Smoking Bans Cut MI Rate

However, no other risk factors moved in a direction expected to reduce MI rates. Diabetes and obesity rose, while hypertension and High cholesterol prevalence stayed relatively flat.

“As trends in other risk factors do not appear explanatory, smoke-free workplace laws seem to be ecologically related to these favorable trends,” Hurt’s group wrote.

They noted, though, that these trends occurred against a backdrop of declining incidence of sudden cardiac death over the past 30 years and other tobacco control efforts in the state.

Women and Heart Attack

  Heart attacks kills 1 of 4 women, while breast cancer 1 of 16. Heart Attack is a most often cause of death in women than breast cancer.
  The National Registry of Myocardial Infarctions [1] reports that women have a worse outcome than men after having a heart attack. Data showed that women under the age of 50 had twice the mortality of men after having a heart attack. Variances likely reflect increased severity of the disease in younger women.
  Sudden death is more common among women with heart attack.
  Deaths from cardiovascular diseases in women exceed the total number of deaths caused by the next 16 causes.
  60% of women erroneously listed cancer as the leading cause of death among women. Deaths from all cancers in the USA are half as common as deaths from cardiovascular disease.
  Only 31% of women know that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the USA.
  On the average, women take 2-4 hours longer than men to respond to symptoms of heart attack, limiting the beneficial use of some newer treatments like clot busters that work best within the first hour after onset of pain or discomfort.
  From 1983 to 1993, heart attack deaths fell about 30% overall but have not fallen nearly as much for women.

Other limitations included lack of data on self-reported or biochemical markers of second-hand smoke exposure, and the primarily white population studied.

The study was supported in part by grants from ClearWay Minnesota; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; and the National Institute on Aging.

The researchers reported having no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Kalkhoran and Ling reported having no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Primary source: Archives of Internal Medicine
Source reference: Hurt RD, et al “Myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death in Olmsted County, Minnesota, before and after smoke-free workplace laws” Arch Intern Med 2012; DOI: 10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.46.

Additional source: Archives of Internal Medicine
Source reference: Kalkhoran S, Ling PM “Extending the health benefits of clean indoor air policies” Arch Intern Med 2012; DOI: 10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.269.

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