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I'm torn between smoking and quitting.

I just got released from the hospital yesterday evening after 56 days confinement. My heart condition arrived as a complete and total surprise. I've never had any prior indication of trouble.

Had a pain in the chest after retiring to bed. Not a severe pain, just enough to prevent sleep. I decided to go to the ER and bam! -transferred to a large hospital facility in an neighboring community. Seven by-passes and five major surgeries later I made it home.

All the Dr's involved agree that I never had a heart attack, no MI, no heart damage. All also agreed that if there had been no intervention I would have succumbed to a massive heart attack within a very short time.

What apparently saved me WAS that I smoked. Something called the "Smoker's Paradox.

Seems as though smokers survive heart attacks better than non-smokers with 22% of smokers dying from the heart attack compared with 33% of non-smokers dying. Has something to do with carbon monoxide levels, stiffer lungs, less prone to pulmonary conjestion and lower blood pressure.

While I found this facinating It doesn't help me make my decision to quit or not. I am not currently smoking (though the cravings are eating me up).

This has been the most frightening experience of my life. I hope to continue to recover but it's awfully easy to get discouraged.

I wonder how these products differ from Skoal Bandits. It sounds like the same thing.

Daylate, thanks for letting me know about the smoker's paradox. You'll probably need a medical dictionary if you read the links.

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Items 1-8 of 8

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1:	Angeja BG, Kermgard S, Chen MS, McKay M, Murphy SA, Antman EM, Cannon CP, Braunwald E, Gibson CM.	Related Articles,
	The smoker's paradox: insights from the angiographic substudies of the TIMI trials. J Thromb Thrombolysis. 2002 Jun;13(3):133-9. PMID: 12355029 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

2:	Gourlay SG, Rundle AC, Barron HV.	Related Articles,
	Smoking and mortality following acute myocardial infarction: results from the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction 2 (NRMI 2). Nicotine Tob Res. 2002 Feb;4(1):101-7. PMID: 11906686 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

3:	Andrikopoulos GK, Chimonas ET, Toutouzas PK.	Related Articles,
	Paradoxical clinical value of another smoker's paradox. Circulation. 2002 Feb 26;105(8):e55. No abstract available. PMID: 11864939 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

4:	Cohen DJ, Doucet M, Cutlip DE, Ho KK, Popma JJ, Kuntz RE.	Related Articles,
	Impact of smoking on clinical and angiographic restenosis after percutaneous coronary intervention: another smoker's paradox? Circulation. 2001 Aug 14;104(7):773-8. PMID: 11502701 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

5:	Shander D.	Related Articles,
	A real smoker's paradox. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2001 Jun 1;37(7):2009-10. No abstract available. PMID: 11401150 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

6:	Himbert D, Juliard JM, Golmard JL, Feldman LJ, Aubry P, Benamer H, Karila-Cohen D, Gauci L, Steg PG.	Related Articles,
	[Revision of the "Smoker's Paradox": smoking is not a good prognostic factor immediately after myocardial infarction] Arch Mal Coeur Vaiss. 2001 Apr;94(4):262-8. French. PMID: 11387931 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

7:	Andrikopoulos GK, Richter DJ, Dilaveris PE, Pipilis A, Zaharoulis A, Gialafos JE, Toutouzas PK, Chimonas ET.	Related Articles,
	In-hospital mortality of habitual cigarette smokers after acute myocardial infarction; the "smoker's paradox" in a countrywide study. Eur Heart J. 2001 May;22(9):776-84. PMID: 11350110 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

8:	Barbash GI, Reiner J, White HD, Wilcox RG, Armstrong PW, Sadowski Z, Morris D, Aylward P, Woodlief LH, Topol EJ.	Related Articles,
	Evaluation of paradoxic beneficial effects of smoking in patients receiving thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction: mechanism of the "smoker's paradox" from the GUSTO-I trial, with angiographic insights. Global Utilization of Streptokinase and Tissue-Plasminogen Activator for Occluded Coronary Arteries. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1995 Nov 1;26(5):1222-9. PMID: 7594035 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Apr 6 2004 10:25:18

The links of the eight articles to the abstracts by left clicking the authors' names all failed. That's the first time I that I've seen this happen, but if you click on "related articles", you'll find links that work and have access to articles with links to abstracts.

I didn't read everything, but I came across one explanation for the paradox was that smokers tend to be younger patients who are less likely to have diabetes, hypertension or obesity.