HHS HealthBeat (February 23, 2009)

Smokers’ brains and strokes

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

Smoking raises your risk of a stroke. So does a family history of brain aneurysm – a weak spot in a blood vessel in the brain. But researchers say that, when a smoker has a family history, the stroke risk shoots higher.

Daniel Woo of the University of Cincinnati saw that in data on people who had a stroke from a brain aneurysm and those who had not. The risk for smokers with a family history was six times that of the study’s baseline – nonsmokers without a family history of stroke or brain aneurysm.

But Woo also says:

[Daniel Woo speaks] ``If you were a former smoker – if you had smoked but you quit smoking – (you) cut your risk in half of having an aneurysm.’’

The study in the journal Neurology was supported by the 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: February, 23 2009