Coffee, Cigarette Combo is Extra Hard on Arteries
(NY, Reuters Health, 11/2/04)

In the first phase of their study, Dr. Charalambos Vlachopoulos of the Athens Medical School in Greece and colleagues, used noninvasive tests to estimate aortic stiffness in 24 healthy, young adults who routinely smoked and consumed caffeine. The investigators took before-and-after measurements when subjects had: (1) smoked one cigarette or (2) taken the equivalent of two coffee-cups’ worth of caffeine, then smoked a cigarette or (3) puffed a "placebo" cigarette or (4) taken placebo caffeine pills, then puffed a placebo cigarette. The researchers found that the smoking-caffeine combination increased aortic stiffness more than either factor did separately, as though the tobacco and caffeine interacted to compound the harm to the arteries. The second phase of the study, which included 160 healthy adults, confirmed these results. Based on these findings, the scientists speculate that combining coffee-drinking and smoking long-term may lead to cardiovascular problems, such as heart attack and stroke.

(Journal of the American College of Cardiology, November 2, 2004)