Re: Are there added dangers of combining smoking cigs with strenuous exercise?

Myocardial infarction is the main cause of sudden death during physical 
exercise, particularly in subjects over 40 and may even occur in high-
performance young athletes. Sports and physical activity have a beneficial 
effect in preventing cardiovascular diseases, but certain rules of 
prudence must be followed to avoid the risk of a severe coronary event. 
Myocardial infarction always occurs in particularly susceptible subjects 
with several risk factors, predominantly smoking, hypercholesterolemia, 
family history of atherosclerosis. Dietary factors, either before, during 
or after the exercise, are always found. Distribution of coronary lesions 
differs with age. Before 40 years, the coronary network is normal in 40% 
of the cases. The infarction is partially explained by platelet 
hyperaggregahility and coronary spasms at exercise or in the post-exercise 
period. This makes the combination of smoking and exercise particularly 
harmful in people who would otherwise be at high risk of having coronary 
heart disease.
Bronchial asthma is as frequent among high performance athletes as in the 
general population. As a rule, athletes with exercise-related respiratory 
problems should be advised to abstain from smoking, 
Previous studies have suggested that passive smoking (involuntary 
inhalation of tobacco smoke by nonsmokers) reduces small airways function. 
We evaluated the exposure to passive smoking and its effects on pulmonary 
function and symptoms in a group of 12- to 17-year-old high school 
athletes (N = 209; 119 boys and 90 girls) at their annual presport 
participation physical examinations. A structured interview was used to 
assess pulmonary symptoms, personal smoking habits, and passive cigarette 
smoke exposure. All athletes performed forced expiratory maneuvers on a 
portable spirometer. We measured forced vital capacity, forced expiratory 
volume in 1 second, and forced expiratory flow 25% to 75% (FEF25-75). The 
best of three FEF25-75 measured was used. Less than 70% of predicted FEF25-
75 was considered abnormal. Of the 209 athletes, 7.7% were active smokers 
and were excluded. Of the remaining 193 athletes, 68.4% were currently 
exposed to passive smoking. We found a fourfold increase in incidence of 
low FEF25-75 and/or cough in athletes exposed to passive smoking compared 
with athletes not exposed: 18 of 132 exposed athletes (13.6%) had low 
FEF25-75 and/or cough compared with two of 61 unexposed athletes (3.3%) 
who had low FEF25-75 and cough (P = .02). Boys were more frequently 
exposed to passive smoking than girls (74% of boys [80/108] v 61% of girls 
[52/85] ), but the effects were more pronounced in girls. These data show 
a relationship between exposure to passive smoking and early pulmonary 
dysfunction in young athletes. The frequent exposure to passive smoke and 
the high prevalence of dysfunction in this population, generally 
considered to be healthy, is of particular concern.