Effects of Smoking on Serum Lipid Levels in Nascent Young Indian Smokers

AIM: Mortality due to cardiovascular disorders is highest among all non-communicable diseases. Smoking is one of the modifiable risk factors for the development of this condition. Total Cholesterol (TC) and Triglycerides (TG) in serum being independent biomarkers of CVD, this study was designed to analyze and compare their levels between smokers and non-smokers. MATERIALS and METHODS: The study included 15 smokers who smoked continuously 5-7 cigarettes per day for around 5 years and five non-smokers as controls who were believed to be void of other CVD risk factors. Venous blood was collected from the selected individuals and sera was aspirated after centrifugation.The obtained sera were freeze stored and used later to estimate the total cholesterol and triglycerides by standard protocols.RESULTS and DISCUSSION: The study found that the mean value of TC among smokers and nonsmokers were not different from each other. This may be because the screened populations were nascent smokers andalso due to the fact that they were of young age. In case of TG, slightly lower mean value was noticed when compared to that of controls. The reason for this is not clear and requires further studies on more number of smokers in this age group. CONCLUSION: This study is unique as there are very few literature reports on lipid values among the population in the age group of 20-25 years with approximate 5 years of smoking history. It is inferred here thatin this age group, smoking around 5-6 cigarettes does not alter the blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels significantly. However to validate these results it is proposed in future to extend the analysis to more number of samples.