If you need another reason to quit smoking, read through; this might do it.
There’s been a debate about the deadly effects of smoking on the brain. Several health experts and practitioners have linked smoking to cerebral aneurysms, weakening the brain’s blood vessels, often leading to a rupture and death.
A study showed that smoking could cause multiple aneurysms in the brain, significantly increasing the risk of rupture.
One of the lead authors of the study Satish Krishnamurthy, MD, says, “While I don’t think you can say that smoking definitely causes rupture of aneurysms, it’s definitely a factor very closely related. [The data also] mean that smoking not only created the rupture but also created the aneurysm. That’s the new finding.”
Additionally, according to another research published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, women smokers are four times more likely to develop aneurysms than their male counterparts.
In this study, researchers studied 545 women aged 30 to 60 undergoing brain in reputable hospitals in the USA and Canada and found that 152 had 182 unruptured aneurysms.
Imaging revealed that 152 of the 545 women had 185 unruptured brain aneurysms between them. 113 of these women were directly compared with 113 others of the same age and ethnicity; smokers were found to have higher risks of arterial abnormalities than non-smokers. The risk is even seven times higher in smokers with high blood pressure.
Other risk factors of a brain aneurysm include;
- Family history
- Polycystic kidney disease (cysts on the kidneys)
- Previous aneurysm
- Tissue connectivity disorders
Not only does smoking put you at risk of brain aneurysms, it also can cause heart diseases, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and tuberculosis. Studies have also shown that smoking can cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
See a doctor for advice if you’re struggling to quit smoking.