3/26/2007 - Quitting smoking may reverse artery damage

March 24, 2007—People who haven't smoked in more than a decade have arteries that are just as healthy as if they'd never picked up the habit, suggests a study in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Among its many harmful effects, smoking has been associated with stiffening of the arteries. Stiffened arteries make the heart work harder to pump blood and can lead to high blood pressure and other heart problems.

“Our study reinforces the message that smoking cessation is an important step smokers can take to enhance the quality and length of their lives,” said Noor Ahmed Jatoi, the lead author of the study and a doctoral student at the University of Dublin in Ireland. “It shows both the unhealthy effects of smoking and the benefit of smoking cessation on the arterial wall. The longer one stops smoking, the better.”

Researchers studied 554 people with an average age of 47 who had high blood pressure but had never been treated for it. Of the participants, 150 were current smokers; 136 had quit smoking and 268 had never smoked.

“We categorized ex-smokers according to how long they were off cigarettes – under one year, more than one but less that 10 years, and more than 10 years,” Jatoi said.

Researchers measured the stiffness of the participants’ arteries and found that both current smokers and people who had only recently quit had significantly higher artery stiffness measurements than nonsmokers.

But over time, arterial stiffness improved in former smokers. Researchers found some improvement after one to 10 years of nonsmoking. And those who had quit for more than 10 years had arterial stiffness measurements that were comparable to the levels registered by nonsmokers.

The researchers added that more long-term studies need to be done to confirm the results.