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The number one controllable risk factor for stroke and heart attack is smoking. By far. Not diet, not exercise, smoking. A significant part of that is because n
by Medicalidiot 7y ago
The number one controllable risk factor for stroke and heart attack is smoking. By far. Not diet, not exercise, smoking. A significant part of that is because nicotine will constrict blood vessels leading to hypertension[1], this leads to destruction of the surface of an artery, leading to atherosclerosis formation. One day the atherosclerotic plaque ruptures and then you see me.
We once thought that atherosclerosis is an old persons disease, where health habits later in life lead are what predicates plaque formation. The Army started noticing fatty streak formation(first stage of atherosclerosis)[2] in arteries of dead soldiers during autopsy, which now leads us to believe this starts in youth and progresses from there.
1) https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/vdp/2005/00000002/00000002/art00006 https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/vdp/2005/00000002...
2) https://media.jamanetwork.com/news-item/autopsy-based-study-examines-prevalence-of-atherosclerosis-among-u-s-service-members/ https://media.jamanetwork.com/news-item/autopsy-based-study-...
- LinuxBender 7y agoHave any of your patients tried reversing the plaque with k2/d3/magnesium. It works for lowering CAC scores, just curious if it also helps with any of the other buildup beyond calcium. Or perhaps serrapeptase/natto.
- amelius 7y agoLook up Linus Pauling's therapy.
- LinuxBender 7y agoI actually ran across his studies some time ago. I've always been curious if the testing to validate his work used real vitamin-C or ascorbic acid. I will dig deeper into that now that you bring it up.
- JanSt 7y agohttps://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/pauling.html https://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/pauling.h...
- JamesBarney 7y agoSmoking is one of the leading risk factors for cardiovascular disease: agreed It starts earlier than a lot of people thought: agreed The primary contributor to smoking's detrimental effects on the cardiovascular system is nicotine: disagree Mind linking to something that shows this? That doesn't agree with the results from the UK study on effects of nicotine versus smoking which puts nicotine's effects at about 5% of the risk of smoking.
- atomi 7y agoYou can test this yourself. Test your blood pressure prior to vaping and then after. If you choose to ignore all else you could argue the rise in BP is transient and not concerning. I personally would not bet my life on it.
- JamesBarney 7y agoI don't know if identifying whether or not something transiently raise my blood pressure is a better measure than a comprehensive report by the UK equivalent of the NIH.
- mcguire 7y agoJogging in place will also transiently raise your blood pressure.
- carapace 7y agoYeah, but it's supposed to. Inhaling something and then your BP goes up means you should not inhale that thing, eh?
- posterboy 7y agoIndeed, too much training can be counter productive. Vice versa, runners can't just stop and settle down, neither after a race nor after a carreer, or they'd risk heart failure. I cannot explain it but I think it's common knowledge.
- 7y ago
- kryogen1c 7y agoI smoked for ~3 years and one of my favorite smoking memories was with a doctor in San Diego. He was going down the standard visit questionnaire and asked if i smoked, so I said yes. He put down his pen, looked me in the eye, and loudly said "STOP". He looked back at the form, picked up his pen, and we carried on.
- thom 7y agoI don't know if your doctor or anyone in this thread is aware of the classic Bob Newhart sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw
- jodrellblank 7y agoOr the Fry and Laurie "Dr Tobacco" sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XewVicFzRxw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XewVicFzRxw
- gwbas1c 7y ago> The number one controllable risk factor for stroke and heart attack is smoking Can you clarify? Do you mean smoking cigarettes? Or do you mean consuming nicotine? What about vaping? How about smoking marijuana?
- mikelyons 7y agoThere's an information imbalance so definitive claims can't be made about cannabis smoking in the way that they can be made about Tobacco smoking.
- graeme 7y agoImsuspect marijuana smoking is just as harmful. The bulk of the trouble from tobacco is from the smoke. And if you look at the health effects of air pollution, they’re very similar to smoking: respiratory infections, heart disease, COPD, stroke and lung cancer Inhaling any burning thing is quite bad for the human organism. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution#Health_effects https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution#Health_effects
- p1necone 7y agoDoes that mean that caffeine is a risk too? Doesn't it have similar effects to nicotine? (I drink a loooooot of coffee).
- aetherspawn 7y agoReally disappointed there’s no comments here. I scrolled this whole thread to see if anyone had talked about coffee. It got me thinking because I know someone who never drank coffee in their life and lived a pretty full life nonetheless otherwise ... they’re over 100 as of recently and still self mobile, super active, sharp as a tack. She even had quite a few children. I consume like 4-5 actual brewed coffees per day. Am I doomed?
- denkmoon 7y agoDoomed to a slightly shorter life, made richer by the enjoyment of a beverage.
- walshemj 7y agoIts bad for blood pressure - I switched to decaf for that reason.
- Gibbon1 7y agoHow something raises BP might be important, tho. /bargaining
- jdietrich 7y agoThe evidence is inconclusive. Some studies show slightly higher all-cause mortality for coffee drinkers, some studies show slightly lower mortality. Either way, the effect size is clinically insignificant. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24279995 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24279995
- dubyah 7y agoCoffee's fine. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.005925 https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.... A nonlinear association between coffee consumption and CVD risk was observed in this meta-analysis. Moderate coffee consumption was inversely significantly associated with CVD risk, with the lowest CVD risk at 3 to 5 cups per day, and heavy coffee consumption was not associated with elevated CVD risk.
- jessewmc 7y agoI'm not an expert, but my understanding is its not at all clear enough to make such a strong, simplistic statement. For example: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2707428 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...
- adonnjohn 7y agoAre there any similar studies for marijuana vapor inhalation?