Experts from the American Heart Association said late last week that three distinct smoking cessation therapies are not serious risks to one’s heart health. This hopes to allay ongoing concerns that these products, which include nicotine replacement patches, may not result in any additional risk of heart attack, similar heart ailments, or stroke.
63 clinical trials and a total of 30,508 patients quitting smoking were analyzed by researchers, and these individuals had been using either one of the following as smoking cessation methods – nicotine patches/gum, nicotine addiction treatment medicine vareniciline (Chantrix), or antidepressant bupropion (Wellbutrin). According to the results of the evaluation, there was no evidence found connecting the above mentioned smoking cessation treatments to the chances of serious heart events. Separate data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that about 45.3 million Americans smoke cigarettes, and that smoking causes about 443,000 deaths per year, or one in every five deaths. Fortunately, the CDC’s data also shows that there are more former smokers than current smokers in the U.S. as of the present.
Smoking cessation, in general, is said to improve one’s quality of life, which may include a greater life expectancy and improved heart health. But quitting smoking, as many current or former smokers would immediately say, is often a case of “easier said than done”, and the CDC admits that nicotine dependency may often need several interventions to cure. Individuals trying to quit smoking experience a number of symptoms related to nicotine withdrawal, such as anxiety, poor concentration, irritability, and unnatural food cravings. Popular smoking cessation therapies like nicotine patches and gum, are known to cause a racing or irregular heartbeat, and the use of multiple therapies, such as wearing a patch and chewing gum, may be more effective, but more likely to bring about side effects.
The study’s authors did stress that they feel the use of multiple smoking cessation therapies at the same time might not be a wise choice for smokers. “These more minor risks are well known to clinicians and usually pass with time,” said study co-author Edward J. Mills, an associate professor of medicine at Stanford University. “They occur most often when people are taking nicotine replacement therapy and smoking at the same time, which is a bad idea.” Still, he added that there are myriad benefits to quitting smoking, and that they “outweigh any potential risks from smoking cessation therapies.”
Separate from the American Heart Association and the CDC, figures also suggest that Americans under the legal age are more likely to start a smoking habit. Earlier in the month, it was revealed in a U.K. study that 600 below-18 individuals per day in the U.K. take up smoking, which is still below the CDC’s findings that about 1,000 Americans below 18 take up smoking per day.