Physical Wellness

Smoking Can Cause Heart Failure And Permanent DNA Damage, Study Says

By Jenia Cane | Update Date: Sep 22, 2016 12:50 PM EDT

Smoking can cause several health issues that may even end up in death.

Recent studies have confirmed the serious effects of the vice. Therefore, experts might have been thinking that smokers would finally end puffing a cigarette.

In the study of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, it was noted that despite not showing signs of cardiovascular diseases, some of the samples were observed to have damaged heart muscle.

According to Dr. Scott Solomon, smoking can cause the heart to reduce its pumping ability.

"We've known for years that smoking could lead to heart attacks, which may result in reductions in the pumping ability of the heart," he said via email to Fox News.

"Our data suggest that smoking can independently lead to thickening of the heart and worsening of heart function, which may lead to a higher risk of heart failure, even in people who don't have heart attacks," he continued to point out.

Of the 4,500 adult samples, around six percent or almost 300 were current smokers, while nearly 50 percent of the total figure were former smokers and the remaining 43 percent were non-smokers.

The university of California, Los Angeles co-chief of cardiology division Dr. Gregg Fonarow, who was not actually part of the study, agreed that smoking can cause damage to the heart's muscle.

He shared that "This study provides evidence for both men and women that smoking directly damages the heart muscle leading to thickening, increased stiffness, and impaired filling, which in turn leads to heart failure, which is a common, costly, and deadly condition."

In the meantime, another serious health condition that smoking can cause is permanent damage to the DNA, according to CBS News

It was disclosed that smoking can alter at least 7,000 genes in the body contributing to the "development of smoking-related diseases."

It was suggested that aside from quitting, the risk of acquiring diseases that smoking can cause can also be lowered by exercising regularly to maintain a healthy weight.

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