Tobacco Smoke is dangerous for Heart
Published on June 5, 2009 8:42 AM
Smoking and even cigarette smoke can damage our body, for example, our lungs, our brain, and our heart.
A new research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, found that exposure to smoke can increase the level of stress hormones in the heart which can modify the shape of the left ventricle.
In their experiment, researchers used rats not humans. These rats were exposed to cigarette smoke for a period of five weeks. After the experiment end, the rats were examined through echocardiography.
And they observed the activation of a few enzymes. These kinds of enzymes are called mitogen-activated protein kinases, enzymes which can control cell growth and the survival of heart muscles. The results of this study showed that long exposure to cigarette smoke can modify the shape of the hearts’ left ventricle.
Researchers also found an increased level of the hormone, nonrepinephrine, in the animal’s urine. This hormone is released when a stressful event causes a lot of physiological changes.
The professor, Mariann Piano, said that the activation of these enzymes may be the main culprit in a cigarette smoke which can cause heart disease. She added that cigarette smoke is harmful because it contains more than 4,000 different chemicals, one of which is nicotine. However, the effect of nicotine on the initiation and progression of cigarette smoke-mediated cardiovascular events remains disputable.
Researchers decided to study once again the cigarette smoke only because the data of nicotine replacement therapies collected from clinical trials didn’t show a greater cardiovascular risk even in patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases.
