A comparison between cardiologists and general practitioners, to discuss smoking cessation and possible alternatives. The XIII edition of the scientific congress ‘Nel Cuore di Santa’, underway in Santa Margherita Ligure (Ge), hosted the round table “I quit smoking: I will live a week longer and that week it will rain heavily” (Woody Allen ) – interactive discussion on smoking and smoking cessation. “The president of the congress Roberto Pescatori, together with other experts, debated the topic in a moment of informal confrontation, to favor the direct relationship between the participants.
“In Italy 11.6 million people are smokers, these people either may have a cardio-ischemic event or may be in primary prevention – said Pescatori -. It is very difficult for a doctor to make the patient understand when to stop smoking or at least use alternative products that reduce the risk of harm from smoking. This is one of the issues that emerged during the round table: in the clinic there is very little time to communicate, we have to make an agreement, a sort of contract with the patient, to being able to cure him, to help him quit smoking, also through the knowledge of alternative products that do not have combustion “, concludes the expert.
Although e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products are not risk-free products, they may represent viable alternatives to cigarettes for all those adult smokers who would continue to smoke, with a view to reducing risk.
“Mortality from smoking-related diseases is around 83 thousand people a year in Italy – explained Vincenzo Montemurro, cardiologist and vice president of ‘Il Cuore Siamo Noi – Italian Heart and Circulation Foundation Onlus’ – It is a problem that also institutions We must ask ourselves, we must intervene. Despite the recommendations of doctors and oncologists, many people who have had a heart attack continue to smoke. Faced with the extreme resistance of the smoking population, measures must be taken. The revolution of the third millennium is this: to say to patients not to smoke because smoking is the greatest risk factor for many diseases; while for all those who persist in smoking, there are no other possibilities than to turn to alternatives that are potentially less harmful and that reduce the risk of cardiovascular and cancer mortality “, he concludes.
“Anyone who smokes, even if young, can have heart attack, stroke, venal insufficiency. We cardiologists fight hard against this risk factor which unfortunately is very widespread in the population and, alas, among young people, especially young women – he said. Stefano Carugo, Director of the Complex Operational Unit Irccs Ca ‘Granda Foundation Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico di Milano – Everything that can help a patient, a person, must be put in place. There are alternative methods that are effective; the goal remains only one : stop smoking “.
The congress ‘Nel Cuore di Santa’, an annual event in Santa Margherita Ligure, addresses the problems that arise every day in the practice of local cardiology and in the activity of general practitioners; the topics covered range from forensic medicine to the need for therapies to improve the quality of life of patients, alternating lectures with moments of discussion and practical techniques of cardiovascular investigations, such as echocardiography and ecocolordoppler, always with the aim of placing the patient at the center’.