Can Quitting Smoking cause Heart Attack ?

Smoking Cessation and Myocardial Infarction‬‬ are often co-related to each other. Smoking Cessation is the process of quitting smoking, while Myocardial Infarction‬‬ is commonly known as heart attack. Most smokers think that they will get a Heart Attack if the try to stop smoking, while its opposite is worth believing. Smoking can eventually lead you to a Myocardial Infarction‬‬.

Here we will provide some in-depth information that we have collected after researching for Smoking Cessation and Myocardial Infarction‬‬.

Recently a study was conducted in US on 2400 heart attack survivors from 377 different hospitals. Only those survivors are selected for research who were above 65 years of age and current or recent smokers. Some surprising facts were found in the research.

Heart Attack Risk Calculator

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• 96% of these survivors received a smoking cessation counselling.
• Only 9.8% took any medication to help in smoking cessation within 90 days of discharge.
• This figure rose to 13% within a period of 1 year.
• Whites and Women are more eager to quit smoking.

The above research concludes that either people don't believe in Smoking Cessation Medication or they don't want to quit. There is still great room for improvement in making our Smoking Cessation Counselling a little better. Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of hospitalization in Canada (not very far from US). Risk is twice more than a non-smoker. A better Smoking Cessation Counselling can result in a better success rate.

Smoking Cessation and Myocardial Infarction‬‬

Previously some people used to say that some Smoking Cessation drugs make a person prone to heart attack (Myocardial Infarction‬‬). This is a complete myth. Some researches are present to verify this thing.
Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Dusseldorf published a research report in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. They researched health information of 150,000 smokers in England. they were tracked for 6 months when they started any sort of Smoking Cessation. Some people used nicotine replacement therapy (patches, chewing gum or lozenges) while some took some prescribed medicines like varenicline or buproprion . The risk of hearth attack and mental illness was found same in both groups. So its a myth that Smoking Cessation drugs cause heart attack.

United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a safety warning in relation to varenicline. This safety warning is limiting access to this effective drug. According to Professor Daniel Kotz, from the Medical Faculty of the Heinrich-Heine-University Dusseldorf, "Smokers typically lose three months of life expectancy for every year of continued smoking". According to him varenicline is an effective drug.

Heart Attack may occur itself due to side effects of smoking. But people blame it on drugs. So instead of spreading such rumors we should inspire people for Smoking Cessation, which will not only make our health better but also create a better environment for next generations.