Watch our for your heart if you are a cocaine user

Its always been talked about, the risk of taking cocaine causing a heart attack.  Now it official.  0.9% of all heart attacks were caused by cocaine use.   On an individual basis, taking cocaine was shown to raise a person’s risk of having a heart attack 23-fold, according to the  study, led by Dr Tim Nawrot, from Hasselt University in Belgium.

In comparison, air pollution led to a  5 per cent extra risk, but since far more people are exposed to traffic fumes and factory emissions than cocaine, the danger posed by Cocaine use is in reality much higher.

Traffic exposure was blamed for 7.4 per cent of heart attacks, followed by physical exertion with 6.2 per cent.

Overall air pollution triggered between  5 per cent and 7 per cent of heart attacks, while drinking alcohol or coffee accounted for 5 per cent.

Other risk factors included negative emotions (3.9 per cent), anger (3.1 per cent), eating a heavy meal (2.7 per cent), positive emotions (2.4 per cent) and sexual activity (2.2 per cent). Cocaine was to blame for 0.9 per cent of heart attacks, but this was because of limited exposure to the drug among the population.