Originally published August 9 2005
Smoking women married to smoking men have a higher stroke risk, study says
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
In a study of women smokers, those whose spouses also smoked had a higher risk of stroke than those married to nonsmokers, according to a study in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
The finding appears in the journal Stroke.
Adnan Qureshi, MD, and colleagues compared stroke risk among more than 5,300 married women over 8.5 years.
Stroke risk was nearly six times higher for cigarette-smoking wives with cigarette-smoking husbands than for cigarette-smoking women with nonsmoking husbands, write the researchers.
However, nonsmoking women married to smokers didn't have a higher stroke risk in Qureshi's study.
Perhaps those husbands made an effort not to expose their wives to secondhand smoke, write the researchers.
Stroke is the No. 3 cause of death for U.S. men and women.
When strokes don't kill, they often cause disability.
Getting emergency medical care at the first sign of stroke may help.
Smoking has long been known to raise the risk of heart disease and stroke.
The study looked at one aspect of secondhand smoke --- exposure to smoke from a spouse.
"If physicians are to make a real impact on reducing stroke risk among their patients, they should not only address their patients' smoking habits, but also those of their spouses or partners," says Qureshi in a news release.
Qureshi is a professor and director of the cerebrovascular program at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
The women were about 55 years old, on average.
They were followed for an average of 8.5 years.
The most common type, called an ischemic stroke, is caused by a blood clot that interferes with blood flow to the brain.
In Qureshi's study, ischemic stroke risk was nearly five times higher among smoking women married to smokers compared with smoking women married to nonsmokers.
Other factors --- like age, race, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, diabetes, and obesity --- were taken into account.
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