LETTER: Cardiovascular disease is an umbrella term that includes all types of diseases affecting the heart or blood vessels.
It mainly consists of coronary heart disease (which may present acutely as a heart attack, stroke or heart failure).
According to a large study in the United States, at least one in five male smokers or one in 10 female smokers will die sooner due to cardiovascular disease.
The researchers also found that young smokers (aged between 20 and 40) were at least twice as likely as young non-smokers to die of a heart attack.
Smoking is one of the most well-known behavioural risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Thousands of harmful chemicals are contained in cigarette smoke that can lead to multiple adverse health effects.
Besides being an addictive compound, nicotine in cigarette smoke may lead to abnormal blood thickening and a higher chance of blood clot formation in the major blood vessels.
Oxidative damage and the narrowing of the blood vessel space may also occur.
As a result, a heart attack can happen if a blood clot blocks the circulation in a coronary artery (which supplies blood to the heart muscle).
Tobacco use doubles the risk of a heart attack. Co-existence of another major risk factor (such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or obesity) may triple or even quadruple the risk.
Based on the National Cardiovascular Disease database, around 93 per cent of heart attack patients had at least one of the common cardiovascular risk factors.
The 2018-2019 registry report showed that up to 34 per cent of heart attack patients are smokers. A worrying trend is that they have been active smokers for the past two years (from 33.9 per cent in 2018 to 34.5 per cent in 2019).
Quitting smoking cuts the risk of cardiovascular disease dramatically. If a smoker quits smoking for 15 years, the risk of coronary heart disease will be decreased, similar to that of a non-smoker.
Research has also shown that mortality is reduced by 36 per cent for ex-smoker patients with coronary heart disease compared with smokers.
If you smoke, you should give it up as soon as possible by seeking professional help at the local quit smoking clinics or designated medical facilities.
It was thought that heart attacks would affect older adults more often than young adults. Such an assumption may not apply fully nowadays as young adults are potentially exposed to the risk factors of cardiovascular disease.
Banning the sale of tobacco products, including electronic vapourisers, to Malaysians born in 2007 and after means that those aged 18 (the current legal age for smoking) or younger will not be allowed to purchase
cigarettes or vaping products in two years' time.
This effort, dubbed the generational end game by the Health Ministry, is commendable to reduce the number of young smokers in Malaysia.
Indeed, one of the best things you can do to maintain good cardiovascular health is not to use tobacco in any form (or quit smoking).
DR YAP JUN FAI
PROFESSOR DR MOY FOONG MING
DR LIM YIN CHENG
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya; Department of Public Health, University Malaya Medical Centre
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times