Arteries Improve After Smokers Quit, Study Finds

ATLANTA — Quitting smoking can turn back time.

A year after kicking the habit, smokers' arteries showed signs of reversing a problem that can set the stage for heart disease, according to the first big study to test this.

The improvement came even though smokers gained an average of 9 pounds after they quit, researchers found. Their levels of so-called good cholesterol improved, too.

"A lot of people are afraid to quit smoking because they're afraid to gain weight," said the study's leader, Dr. James Stein, a University of Wisconsin-Madison cardiologist.

The new research shows these people gain a health benefit even though they pick up pounds that hopefully can be shed once they've gotten used to not smoking, he said.

Smoking is one of the top causes of heart disease, and about one third of smoking-related deaths in the U.S. are due to heart disease. A heart attack often motivates longtime smokers to give it up.

Quitting is known to lower the risk of developing or dying of lung cancer. This is the first major clinical trial to show it quickly improves artery health. Results were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and presented at the group's annual conference on Monday.

In the study, 1,500 smokers were given one of five methods to help them quit – nicotine patches; nicotine lozenges; the drug bupropion, sold as Wellbutrin and Zyban; or a combination of patches and lozenges or the drug and lozenges. A sixth group received a dummy treatment.

After one year, 36 percent had quit, and it made no difference which method they used, Stein said.

Before the study started and one year after smokers quit, doctors did ultrasound tests to see how well blood vessel linings relaxed and handled blood flow. Hardening of the arteries is an early step to heart disease. Using a tourniquet, they stopped blood flow in the forearm for a few minutes, then measured how a major artery responded when the flow was restored.

"It's a valid test" and is considered a good sign of how healthy the heart arteries are, said Dr. Alfred Bove, a Temple University heart specialist and president of the cardiology group.

Doctors found that artery function improved 1 percent in the quitters.

"That may not sound like much," but research shows that translates to a 14 percent lower risk of developing heart disease, Stein said.

"It's a small improvement at one year. The question is, do these folks keep getting better?" Bove said.

The study is continuing another two years to give an answer, Stein said.

London-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC provided smoking cessation medicines for that part of the study, and several authors have research funding from the company. Federal government grants paid for the artery study.

___

On the Net:

Cardiology conference: http://www.acc.org

Quit-smoking guide: http://www.smokefree.gov

Comments

[johnsopinion]

11:12 PM on 03/17/2010

Here we go again.
Where are the articles on alcohol, social drinking, perfumes,
beer, guns, texting-talking on cell phones while driving, mental
isolation, being ignored, peer pressure, bogus psychologists,
pill pushers, turn-style doctors, etc.?

[cheesecat]

12:09 PM on 03/18/2010

It's not a zero sum game. Just because this article demonizes smoking doesn't mean the other things you list are tacitly approved.

And I'm pretty sure there isn't an epidemic of perfume killing people. Except in that book...

[johnsopinion]

04:03 PM on 03/18/2010

"...doesn't mean the other things you list are tacitly approved."

Basically, yes it does, by default. Regardless, the point was
missed.

As much as people like to point to and ballyhoo statistics,
banning smoking is based on personal preferences, they
just don't like the smell and attack the easiest targets.
Understandable.
But I believe drunk drivers and alcohol and/or guns in
general causes more deaths than cigarettes. I could be
wrong, but I think statistics will bear me out. And, if statistics
do bear me out, well, for your peace of mind, we'll just
pretend that I wrote nothing. OK?

As for "epidemic of perfume killing people", I'm not familiar
with "that book". But isn't it interesting that you chose the
one category out of the 12 mentioned to latch onto and that
produces no deaths..... as far as we know.

[mlaiuppa]

10:17 PM on 03/17/2010

What does this have to do with the picture of a woman's foot in a pointy stilletto shoe? Better circulation to your feet?

[Willow712]

12:08 PM on 03/19/2010

Yes, I have vein problems in my legs and there's no way I could wear those shoes. lol. I am the fifth generation with vein problems in my family. My Mom had 3 blood clots in her calves, my grandmother had many blood clots, my gr grandfather and my gg grandfather both died in surgery having a vein stripped of a clot which broke loose and killed them. Back then, they ddid not have the medical things they have now.

I wear TED hose every hour I am out of bed. If I don't, within 20 minutes, it looks like I'm walking around on Fred Flintstone feet.

I smoked for over 20 years, and my feet and calves were always swollen, even in TED hose. I quit smoking and the edema went down. I have swelling if I don't wear TED hose, but with them on, the difference is huge. A friend of mine had Raynaud's disease and her fingers would turn black when we went out for a cigarette. She also quit, and hasn't had a problem since.