just one cigarette is enough to increase the risk of stroke, new study reveals

Those who believe that reducing smoking will improve their health, the following study conducted by British scientists will make them think again. According to the study’s results, even one cigarette a day increases the risk of coronary artery disease by 50% and stroke by 30%.

The study estimates that the risk of smoking one cigarette per day is greater than previously thought and equals about half the risk of smoking 20 cigarettes a day.

The researchers, headed by Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics of the University of London School of Medicine (UCL), Allan Hackshaw, who published the publication in the British Medical Journal, studied (meta-analysis) the findings of 141 investigations of the 1946-2015 period and calculated the risk of smoking one, five or twenty cigarettes.

They concluded that men who smoke a cigarette a day have 46% of the increased risk of heart disease and 41% of the stroke risk for those who smoke a pack a day. For women, who smoke a cigarette a day the respective percentages are 31% and 34%, compared to the risk of smoking 20 cigarettes.

In relation to those who do not smoke at all, smoking a cigarette increases the risk of coronary heart disease in women (119%) than in men (74%).

The researchers stated that the study disputes the misconception of many smokers and doctors that smoking only a few cigarettes causes little or no risk. Smokers should quit smoking, if they want to reduce their health risk significantly.

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