Smoking can burst the big artery
Researchers have warned that individuals who smoke may be nearly twice as much likely to develop an aneurysm of the abdominal aorta.
It could be a silent killer.
An abdominal aortic aneurysm is a bulge in the large artery that supplies blood to the belly, pelvis and legs and can lead to severe internal bleeding, if the artery ruptures, which usually proves fatal for the patient.
However, the risk of this potentially life-threatening condition can be reduced by quitting to smoke, said the study published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
‘Our study quantified the lifetime risk of an abdominal aortic aneurysm and found that it was far from trivial for smokers,’ said lead author Weihong Tang, Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, in the US.
‘And we quantified the benefit of quitting smoking, which turns out to be substantial,’ Tang added.
For the study, the team looked at 15,792 people over the age of 45 and found that 1 in 17 had a lifetime risk of an abdominal aortic.
Among those who had quit smoking for three to eight years (recent quitters) still had an approximately 2.6 to 3.5 fold increased risk for both clinical and asymptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysm in the next 15 years compared to never smokers.
The lifetime risk of smokers was 6.6 per cent higher than long-term quitters.
In addition, age or having high levels of bad cholesterol also increased the risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm, the researchers noted.
If you smoke, stop it for being a victim of a silent killer – aneurysm of the abdominal aorta, in addition to other reasons as well!
