"Smoking More Strongly Linked to STEMI in Women than in Men" - Marcus A. Banks
Women who smoke are at a greater risk of experiencing STEMI than male smokers, especially those who are under 50 years old, according to a new study. Yet the cardiovascular risks of smoking may reverse as soon as one month after people quit the habit. According to “the question of whether this is related to hormonal differences—that smoking somehow interacts with estrogen, and estrogen is protective to the heart—isn’t really clear,” said Jacqueline Tamis-Holland, MD, associate director of the Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Cardiac Catheterization Lab who was not involved in the study. “It’s interesting that the smoking effects are particularly notable in younger females, which would be at a time when we would expect the estrogen levels to play the most important protective effect.”
— Jacqueline Tamis-Holland, MD, Program Director, Interventional Cardiology Fellowship, Associate Professor, Medicine, Cardiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Associate Director, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Cardiac Catheterization Lab