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Quitting Cigarettes Reduces Risk Of Heart Disease For People Living With HIV

Mon, 01/03/2010 - 4:06pm — admin

Australian Researcher finds higher than expected benefits of quitting.

According to new data from the 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in San Francisco, smoking cessation has higher than expected health benefits for people living with HIV.

Reporter Tim Horn of Aidsmeds.com commented:

‘To explore the positive effects of smoking cessation Dr Kathy Petoumenos, PhD, of NCHECR at the University of New South Wales in Sydney analyzed data from the (D:A:D) study, involving more than 33,000 HIV-positive people participating in the United States, Europe and Australia.

Petourmenos’s group looked at four types of heart disease their groups of non, current and former smokers during the past 10-plus years. Generally speaking, current smokers were almost four times as likely to experience a heart attack compared with those who have never smoked.

As for those who quit smoking during the study, the risk of a heart attack decreased by about a third after one to two years, and by half after three years. Similar declines were also observed for rates of other forms of heart disease.

In concluding its report, the study authors repeat a message that has so frequently been offered by others: “Smoking cessation efforts should be a priority in the management of HIV-infected individuals.”