Smoking can cause sudden death

It is a known fact that smoking increases the risk of heart disease, but now smoking also raises the risk of sudden cardiac death in people who already have heart disease. However, for people who are able to quit the habit, the increased risk of sudden death seems to disappear immediately. Sudden cardiac death occurs when a person's heart abruptly stops beating, and coronary artery disease - the clogging of arteries supplying the heart with blood - is the most common cause. Smoking increases the risk of developing coronary artery disease, but it has been uncertain whether smoking increases the risk of sudden cardiac death in people who already have heart disease. Researchers from the Chaim Sheba Medical Centre in Tel Hashomer, Israel, included more than 3,000 people with coronary artery disease in their study. Everyone in the study had either had a heart attack or angina pain. The participants were followed up for an average of about 8 years.

It was found that current smokers were more than twice as likely to experience sudden cardiac death during the study than people who had never smoked. The study found that former smokers had a similar risk of sudden cardiac death as people who had never smoked. No matter how long it had been since they quit, former smokers did not have an increased risk of sudden cardiac death. Hence, continued cigarette smoking significantly elevates the risk of sudden cardiac death in patients with coronary artery disease. According to the researchers, the fact that the increased risk of sudden cardiac death virtually disappears after a person stops smoking suggests that something in cigarette smoke has a direct toxic effect that increases the risk of sudden cardiac death. One possibility is that nicotine somehow triggers an irregular heart rhythm that can cause sudden cardiac death.

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