Even Occasional Smoking is Dangerous

A recent study made by the University of Georgia, showed that even occasional cigarette smoking might impair the functioning of human's arteries. In previous studies researchers have shown damages of the arterial function among people who smoke regularly, now they found the same smoking effect but in occasional smokers (less than a pack a week).

Why many researchers think that this is a surprising finding? Is surprising because according to this study we can see how detrimental smoking is, that even occasional smoking could diminish people's arteries. The study used ultrasound to measure how the arteries of young, healthy adults respond to changes in blood flow and it showed that the arteries of occasional smokers were 36 percent less responsive to changes in blood flow than the non-smokers.

After the occasional smokers underwent their initial test, they smoked two cigarettes and had their arteries re-examined. The researchers found that smoking dropped their arterial responsiveness by another 24 percent compared to their conditions before they smoked. Doctors in a study said that the healthier an artery is, the more responsive it is to changes in blood flow. A reduction in responsiveness, known as impaired flow-mediated dilation, is an early sign of arterial damage that often foreshadows cardiovascular disease.

Quit now no later because as you saw in this study even healthy people can have heart attacks if they will smoke occasionally only.