HHS HealthBeat (December 16, 2008)

Another way smokers risk death

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

An abdominal aortic aneurysm means that a major blood vessel is swelling outward, and might burst. If it bursts, it’s very likely you die. So naturally, if you can avoid it, you’d want to.

Exactly what causes abdominal aortic aneurysms is not known, but smoking is a major risk factor. And a researcher at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center can show that in postmenopausal women. Frank Lederle compared data on women who smoked and women who did not:

``Women who were currently smoking – still smoking – had almost 9 times the risk of having an abdominal aortic aneurysm event, that is, aneurysm repair or rupture, as women who had never smoked.’’ (9 seconds)

Women who quit smoking still had twice the risk.

The study in the British medical journal BMJ was supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.  

Last revised: May 7, 2011