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Tobacco may explain premature aging of the heart

A study that brought together researchers from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP) and the University of Lorraine, in France, concluded that smoking may be responsible for the aging of the heart in about 20 years.

“Cigarette-induced cell damage and the inflammatory immune response are the two likely mechanisms that explain premature aging [of the heart] and the increased incidence of chronic diseases in smokers,” said the researcher from the Cardiovascular Research Unit (UnIC) of the FMUP.

Speaking to the Lusa agency, João Pedro Ferreira, who is one of the authors of the study carried out with citizens of Lorraine, explained that it was found that “smokers, even if they were 20 years old, had a vascular age similar to a person and 35 or 40 years”.

“And they had an expression of proteins [known to initiate and facilitate the progression of atherosclerotic damage] in the blood that showed they had an inflammation activation of inflammatory pathways. Some proteins that are associated with the occurrence of some cancers were activated. Therefore, it is concluded that tobacco itself creates an inflammatory profile in the blood that can lead to vessel damage and create other diseases, because it causes small lesions in the cells over time”, he developed.

Read more at TSF

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