Quitting Smoking Reduces Heart Risks despite Weight Gain

One of the smartest moves to improve overall health is to quit smoking. But most smokers abandon the idea of quitting the addictive habit of smoking with the fear of gaining weight. Gaining weight after you quit smoking is common and is something that cannot be avoided.  But the interesting fact is that the chances of suffering a heart attack and stroke reduces on quitting smoking, even if the weight increases.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, states that post-smoking, weight gain does not increase the person's chances of developing cardiovascular disease or death even if he/she is suffering with diabetes.

According to Carole Clair, M.D., of the University of Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland, and colleagues, the latest study discovers that those with diabetes who quit smoking lowered their risk of suffering a heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death by 50 percent, irrespective of the weight gain.

In order to prove the finding, the researchers analyzed data on 3,251 people that were a part of the Offspring Cohort of the landmark Framingham Heart study. These participants didn't show any cardiovascular disease at the beginning of the analysis. The data was collected from 1984-2011.

The participants underwent a physical examination every four years. During each visit, the researchers recorded their smoking habits, calculated their BMI and measured the cholesterol and blood glucose levels. Based on their smoking habits, they were categorized as 'smoker', 'recent quitter' (within the previous four  years), 'long-term quitter' (who quit smoking more than four years) and 'non-smokers'.

They noticed that on the whole, the smokers, non-smokers and long-term quitters increased an average of 1-2 pounds during the visits that happened every four years. While those who quit within the previous four years gained more weight, they had an increase of 5-10 pounds.

Among the diabetic participants, the ones who recently quit smoking noticed a steep increase in their weight, at least 6 pounds, when compared to the long-term quitters and smokers as they gained just 1 pound. Non-smokers gained 3 pounds.

Dr. James Meigs, one of the authors of the study at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in BBC stating: "We can now say without question that stopping smoking has a very positive effect on cardiovascular risk for patients with and without diabetes, even if they experience moderate weight gain."

Nearly 631 cardiovascular events occurred during the 25 years follow-up, out of which 337 were of heart attacks and 147 were strokes, reports My Health News Daily.