Stroke survivors who smoke raise risk of more strokes

Back on the "stop smoking, or never start!" beat for this blog, recent news about researching showing that stroke survivors who smoke raise risk of more strokes, heart attack, death:

Compared to those who never smoked:

• Those who smoked when they had a stroke were 30 percent more likely to have a poor outcome.
• Among those who survived the first 28 days after stroke, current smokers had a 42 percent higher risk of poorer outcomes.
• Ex-smokers had an 18 percent higher risk of poorer outcomes.
• Compared to past smokers:
• Among those who survived the first 28 days after stroke, current smokers had a 23 percent higher risk of poorer outcomes during the 10 years."

Read the entire story. Stopping helps. Never starting helps even more.

(Image from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)