Smokers with family history of stroke 6 times more likely to suffer it themselves

Washington, January 1 (ANI): Scientists associated with the American Academy of Neurology say that smokers with a family history of brain aneurysm are significantly more likely to suffer a stroke from a brain aneurysm themselves.

The researchers revealed that they looked at 339 people who suffered a stroke from a brain aneurysm, and 1,016 people who had not had a stroke due to an aneurysm.

Writing about their study in the online edition of the journal Neurology, they revealed that current smokers made up half of the group that had a stroke, while the other half had never smoked or had smoked in the past.

The researchers found that people who smoked and had a family history of stroke were more than six times more likely to suffer a stroke than those who did not smoke and did not have a family history of stroke or brain aneurysm.

They also observed that people with a family history of stroke could reduce their risk by more than half by quitting smoking.

According to the team, the results remained unchanged even when they took into account factors like high blood pressure, diabetes, alcohol use, body mass index, and education level.

"While all people should be advised to quit smoking, our findings suggest that there is an interaction so that if you smoke and you have a family history of aneurysms, you are at an extremely high risk of suffering a stroke from a ruptured brain aneurysm," says study author Dr. Daniel Woo, with the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and member of the American Academy of Neurology. (ANI)