Smoking has never been good for health, but a recent study shows that smoking is even more harmful for people who have stroke problems. According to a group of Australian researchers, who recently conducted a study on smoking and stroke patients, found that smoking increases the risk of heart attack in stroke patients.
"Smokers are more likely to do badly after a stroke," said lead researcher Amanda Thrift, a professor of epidemiology at Monash University.
The researchers also note that stroke patients who gave up smoking before they suffered a stroke were more likely to survive the attack than patients that continued smoking.
"Stop smoking, because one of the things we showed is that people who gave up smoking had a much greater benefit than those who were still smoking," Thrift said. "There are real benefits to be gained from giving up smoking."
The study was conducted after collecting the date of over 1,500 patients who had suffered a stroke attack between 1996 and 1999. Researches followed up this data for 10 years and found that stroke patients who smoked during their stroke were "30 percent more likely to have another stroke, heart attack or die" as compared to patients who didn't smoke.
"Smoking predisposes people to hardening of the arteries and stroke," said Dr. Rafael Ortiz, director of the Center for Stroke and Neuro-Endovascular Surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who was not involved in the study.
"Never start smoking," Ortiz said. "If you're a current smoker, stop, because it predisposes you to having a stroke and if you have a stroke it will have a worse outcome and it predisposes you to have a stroke at an earlier age."
"Quit smoking," Patricia Folan, director of the Center for Tobacco Control at the North Shore-LIJ Health System in Great Neck, N.Y. said.
"If we can convince people that smoking is going to have a big impact not only in their life span, but also in their quality of life in terms of not having a stroke or heart attack, that's the most important message," Folan added.
