Second-hand smoke plus alcohol increase the risks of heart disease nearly 5-fold. According to a study conducted at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), exposure to cigarette smoke combined with alcohol consumption cause the greatest degree of cardiovascular disease.

The study was led by Scott Ballinger, associate professor in the UAB Department of Pathology. The contributors to the study also included researchers at the Institute of Toxicology and Environmental Health at the University of California, Davis. Grant support came from the National Institutes of Health.

The study, published in the journal Free Radical Biology & Medicine, revealed that exposure to cigarette smoke and alcohol increases artery lesions. Artery lesions are a common problem in heavy smokers and a key sign of advancing cardiovascular disease.

Scott Ballinger said, “The study points to a greater need to understand the negative biological impact of single or multiple risky behaviours, and the compounding effect of environmental hazards such as second-hand smoke.".

The research was conducted on mice exposed to smoky air and fed with a liquid diet containing ethanol, over five week period. The researchers found that the mice had a 4.7-fold increase in artery lesions compared to mice that breathed filtered air and ate a normal solid diet.

“Our study shows that exposure to cigarette smoke when combined with alcohol consumption caused the greatest degree of cardiovascular disease development compared to either action or exposure alone,” Ballinger added.

While measuring the artery lesions in the study the researchers also focussed on other signs of advancing cardiovascular disease like DNA damage and oxidative stress in key heart tissues.

Shannon Bailey, an associate professor in the UAB Department of Environmental Health Sciences and a co-investigator on the study stated that the findings would help the smokers and the non smokers to know what they should do and what they should not do.

“Because moderate alcohol consumption is commonly thought to be cardioprotective, these findings are important for smokers and non-smokers alike in terms of what you should and should not do to protect their health,” said Bailey.

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