Smoking affect on heart drugs

Press, 21 April 1984, Page 12

Smoking affect on heart drugs

NZPA-Reuter Boston Cigarette smoking blocks the effectiveness of three common heart drugs, according to a report in the “New England Journal of Medicine.” Researchers at Hammersmith Hospital and the National Heart Hospital in London found that smoking reduced the potency of propranolol, atenolol, and nifedipine in 10 patients who were taking the drug for angina. All had smoked at least 10 cigarettes a day for the previous five years.

To test the effects of smoking on the drugs, the researchers compared the frequency of aneina attacks

while the patients were smoking to the frequency of attacks after abstaining. They found that the average number of attacks each week went from 69 during the smoking period to 48 once the patients stopped. “Smoking had direct and adverse effects on the heart and interfered with the (effectiveness) of all three drugs although it appeared to effect the results with nifedipine the most,” they concluded. The researchers attributed the effect to the fact that smoking increases the heart rate, which raises the heart’s need for oxygen and the likelihood of chest pain when the heart cannot get it.