That one cigarette could trigger a heart attack - a bad one. Talk about a drag.
Cigarettes are a well-known cause of heart disease, among other illnesses.
Researchers have long established that smoking, over the long term, contributes to hardening of the arteries, which narrows the flow of blood to the heart muscle and can cause chest pain and, eventually, heart attacks. But a team of researchers from Hartford and Boston has found that cigarettes also have an immediate effect. An individual cigarette can actually set off a heart attack. The research was presented in early March at the American Heart Association's annual conference on cardiovascular disease epidemiology and prevention in San Antonio. Smoking is going to give you a heart attack, not just heart disease,'' says Dr. Satyendra Giri, associate director of the Angiographic Core Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.