Health

Smokers Suffer Heart Attacks at a Younger Age

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According to a new study.

Smokers tend to suffer heart attacks years earlier than non-smokers, suggests a new study from Michigan.

“Individuals who smoke are much more likely to have a heart attack, and will present with a heart attack a decade or more earlier,” said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a cardiologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, who wasn’t involved in the new study.

The findings, he said, also show that people who smoke “could have a heart attack in the absence of other risk factors.”

Researchers led by Dr. Michael Howe from the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor studied about 3,600 people who were hospitalized with a heart attack or unstable angina.

One-quarter of the patients were current smokers. And on average, they were younger with fewer health problems than non-smokers with heart trouble.

The mean ages at hospital admission were 64 for non-smoking men vs 55 for male smokers. For women, mean ages were 70 for non-smokers and 57 for smokers.

Smokers were less likely to have other health problems that are linked to cardiac risks, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes.

That and their younger age explained why researchers also found that smokers were less likely to die in the six months following the index event than non-smokers.

That “smoker’s paradox” — the idea that smokers who have a heart attack have better outcomes, including a lower risk of death — didn’t last. The difference in death over the next six months was explained by age and other risk factors.

Dr. Fonarow said the findings are just one more example of the heart dangers posed by smoking, but emphasized that kicking the habit can erase those extra risks.

“Even within a few days of stopping smoking, there is a reduction in (heart) risk. As time goes by, within one to two years much of that risk is gone for heart attacks,” he told Reuters Health. “From a coronary risk standpoint, there is an immediate benefit and that continues to extend over time.”

Smoking is just a very bad risk factor for cardiac disease.

You know how I feel.

Please quit if you can and don’t start…..

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Diet

Vitamin E Supplements May Increase Risk for Prostate Cancer?

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YES, according to a new study.

Men who take a daily vitamin E supplement — a regimen once thought to reduce cancer risk — face an increased risk of prostate cancer, according to results of a large national study.

The finding comes from a report summarizing the latest results of the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). Eric Klein, M.D., chair of the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at Cleveland Clinic, is the lead author.

SELECT began in 2001 to test earlier research suggesting selenium and vitamin E supplements may reduce the risk of developing certain cancers. Some vitamin supplements containing enhanced levels of selenium and vitamin E were marketed to consumers during this time period with claims of reducing cancer risk.

The paper, which will appear in the October 12 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that a group of men taking a daily dose of 400 IU of vitamin E from 2001 to 2008 had 17 percent more cases of prostate cancer than men who took a placebo.

“For the typical man, there appears to be no benefit in taking vitamin E, and in fact, there may be some harm,” said Dr. Klein, an internationally renowned prostate cancer expert who served as the national study coordinator.

Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in American men with a current lifetime risk of 16 percent. For 2011 it is estimated 240,000 new cases and 33,000 deaths will result in the U.S.

Well, I am not taking a vitamin E supplement and will not start now. I am taking a vitamin D supplement, but will discuss continuing this with my physician at my annual physical  exam next month.

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