The arteries of teenagers who binge drink or smoke are already stiffer by the age of 17 than in those who abstain, new research has revealed.
Arterial stiffness indicates damage to the blood vessels. Research in older adults has previously shown that the stiffening of arteries is linked to heart and circulatory disease and an increased risk of events such as heart attack or stroke. While our arteries stiffen as we age, it is known that a host of behaviours are linked to the effect, including cigarette smoking and excessive drinking.
“This is the sort of pattern of drinking that is common in young people and the smoking was light – so this is applicable probably to the behaviour of many young people in the population today,” said John Deanfield, professor of cardiology at University College London and a co-author of the study.
The research comes days after a new study found there is no “healthy level” of alcohol consumption. “[That study] says that alcohol is bad for you – and we are saying it is bad for you from very early on,” said Deanfield.
Writing in the European Heart Journal, a team of researchers from the UK and Sweden describe how they made the link through a long-term study known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.
In total, 1,266 participants were asked at age 17 about their smoking status and had the stiffness of their arteries assessed using a non-invasive device. Of these participants, almost 1,100 provided information on their drinking habits at 17, while data on drinking at ages 13 and 15 was also available for just over 1,000 of the teens. Similar data on smoking habits from age 13 was available for 661 participants.
The results reveal that, at 17 years, 23.8% of participants were smokers. Meanwhile, more than three quarters of the teens drank between three and nine alcoholic drinks on a typical day that they were consuming alcohol – and more than 10% said they drank even more than that.
The team found that 17-year-olds who currently smoked had significantly stiffer arteries than those who did not, while those who had smoked 100 or more cigarettes in their life had stiffer arteries than those who had smoked fewer than 20.
The team found that the earlier participants began smoking, the worse the effect on their arteries – provided they continued to smoke. However, teens who smoked but then quit had arteries of a similar stiffness to those who had never smoked. That, said Deanfield, suggests the impact could be reversible.
The researchers found no link between artery stiffness and the age at which drinking began or how frequently individuals drank. However, those who engaged in high intensity drinking had stiffer arteries, even after factors such as BMI and cholesterol levels were taken into account.
“Ifyoung people smoked and drank, the impact on their arteries was greater than [for] either risk factor alone,” said Deanfield.
The study had limitations including that the data is based on self-report, which can be inaccurate and the study can only reveal links, rather than attributing a cause. Since the study only began in 1991, it is also not clear whether arterial stiffness will affect the teens’ future risk of cardiovascular problems.
Dr Henry Boardman, cardiology consultant at Milton Keynes University Hospital who was not involved in the study, said that while the levels of arterial stiffness found in the teens were not dangerous, the trends uncovered are important.
“It is telling us that there is no safe age to have these ‘bad’ lifestyle habits of alcohol excess, or binge drinking, and smoking – but there is some data from this study that if you stop smoking these changes go away,” he said, adding that it also shows that such changes start earlier than previously thought.
