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As evidence increases that people who smoke are at increased risk of dying from Covid-19, healthcare professionals are turning to a familiar message with new urgency: There may be no better time to quit smoking than today. .
While researchers collect more data as the virus spreads, both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified smoking as a risk factor for serious illness and death related to coronavirus.
Studies from Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus emerged in December, showed that smokers were 1.4 times more likely to show severe Covid-19 symptoms and 2.4 times more likely to be sent to an intensive care unit, require mechanical ventilation or die, compared to non-smokers.
“This is such a new world, of course, but there is no question that smoking makes your situation worse if you contract the virus,” said Dr. Irving Kron, associate vice president of health sciences at the University of Arizona at Tucson. “If you do, there is some evidence that smoking will change the propensity of your lungs to become infected. And as you know, if your lungs become infected with this disease, that’s a bad plan.”
Pre-existing heart disease
That’s when people can die, he said. However, the biological changes caused by smoking can cause more lung infections in everyday life, pandemic or not.
Studies are less conclusive about the potential dangers of Covid-19 for people who vaporize, Kron said. But vaping has been linked to asthma, chronic lung disease, and cardiovascular disease.
That damage also opens the door for the coronavirus to become more dangerous.
“We know that many people with coronaviruses die of pre-existing heart disease. So if you smoked, we know it affects your coronary arteries,” said Kron. “To be sure, smoking, in terms of its long-term effects, increases the risk of mortality from coronavirus.”
Rezk-Hanna said people who share smoking devices, such as vape pens or hookah pipes, are at special risk of spreading the virus.
“Because smokers tend to share hookahs using the same mouthpiece, hookah smoking could further increase Covid-19 transmission,” he said. “We also know that due to lack of regulation, hookah home delivery companies and hookah salons may not properly clean their pipes, and because the coronavirus can survive on surfaces such as plastic or metal for several days, the transmission risk is high. “
Immediate short-term health benefits
Similarly, the WHO suggested that smokers who quit now would reduce their risk of infection simply because they will reduce the number of times they touch their mouths with their fingers.
While health officials cannot predict a timeline in which the spread of the coronavirus will be under control, they point to data showing that there are immediate short-term health benefits after a person quits smoking.
“Smokers who quit smoking begin to see better heart and lung health almost immediately,” said Rezk-Hanna. “Within minutes, the heart rate drops to normal levels. Within hours, carbon monoxide and other levels of tobacco-related toxins decrease, and as a result, blood oxygen levels rise and cough and the wheezing starts to improve. “
A study published in the journal in January. Nature He found that quitting smoking now can not only prevent future lung damage, but could also cause healthy cells to start repairing previous damage.
“There are so many bad things about smoking, including the fact that it’s an unpleasant habit,” said Kron. “If you had doubts before, now is a good time to quit smoking.”
AHA News for HealthDay
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