Smoking slows the heart's 'reserve' blood supply Updated 5:38 PM ET September 11, 2000 Even in apparently healthy people, cigarette smoking appears to decrease blood flow to the heart when the body is stressed, researchers have found. This is the first direct evidence that smoking impairs the functioning of not only large heart arteries, but also the network of tiny vessels that feed the heart, they report. Paolo G. Camici of Hammersmith Hospital in London and colleagues report the findings in the September 12th issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. To show that cigarette smoke was behind the blood-flow cut, Camici's team gave the smokers intravenous vitamin C, which got their blood flowing at the same clip as nonsmokers'. Smoking, Camici told Reuters Health, is known to deplete the body's stores of vitamin C--an antioxidant that helps protect the heart by mopping up cell-damaging substances known as free radicals. Cigarette smoke acts in direct opposition to antioxidants. SOURCE: Circulation 2000;102. ……………………………………….. NEW YORK, Feb 23, 2000 -- A number of studies have suggested that people with gum disease have a higher risk of heart disease, and now researchers think they know the reason why. People who have gum disease -- indicated by red, swollen gums that bleed during tooth brushing -- also tend to have higher blood levels of fibrinogen, a clotting factor, and C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammatory molecule, according to a report in the February 2000 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. The new study suggests that gum disease might lead to repeated contact between bacteria and the blood stream, which could have an impact on blood fats and clotting factors. Or it is possible that bacteria might cause problems by escaping directly into the blood stream.