Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) is known to increase after smoking
cessation. However, no work has been performed concerning HRV immediately
after smoking cessation.
Methods and Results: We studied HRV before and from 1 day to 1 month after
smoking cessation and also determined whether there is a relation between HRV
and the withdrawal syndrome immediately after smoking cessation. We determined
HRV by using a two-channel 24-hour ambulatory ECG system before and 1, 2, 3,
7, 14, 21, and 28 days after smoking cessation in 20 healthy male volunteers
who had smoked one or more packs per day for 2 or more years. One day after
smoking cessation, heart rate decreased significantly, and all 24-hour time
and frequency domain indices of HRV increased except the standard deviations
of the normal R-R intervals and the 5-minute mean R-R. The magnitude of
increase in these indices peaked 2 to 7 days after smoking cessation and
gradually decreased thereafter. The increase in HRV persisted 1 month after
smoking cessation. In the 16 subjects with signs of withdrawal syndrome and in
the four subjects without evidence of withdrawal before and immediately and 1
month after smoking cessation, HRV increased immediately after smoking
cessation and remained elevated after 1 month.

Conclusions: HRV increases immediately after smoking cessation and gradually
declines thereafter, which suggests that the effect of smoking on autonomic
activity rapidly disappears immediately after smoking cessation. HRV remained
unaffected by the presence or absence of the withdrawal syndrome.
[Am Heart Journal 135(6):1004-1009, 1998. © 1998 Mosby-Year Book, Inc.]



 
 

AN INTERESTING STORY FROM AN UNKNOWN AUTHOR

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a 
more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. 

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter
said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials.
It was an unfortunate way to end his career. 

When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter.
"This is your house," he said, "my gift to you." 

What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to
live in the home he had built none too well. 

So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points
we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the
house we have built.   If we had realized, we would have done it differently. 

Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely.
It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity.
The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project." 

Who could say it more clearly? Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tomorrow will be the result
of your attitudes and the choices you make today. 

 
Introduction
Smoking is one of the established coronary risk factors, and it is known that the incidence of ischemic heart disease and the rate of sudden death are higher among smokers than nonsmokers.[1-7] Sympathetic nerve hyperactivity caused by smoking is believed to be one of 
the reasons for sudden death.[8,9] It has been shown that heart rate is lower after smoking cessation than during smoking,[10,11] presumably because sympathetic nerve activity, which is
elevated during smoking, decreases with smoking cessation.[12,13] On the other hand, various withdrawal symptoms often appear after smoking cessation.[14] However, it remains to be elucidated whether the withdrawal syndrome affects autonomic nerve activity.
Recently, heart rate variability (HRV) has been shown to be an index of autonomic nerve activity
in various diseases.[15-19] It has been reported that HRV increases several weeks after smoking cessation.[20] However, changes in
HRV immediately after smoking cessation have not been studied. In the present
investigation, we studied HRV before and from 1 day to 1 month after smoking
cessation and also determined whether there is a relation between HRV and the
withdrawal syndrome immediately after smoking cessation.
Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) is known to increase after smoking cessation.
However, no work has been performed concerning HRV immediately after smoking cessation.

Methods and Results: We studied HRV before and from 1 day to 1 month after smoking cessation and also determined whether there is a relation between HRV and the withdrawal syndrome immediately after smoking cessation. We determined HRV by using a two-channel 24-hour ambulatory ECG system before and 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days after smoking cessation in 20 healthy male volunteers who had smoked one or more packs per day for 2 or more years. One 
day after smoking cessation, heart rate decreased significantly, and all 24-hour time and frequency domain indices of HRV increased except the standard deviations of the normal R-R intervals and the 5-minute mean R-R. The magnitude of increase in these indices peaked 2 to 7 days after smoking cessation and gradually decreased thereafter. The increase in HRV 
persisted 1 month after smoking cessation. In the 16 subjects with signs of withdrawal 
syndrome and in the four subjects without evidence of withdrawal before and immediately and 
1 month after smoking cessation, HRV increased immediately after smokingcessation and remained elevated after 1 month.

Conclusions: HRV increases immediately after smoking cessation and gradually declines thereafter, which suggests that the effect of smoking on autonomic activity rapidly disappears immediately after smoking cessation. HRV remained unaffected by the presence or absence of
the withdrawal syndrome. [Am Heart J 135(6):1004-1009, 1998. © 1998 Mosby-Year Book, Inc.]

 
Methods--Subjects
Twenty male volunteers (mean age ± SD 24.3 ± 6.5 years, range 20 to 34 years) with normal histories, physical examinations, and laboratory tests, including complete blood count, blood chemistry, chest radiograph, and electrocardiogram (ECG), were selected from among the hospital staff and medical students of our hospital. None of the volunteers took any medications 
the week before the study. Their daily intake of cigarettes ranged from 20 to 40 (median 25), and
their duration of smoking ranged from 2 to 16 years (median 4 years)

Relation of Withdrawal Syndrome with Heart Rate Variability Signs of withdrawal syndrome appeared immediately after smoking cessation in 80% of the subjects, but the frequency of such signs decreased with time until only 10% of the subjects experienced signs of withdrawal 28 
days after smoking cessation . Withdrawal syndrome did not occur in four of the 20 volunteers
during the entire 28 days. HRV both in the 16 subjects with signs of withdrawal syndrome and in the four subjects without evidence of withdrawal before and immediately and 1 month after smoking cessation increased immediately after smoking cessation and remained elevated after
1 month.

The half-life of nicotine in the blood after long periods of smoking is approximately 2 hours, and nicotine is metabolized to conitine, which minimally affects autonomic nerve activity. However, plasma nicotine levels remain elevated in long-term smokers.[29] Accordingly, the increase in
HRV observed immediately after smoking cessation may be due to the disappearance of the 
effect of nicotine on autonomic nervous activity. It may be possible to estimate that the 
subsequent gradual decrease is a compensatory reaction against a rapid relative increase in parasympathetic nervous activity immediately after smoking cessation. The mechanism responsible for the change in HRV after smoking cessation remains obscure, and further investigation will be required to determine how long HRV is altered after smoking cessation.

 
Relation Between Withdrawal Syndrome and HRV Signs of withdrawal syndrome after smoking cessation appeared in 80% of our subjects. We hypothesized that the withdrawal syndrome may affect autonomic nervous activity and that changes in HRV may be due to the effects of the
withdrawal syndrome. In the present study, however, HRV remained unaffected by
the presence or absence of the withdrawal syndrome.

Clinical Implications

It has been shown that smoking-induced sympathetic nervous hyperactivity rapidly resolves 
upon cessation of smoking and that the withdrawal syndrome does not affect autonomic
nervous activity.

Conclusions
HRV increased rapidly immediately after smoking cessation, peaking 2 to 7 days after smoking cessation, and gradually declining thereafter. The results of this study indicate that the effect
of smoking on autonomic nervous activity rapidly disappears immediately after 
smoking cessation.

 
 

1. By the year 2025, 500 million people will die from tobacco-related diseases!  This is the 
equivalent of the loss of a Titanic every day for 27 years.
2. Tobacco is the ONLY product not tested for safety or efficacy.  The reason: (there was
a deal with the government.)
3. Tobacco stimulates and depresses the Central Nervous System at the same time, and
within seconds of the first puff.
4.  Lung cancer increased 5,000% in the past 30 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.  Janet Sackman, the "Lucky Strike Girl," didn't smoke until the company suggested that
it would make the commercials more realistic. She got hooked, and now has had her vocal 
cords removed because of cancer, and is suffering from lung cancer as well.
6. Nicotine is the most addicting substance in the world. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 
7. The companies actually WANTED the warning on the packages, so the industry could 
then blame the consumer for his own diseases--after all, they did warn him, didn't they?  
One Secretary of Health was asked to resign because of his attitude toward tobacco. 
(Forgot to write down his name--maybe someone else knows who he is and will let me know.)
The following description of the program comes from The Learning Channel website:
Tobacco Wars
Tobacco Wars is a comprehensive history of the cigarette, providing an in-depth, balanced,
and often shocking look at the tobacco industry. The series' three one-hour episodes are 
organised chronologically, from the advent of the cigarette through its rise to becoming one
of the most profitable consumer products the world has ever seen. Via first person accounts
and insider documentation, Tobacco Wars vividly portrays what the companies really knew
about the link between smoking and diseas e, explains how mankind became seduced by 
such a dangerous a product, provides a status report on Big Tobacco today, and looks
towards the future of this most controversial of industries. 

If you missed it, watch for re-runs.--there's nothing like facts for ammunition when you're in
a fight!  And kids are still taking up smoking in large numbers, in spite of all the publicity 
against it. 
TOBACCO COMPANIES ARE STILL OUT THERE ADDICTING OUR CHILDREN.


 

.........................................


The Boo Mistress