BOSTON Reuter: Medical researchers have unveiled new evidence that cigarette smoking causes stroke.
Ina report in the New England Journal of Medicine investigators from Maryland North Carolina and Hawaii said their study of 7872 men showed that smokers were two to three times more likely to have a stroke than nonsmokers.
When the men quit smoking their risk of a stroke was reduced by more than 50 per cent.
Stoke is the third leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer.
The findings come at a time when the number of US deaths due to stroke has declined more than 30 per cent between 1968 and 1976. Much of the decline is attributed to increased efforts by doctors and health educators to control high blood pressure a major risk factor for stroke.
The new study led by Robert Abbott of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda MD found that without exception cigarette smokers had a higher incidence of stroke than nonsmokers regardless of the number of cigarettes smoked.
Abbott and his colleagues said a cigarette may promote a stroke by increasing blood pressure narrow the blood vessels going through the brain or creating blook clots in the brain.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 26, 1986
