Quitting Smoking Can Significantly Improve Health, Even After Heart Attack
Think that the damage is done after you’ve had a heart attack? It’s never too late to turn around your health, a new study finds. According to researchers, quitting smoking can help improve a smoker’s health after suffering a heart attack, even if the heart’s main pumping valve is permanently damaged.
Smokers who quit after suffering a heart attack can significantly reduce their chances of having recurrent heart attacks in the future, and can increase their life expectancy compared to heart attack survivors who choose to continue smoking, according to previous research. However, little has been studied regarding smoking cessation among heart attack survivors with left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction—a condition in which the heart’s main chamber is drastically less capable of pumping blood—even though these patients are at a much higher risk for repeat adverse cardio outcomes.
Dr. Amil Shah from the Cardiovascular Division of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and his colleagues conducted a study to determine whether this dysfunction might impede on the benefits gained from smoking cessation for heart attack survivors. The researchers investigated 2,231 patients who were diagnosed with LV dysfunction 3–16 days following myocardial infarction and who were registered in the Survival and Ventricular Enlargement (SAVE) database. The patients’ smoking status was assessed during regular follow-ups over a period of 42 months after their initial heart attack. Of the sample population, 263 continued smoking and 463 had successfully quit smoking six months after their attack. All of the patients were assessed regarding their decreased risk of natural mortality, recurrent myocardial infarction incident or death, and heart failure or death attributed by smoking cessation.
Shah and his team discovered that the heart attack survivors with LV dysfunction who had quit smoking were less likely to suffer a repeat heart attack, heart failure, or death within the five years following their initial attack compared to their counterparts who continued to smoke. Only 15% of patients who had quit smoking had suffered another heart attack or died during the five-year period, while 23% of patients who continued smoking either died or experienced another attack. Even with the serious condition of LV dysfunction, heart attack survivors were clearly still able to reap the benefits of smoking cessation as much as other heart attack survivors do. Overall, smoking cessation among these patients was associated with a 40% lowered risk of natural mortality, and 30% lowered risk of recurrent heart attack, heart failure, or related death.
Although the health benefits of smoking cessation may seem fairly obvious, some chronic smokers may not see the need to quit after already having experienced a heart attack or heart failure. For them, the study’s findings may offer reassurance and initiative to quit, especially when diagnosed with the debilitating condition of LV dysfunction. Smoking cessation, even for individuals at high-risk of recurrent heart attack or failure, can dramatically improve their quality of life and wellbeing as much as other heart attack survivors experience.
The researchers hope that their findings will encourage cardiologists or other physicians who handle myocardial infarction patients with or without LV dysfunction to implement smoking cessation therapy in their patients’ aftercare treatment. Furthermore, the researchers suggest that heart attack survivors talk to their doctors about smoking cessation counseling at their hospital, or—if the program is not provided at their hospital—to ask for a referral for a behavioral counseling program that does offer this service. It’s just never too late to quit and choose a healthy lifestyle.
The researchers’ study was published online in the August issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.
Source: Reuters Health, Amy Norton, Quitting smoking helps after serious heart attack damage, August 26, 2010
