Cigarette Smoking and a Lethal Heart Disease
Cardiomyopathy. I had never heard of it before, but there it was listed as the form of heart disease that felled not one or two but all three of the artificial heart recipients.
A little research produced some interesting results. According to an article in the Nov. 8, 1984, New England Journal of Medicine, cigarette smoking causes this lethal disease that weakens the heart’s pumping power. While the exact mechanism is not clear, Dr. Arthur J. Hartz of the Medical College of Wisconsin, who conducted the study, speculated that nicotine or carbon monoxide in the smoke somehow poisons the heart and leads to heart failure.
Were the three gentlemen who made history as the first permanent artificial heart recipients, smokers? Indeed they were. Barney Clark had a 25-year history of cigarette smoking. William Schroeder smoked for 30 years, while Murray Haydon smoked heavily for 40 years.
Hopefully, it is possible to state facts without being judgmental or accusatory. Indeed, Americans should be able to make informed decisions as to whether or not to indulge.
That smoking is a major cause of lung cancer and emphysema is well known. But many are unaware that smoking also significantly increases the risk of heart disease, the nation’s No. 1 killer.
Surgeon General C. Everett Koop warns that smoking causes more deaths from heart disease than it does from cancer. He points out that if present trends continue, one in 10 Americans will die of smoking-related heart disease.
The American Heart Assn. lists smoking as one of the major risk factors, living conditions or characteristics likely to increase the chance of a heart attack. Others are lack of exercise, a high intake of animal fat, high blood pressure and stress.
The doctors who directed the landmark Framingham Heart Study, sketched a profile of the likely heart attack victim. He is a somewhat overweight, hard-driven man who eats lots of salt, loves fatty foods, smokes cigarettes and never exercises.
Nor are women exempt from the devastating effects of the weed. An article in the Nov. 25, 1983, Journal of the American Medical Assn. warns that women under 50 who smoke cigarettes are five times as likely to have heart attacks as women the same age who do not smoke. Women who both smoke and use the birth control pill are 10 times more likely to die of a heart attack or other circulatory disorders than women who neither smoke nor take the pill.
Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, world-renowned heart specialist, says that children should be taught about the danger of smoking and overeating and the benefits of exercise and self-control from the earliest years of elementary school. He cites evidence that good eating habits and a healthy life style can help Americans avoid fatal heart disease.
Individual responsibility then, can help us avoid many of the maladies that have stumped the experts. Indeed, prevention is the watchword and the next major advance in medical science will be what we do for ourselves!
SUZANNE SUTTON
Perris
