Smoking and vascular risk: are all forms of smoking harmful to all types of vascular disease?

Abstract

Smoking, both active and passive, is an established vascular risk factor. The present narrative review considers the effects of different forms of smoking (i.e. cannabis, cigar, pipe, smokeless tobacco and cigarette) on cardiovascular risk. Furthermore, the impact of smoking on several vascular risk factors [e.g. hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM), dyslipidaemia and haemostasis] and on vascular diseases such as coronary heart disease (CHD), peripheral arterial disease (PAD), abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) and carotid arterial disease, is discussed. The adverse effects of all forms of smoking and the interactions between smoking and established vascular risk factors highlight the importance of smoking cessation in high-risk patients in terms of both primary and secondary vascular disease prevention. Healthcare providers should discourage people (especially the young) from becoming smokers, strongly encourage all vascular patients to stop smoking and support those who decide to quit by pharmaceutical and psychological interventions. In high-risk populations such as patients with CHD, DM and/or PAD, smoking cessation should always be a part of a multifactorial treatment to reduce vascular risk.