Passive smoking increases the risk of stroke

German Stroke Assistance: Stroke hazard due to passive smoking

01/06/2012

Increased stroke risk also for passive smokers. On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, experts throughout Germany informed about the different risks of tobacco use and ways to combat addiction. The German Stroke Assistance Foundation in Gütersloh took World No Tobacco Day as an opportunity to point out the increased risk of stroke among passive smokers.

Even the passively inhaled smoke of five cigarettes a day, leading to a significant increase in the risk of stroke, reports the Foundation German Stroke Help in a message to yesterday's World No Tobacco Day. The experts estimate that the number of strokes from passive smoking in Germany is around 1,800 per year. Also, children who are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke would have a significantly increased risk (increased by 20 percent) to contract high blood pressure, the Foundation continues. Smokers should therefore be careful not to burden their fellow human beings and especially children with cigarette smoke.

According to the German Stroke Assistance Foundation, the cause of the increased stroke risk among passive smokers is primarily the impairment of the blood vessels by the pollutants in tobacco smoke. „Smoking leads to direct damage to the inner wall of the vessel, resulting in deposits“ (Arteriosclerosis) and can form thromboses at the affected sites, the Foundation reported in its press release. As a result of atherosclerosis, the blood pressure rises and the blood circulation decreases. The impairments have the consequence that in passive smokers already from five cigarettes, which are smoked daily in their environment, the risk of stroke is significantly higher than in people without passive smoking. 1,800 strokes are therefore caused annually by the passive smoking, many end up deadly.

But the German stroke relief also has a good message: If the inhalation of tobacco smoke avoided consistently, the stroke risk goes back again. This applies both to passive smokers and to active tobacco consumers. Over time, the sense of taste and smell returns, normalizes blood pressure and blood circulation and the capacity of the lung increases again, reports the German stroke help on the positive effects of smoking cessation. (Fp)

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