Quitting Smoking Rejuvenates Arteries

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The study results need more follow-up, Mahmud said, looking at the effect of length of smoking on arterial function. "Especially if you smoke for a long time, it will take a longer time to get back to more normal function," she speculated.

The study did not look at other kinds of damage done by smoking, such as the effects on the lungs, Blumenthal noted. "There are lots of other reasons for giving up smoking," he said. "This just supports one reason."

The finding opens the way to research on the effects of treating other cardiovascular risk factors, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, Blumenthal said. "We could look at changes in those risk factors and maybe find an improvement for the better of the sort seen in this study," he said.

In related news, a team at the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, found that smoking adds years to skin -- even skin in areas such as the inside of the upper arm, which is normally not exposed to sunlight.

The study, published in the March Archives of Dermatology, compared photos of underarm skin from 77 people, including both long-term smokers and nonsmokers.

"We found that the total number of packs of cigarettes smoked per day and the total number of years a person has smoked were linked with the amount of skin damage a person experienced," lead researcher Dr. Yolanda R. Helfrich, assistant professor of dermatology, said in a prepared statement.

More information

There's more on smoking's effects on cardiovascular health at the American Heart Association.