the Effects of Smoking on Cardiovascular Function: The Role of Nicotine and Carbon Monoxide

No one can deny that the effects of nicotine and CO (carbon monoxide) on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and it’s considered to be the leading preventable cause of death in the world, responsible for more than 6 million deaths annually worldwide (2) (Circulation Journal Vol. 83, October 2019). Smoking, through its primary components nicotine and CO, will increase the oxidative modification of LDL. Nicotine, carbon monoxide and different tobacco elements have direct outcomes at the endothelium, inflicting inflammation, atheroma, and thrombosis (2). Smoking is among the most important factors that may lead to coronary artery disease and effects on autonomic Nervous system. It increases HR (heart rate) at rest regardless of age or sex while it blunts HR elevation during progressive exercise and lowers the maximum HR that can be achieved. Those effects are some of the deadliest on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality (3). Carbon Monoxide is defined as a colorless, odorless toxic flammable gas formed by incomplete combustion of carbon and Nicotine is a toxic colorless or yellowish oily liquid that is the chief active constituent of tobacco. The basic aim of this paper is to discuss deadly effects of smoking. The authors present real results of "The Effects of Smoking on Cardiovascular Function. All these findings can guide and help future researchers to replicate this study in international samples around the world. " The study is applied on samples of smokers of different ages in the European Union. It considered the harmful effects on health that cause death among them, measuring it by rates and percentages. The data collected is based on results from (WHO) World Health Organization and laboratories. According to this article, smoking is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease including coronary heart disease, peripheral artery disease, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The study showed the deadly effects of smoking clearly among different samples of European males and females compared to Greece, without mention to other countries that have different physical and health conditions. The lack of details such as the length of the study and the sample size would make the results difficult to replicate on other countries. The authors concentrated on many important harmful effects on Autonomic Nervous System, heart rates at rest and during exercise but without mention to the percentages or numbers of people that were examined. This limits the generalizability on other countries. Furthermore, they don’t mention the eating habits, health story, environmental restrictions of these people. While (Majid Ezzati, PhD; S. Jane Henley, MSPH; Michael J. Thun, MD; Alan D. Lopez, PhD (- July 26, 2005 -)) used enough data from different sources like the American Cancer Society, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Burden of Disease's (GBD) mortality database which would improve possibility of replicability of the results on other countries. Also, the duration is long enough, and the major covariates of large samples provide information that ensures the effects of smoking on cardiovascular health are more accurately represented. The article discussed the effects of smoking. The main issues are that the authors focused on a specific region in the world and built the study on it without consideration of sample’s lifestyle, and that they didn’t specify the exact number of examined people. But as mentioned, the second study included much more data and longer duration of the study, which helps ensure the results of the article are more easily replicable. Therefore, future research on the effects of smoking should aim to increase sample size and length of the study and increase variety of ethnicities and backgrounds.