{"id":23077,"date":"2025-02-26T13:42:41","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=23077"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:42:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:42:47","slug":"nicotine-does-not-cause-cancer-or-heart-disease-top-cardiologist-tells-doctors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/nicotine-does-not-cause-cancer-or-heart-disease-top-cardiologist-tells-doctors\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicotine does NOT cause cancer or heart disease, top cardiologist tells doctors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nicotine is not carcinogenic and does not cause heart disease, a leading cardiologist has told a doctors\u2019 convention.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Reuven Zimlichman, Director of the Institute for Quality in Medicine at the Israeli Medical Association, explained that nicotine is addictive but does not harm the body like smoking does. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smoking causes eight million deaths globally per year, while vaping is not fatal or linked to any smoking-related diseases. Zimlichman said smokers should consider switching to vapes or other safer nicotine alternatives if they find it hard to quit cigarettes without an aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cNicotine is addictive, but it doesn\u2019t harm the body,\u201d he told the 46th Philippine Neurological Association (PNA) annual convention. \u201cIt\u2019s not carcinogenic, and it doesn\u2019t cause heart disease or blood vessel disease. If there is an alternative way to satisfy the nicotine craving of smokers without burning tobacco, this is clearly an option worth considering.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Encourage patients who smoke to switch\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The professor urged healthcare professionals to encourage any patients who struggle to quit smoking to switch to safer alternatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAsk your patient to consider switching to a heated tobacco product or vape,\u201d he told the hundreds of medics who attended the event in November. \u201cThe more severe the patient\u2019s cardiovascular disease is, the more benefits they can derive from switching.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smoke-free products such as vapes that deliver nicotine without burning tobacco can save the lives of millions of hardened smokers who are unable to quit smoking, Zimlichman added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cQuitting smoking is very difficult because tobacco contains nicotine, which is highly addictive,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not nicotine that causes the serious health effects of tobacco use. It\u2019s the thousands of chemicals produced by the burning of tobacco that make smoking so deadly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Zimlichman said nearly half (49 percent) of smokers diagnosed with coronary artery disease continue to smoke, 57 percent continue to smoke after a stroke, and 72 percent diagnosed with peripheral artery disease (narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the arms and legs) keep smoking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The potential to save millions of lives<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously a non-believer in tobacco harm reduction, Zimlichman said he changed his position after reviewing the growing scientific evidence supporting it as an effective public health strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said vapes and heated tobacco products are technological innovations that have the potential to save millions of lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vapes do not burn tobacco and do not produce tar or carbon monoxide, two of the most damaging elements in cigarettes. Heated tobacco products are lithium battery-powered devices that heat the tobacco just enough to release a nicotine-containing tobacco aerosol but without burning the tobacco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These products \u201coffer the best chance for hardened smokers to quit smoking,\u201d Zimlichman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing body of evidence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The professor cited a study from South Korea<\/a>, published in the European Heart Journal, which found that switching to vaping from smoking leads to significantly less fatal and life-threatening cardiac events in people with heart disease<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also referenced Sweden, which recently became the first country to be officially declared \u2018smoke-free\u2019.<\/a> The Scandinavian country says its success with reducing smoking rates is down to the widespread availability and use of snus, nicotine pouches and vapes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to global health campaign group Smoke Free Sweden<\/a>, the nation has a 41 per cent lower cancer rate than the European average, and the lowest rate of tobacco-related diseases in the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Zimlichman said: \u201cThere are currently an estimated one billion smokers globally, with 8 million people dying of smoking-related diseases every year. We need to try something new. Governments, regulatory agencies, and the medical community need to be open to new ideas such as tobacco harm reduction.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nicotine is not carcinogenic and does not cause heart disease, a leading cardiologist has told a doctors\u2019 convention.\u00a0 Professor Reuven Zimlichman, Director of the Institute for Quality in Medicine at the Israeli Medical Association, explained that nicotine is addictive but does not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990002,"featured_media":23078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[329,334,186,333],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-23077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-european-union","tag-global","tag-nicotine","tag-sweden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23084,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23077\/revisions\/23084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23077"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=23077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}