A follow-up report shows that giving up smoking decreases the risk of coronary heart disease.

The Five Year Lung Study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is looking at the health of a group of nearly 6,000 smokers. All considered themselves healthy, though they had mild to moderate lung impairment at the start of the study.

They were placed in three groups. One received help with smoking cessation and an inhaler to help lung function. The second group also had smoking cessation support and used a placebo inhaler. The third group received the usual care. In the first two groups, more than 20 per cent achieved long term smoking cessation, compared to just 5.4 per cent in the usual care group.

There were 149 fatal events during this time - of which half were due to cardiovascular disease. Those in the two smoking cessation groups were significantly less likely to have suffered from heart disease, the researchers say.

Source

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine August 2002