Smokers who have a family history of a type of stroke called a subarachnoid hemorrhage are more than six times more likely to suffer a stroke themselves, say researchers.
Dr Daniel Woo and colleagues studied 339 people who had suffered a stroke caused by a brain aneurysm and 1,016 who had not had a stroke caused by an aneurysm. Results showed that participants who smoked and who had a family history of stroke were more than six times more likely to have a stroke than participants who did not smoke and did not have a family history of stroke caused by a brain aneurysm. The results also showed that people with a family history of stroke could slash their risk of stroke by half by stopping smoking.
“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 Dr Woo.
News release: Smokers with Stroke in the Family 6 Times More Likely to Have Stroke Too. American Academy of Neurology. December 30th 2008.
