Just one cigarette can harm arteries

TORONTO - Even one cigarette has serious adverse effects on young adults, according to new research.

The study found that smoking one cigarette increases the stiffness of the arteries in 18 to 30 year olds by a whopping 25 percent.

Arteries that are stiff or rigid increase resistance in the blood vessels, making the heart work harder. The stiffer the artery, the greater the risk for heart disease or stroke.

“Young adults aged 20-24 years have the highest smoking rate of all age groups in Canada,” says Stella Daskalopoulou, an internal medicine and vascular medicine specialist at the McGill University Health Centre.

“Our results are significant because they suggest that smoking just a few cigarettes a day impacts the health of the arteries. This was revealed very clearly when these young people were placed under physical stress, such as exercise.”

The study compared the arterial stiffness of young smokers (five to six cigarettes a day) to non-smokers. The median age was 21 years. Arterial measurements were taken in the radial artery (in the wrist), the carotid artery (neck) and in the femoral artery (groin), at rest and after exercise, the website Science Daily reported.

Arterial stiffness in both smokers and non-smokers was measured using a new but well established method called applanation tonometry.

Daskalopoulou introduced the ‘arterial stress test’ which measures the arteries’ response to the stress of exercise. The test is comparable to a cardiac stress test, which measures the heart’s response to the stress of exercise.

“In effect we were measuring the elasticity of arteries under challenge from tobacco,” Daskalopoulou explained.

An initial arterial stress test was carried out to establish a baseline measurement for both the non-smokers and the smokers, who were asked not to smoke for 12 hours prior to the test. After the first meeting, smokers returned and smoked one cigarette each and then repeated the stress test. During the final meeting, smokers were asked to chew a piece of nicotine gum prior to the stress test.

Daskalopoulou found that after exercise the arterial stiffness levels in non-smokers dropped by 3.6 percent. Smokers, however, showed the reverse: after exercise their arterial stiffness increased by 2.2 per cent. After nicotine gum, it increased by 12.6 percent. After one cigarette, it increased by 24.5 per cent.

These findings were presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.