Researchers reveal age when smoking becomes extremely deadly
Why smoking is especially dangerous during adolescence (photo: Magnific)
Smoking in adolescence is a common mistake that many people consider a normal phase of growing up.
Why this habit is particularly dangerous at this age is explained by research published in Nature.
What the research on smoking showed
However, large-scale scientific findings prove that if a person picks up a cigarette before the age of 20, it can have catastrophic consequences for their health in adulthood — even if they quit smoking completely decades later.
Scientists from Seoul National University Hospital (South Korea) and Johns Hopkins University (USA) have published results of two independent studies that fundamentally change our understanding of safe exposure levels and the body’s recovery time.
As part of the study, Korean researchers analyzed data from 9,295,979 adults. At the start of monitoring in 2009, none of them had a history of heart disease or stroke. About 3.7 million of them were smokers, and a quarter of this group started smoking before the age of 20, while 2% began before the age of 15.
Over 9.3 years of observation, the authors identified a clear and alarming pattern:
- Double risk of heart attack: those who started smoking before 20 and smoked heavily (more than 20 pack-years) had more than double the risk of heart attack compared to non-smokers.
- 80% increased risk of stroke: the risk of acute cerebrovascular events in this group rose by nearly two-thirds.
- Critical age threshold of 15: teenagers who had their first cigarette before 15 showed the highest rates of mortality and severe cardiovascular events.
Most importantly, the risks remained abnormally high even after adjusting for total smoking exposure. In other words, even if a person started early but quit quickly, their blood vessels were still more damaged than those of people who first smoked after the age of 30.
Researchers explain this by noting that adolescents’ blood vessels are extremely vulnerable to toxins, and chronic inflammation, blood thickening, and arterial damage (atherosclerosis) begin in childhood, also forming a strong nicotine addiction.
At the same time, researchers from the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA), led by cardiology professor Michael Blaha, debunked the myth of the safety of so-called light smoking. They combined data from 22 studies covering 330,000 people over 20 years.
The results, published in PLOS Medicine, shocked doctors.
Smoking just 2 to 5 cigarettes per day was associated with a 50% increased risk of heart failure and a 60% higher risk of death from any cause compared to people who had never smoked.
30-year risk tail: the risk of cardiovascular disease drops most sharply in the first decade after quitting smoking. However, even 30 years after the last cigarette, former smokers still have a higher risk of disease than people who have never smoked.
Both studies once again prove that there is no safe dose of nicotine or “acceptable” age for smoking.
The earlier a teenager or young person quits this habit, the greater the chance that their vascular system will reach old age without catastrophic consequences.
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