Your Heart or Smoking

Published on December 30, 2008 5:03 AM

Smoking can alter shape of the heart, according to a recent study. The researchers used a rat model for to show that prolonged exposure can increase levels of the stress hormone norepinephrine and enzymes in the heart that have the potential to reshape the left ventricle.

The researchers found the smoking effect over the period of five weeks, that cheap cigarettes turned on enzymes called mitogen-activated protein kinases linked to cell growth and survival in heart muscle. The study showed exposure to cigarette smoke was associated with significant changes in the shape of the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber, and an increase in the levels of the activated forms of the enzymes in the heart muscle.

The researchers also found increased levels of norepinephrine, a catecholamine with dual roles as a hormone and a neurotransmitter. As a stress hormone, norepinephrine affects parts of the brain where attention and responding actions are controlled. Mariann Piano, professor of bio behavioral health science in the UIC College of Nursing, said that activation of these enzymes may be a key event in cigarette smoke-induced heart injury.

As it is known cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 different chemicals, one of which is nicotine. The study showed exposure to cigarette smoke was associated with significant changes in the shape of the left ventricle, and not only, smoking can affect all organs from the smoker’s body. In this way all the major organs from the smoker’s body are put under increased pressure by his/her habit and they are more likely than non-smokers to develop a wide range of short and long term health problems.