The Effects of Smoking Cessation on the Risk Factors for the Metabolic Syndrome: A Follow-Up Study of Veterans

What is it about?

After quitting smoking, as a group, quitters HDL increased, triglyceride decreased, and overall metabolic syndrome prevalence was lower. The changes in ghrelin were moderately positively associated with duration of quitting smoking. Compare to the baseline, there were no significant changes in serum leptin, ghrelin, serum insulin, and insulin resistance after quitting smoking.

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Why is it important?

Our study, in concert with earlier epidemiological studies, has suggested that smoking may increase risk by a unique effect to increase the incidence of metabolic syndrome. The longer the duration of quitting, bigger the increase in serum ghrelin level.