Smokers who make the decision to quit will experience immediate health benefits, including a rapid reduction in their risk of atrial fibrillation (A-Fib), according to new research published in JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology. The study, conducted by Dr. Gregory Marcus, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, offers compelling evidence for smokers to quit, showing that it’s never too late to avoid the damaging effects of smoking on heart health.

Dr. Marcus, the senior author of the study, emphasized that A-Fib can be prevented even in individuals who have smoked for years. "The findings provide a compelling new reason to show current smokers that it’s not too late to quit, and that having smoked in the past doesn’t mean you’re ‘destined’ to develop A-Fib," Marcus explained. "Even for the current and longtime smoker, A-Fib can still be avoided."

What is Atrial Fibrillation (A-Fib)?

"There’s strong evidence that smoking increases the risk of A-Fib," Marcus said. "But the benefits of quitting smoking have been less certain." With this in mind, his team sought to determine whether quitting could significantly lower a person’s risk of developing A-Fib, or if the risk would remain the same.

The research team analyzed data from over 146,700 current and former smokers, tracking their smoking habits and health over a 12-year period using data from the UK Biobank database. The results were promising: former smokers had a 13% lower risk of developing A-Fib compared to current smokers, while those who quit during the study saw an 18% reduction in their risk.

"This is likely a testament to the potency of reducing atrial fibrillation risk pretty shortly after quitting," Marcus said in a statement from the American College of Cardiology.

The findings highlight the importance of quitting smoking, not only for general health but specifically for reducing the risk of serious heart conditions like A-Fib.

Tips for Quitting Smoking

Quitting smoking is one of the most effective ways to lower the risk of A-Fib and improve overall heart health. While it can be challenging, the benefits of quitting are clear and immediate. Here are some tips to help you quit smoking successfully:

1. Choose a specific date to quit smoking and stick to it. Prepare yourself mentally and physically for this change.

2. Reach out to family, friends, or a support group to help keep you accountable. Sharing your goals with others can provide encouragement.

3. Options like nicotine patches, gum, or lozenges can help ease withdrawal symptoms and reduce cravings.

4. Identify situations that make you want to smoke, such as stress or social gatherings, and find healthy ways to cope with them.

5. Regular exercise can help distract you from cravings and improve your mood during the quitting process.

6. Drinking water can help flush nicotine out of your system faster, reducing cravings.

7. Activities like yoga, meditation, or deep breathing exercises can help manage stress, a common trigger for smoking.

Quitting smoking offers immediate and significant benefits, particularly in reducing the risk of atrial fibrillation. The latest research provides smokers with more motivation to quit, showing that it's never too late to take control of their heart health.

Stroke is a medical emergency that can lead to long-term disabilities if not diagnosed in time. Yet, many do not realise that a high resting heart rate could be linked to a higher risk of stroke. Once a concern for the elderly, stroke can now occur in young people as well, and doctors say that this is a worrying trend. Now, findings from a large study indicate that a low resting heart rate could be just as bad when it comes to stroke risk, challenging the common perception that fewer heartbeats per minute guarantee good heart health. But how can you be certain of your heart rate?

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What do doctors say about stroke risk and heart rate?

The common idea, according to doctors, is that a higher heart rate is linked to a higher stroke risk. However, the relationship is not linear. Researchers presented the results at the European Stroke Organisation Conference. They stated that they had identified that people who were at a relatively lower risk of stroke had a heart rate between 60 and 70 beats per minute. Resting heart rate refers to the number of times the heart beats in a minute when the body is at rest, such as when sitting or lying down. The normal heart rate for adults is 60 to 100 beats per minute.

For this, researchers analysed 460,000 people in the UK Biobank, aged 40 to 69 years. Experts monitored participants for an average of 14 years and, during that time, recorded over 12,000 stroke cases. When compared with people whose heart rate was in the middle range, researchers noted that people with a heart rate of 90 had a 45 per cent higher risk of stroke. Surprisingly, people with a heart rate of less than 50 had a 25 per cent higher risk of stroke. This was even after scientists adjusted for other stroke risk factors, such as blood pressure, age, and atrial fibrillation.

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Does low heart rate also spike stroke risk?

When the data was broken down by stroke type, a low heart rate was linked to ischaemic stroke risk, a condition caused by blocked blood circulation to the brain. It is the most common type of stroke. A higher heart rate, on the other hand, was linked to both ischaemic and haemorrhagic strokes, the latter characterised by bleeding in the brain. A low heart rate can lengthen pauses between heartbeats, reducing steady blood flow to relatively smaller brain vessels and making blockages more likely. The symptoms are:

1. Shortness of breath
2. Dizziness
3. Chest pain
4. Fainting
5. Confusion
6. Light-headedness

A higher heart rate can also increase stress on blood vessel walls, making them more prone to bleeding. However, researchers say that most of this is still hypothetical — a low heart rate could still be indicative of fitness in people who work out regularly. Doctors say that a low heart rate is a good way to measure heart disease risk. While the findings are observational, it cannot be conclusively said that a high or low heart rate can directly lead to a stroke. More research is required in this area before a conclusion can be reached.

Countries across Europe, Africa, and South America are tracing contacts of passengers linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship hantavirus outbreak after multiple deaths and suspected human-to-human infections raised global concern. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) says the risk of a Covid-like global spread remains low.

The latest hantavirus outbreak has so far infected eight people, including three deaths, among the 150 people aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.

The Andes strain of hantavirus, which can spread from person to person, has been identified in two people who disembarked from the cruise ship.

While hantavirus carries a mortality rate of up to 40 percent, the WHO stated that the overall global risk remains low.

More than two dozen passengers left the ship before learning they may have been exposed to the virus. Countries are now tracing them to prevent potential spread to the general public. The virus can spread through close contact, as seen in the MV Hondius cases.

According to WHO official Shenaaz El-Halabi, authorities are tracing passengers linked to an international flight and the cruise ship, involving 16 countries and dozens of contacts.

More than 60 percent of identified contacts have already been followed up on, while investigations continue using epidemiological and laboratory data.

Hantavirus: A Look At Countries Tracing Contacts

US

At least 23 passengers from the hantavirus-affected MV Hondius cruise ship returned home, including several to the United States — and one of them has already fallen ill.

The travelers reportedly did not know they had been exposed to the deadly virus when they disembarked during the ship’s stop at Saint Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic, on April 23.

“There are 23 people wandering around there, and until three days ago, no one had contacted them,” a passenger still aboard the ship told the Spanish newspaper, El País.

“The Australian went back to Australia, the one from Taiwan to Taiwan, the Americans to all corners of North America. The Englishman to England, the Dutch to their homes… I don’t remember the rest,” the passenger added.

People in at least three US states — Georgia, Arizona, and California — are being monitored for possible hantavirus exposure after the outbreak aboard the MV Hondius, though none have shown symptoms, according to the New York Times.

The Georgia Department of Public Health said it is monitoring two residents who “are currently in good health and show no signs of infection.”

The Arizona Department of Health Services confirmed that one resident who traveled on the ship is being monitored and is not symptomatic.

“There is no information that California residents are ill or infected. At this time, the risk to public health in California is low,” Robert Barsanti, a spokesman for the California Department of Public Health, said.

According to Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), “Hantavirus is not spread by people without symptoms, transmission requires close contact, and the risk to the American public is very low.”

UK

According to Oceanwide Expeditions, the operator of MV Hondius, 19 passengers and four crew members aboard the ship were British nationals.

One of them, a 56-year-old British man, was among the three passengers evacuated from the ship on Wednesday and is reported to be in stable condition.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said two British nationals are self-isolating at home after potential exposure to hantavirus on the cruise ship. The pair had disembarked earlier in the voyage and currently shows no symptoms.

UKHSA said contacts linked to their return journey, including passengers on a flight from Johannesburg, are being traced. The agency added that the risk to the general public remains very low.

Switzerland

Swiss officials are tracing the contacts of a man hospitalized in Zurich with the Andes strain of hantavirus, according to reports.

The patient became ill after returning from a three-week April cruise that traveled from the southern tip of South America to the South Atlantic island of St. Helena.

The authorities said the patient’s wife has not shown symptoms but is self-isolating as a precaution.

Argentina

Health investigators in Argentina believe a Dutch couple may have brought the virus aboard after possibly contracting it through rodent exposure during a bird-watching tour near a landfill in Ushuaia days before the ship departed from Argentina on March 20. Both the husband and wife later died.

Argentina has one of the highest reported incidences of hantavirus in Latin America, according to the WHO. Authorities there are continuing efforts to trace the source of the outbreak.

The Argentine Health Ministry reported 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025 — roughly double the number reported during the previous year, according to The Guardian.

Radiation and chemotherapy might be lifesaving for millions of children globally, but the cost of these intense therapies is much greater. Therapies like these spike the risk of infertility in adulthood — one third of men on these treatments are considered 'azoospermic' after pube—onehis means that when they ejaculate, it lacks any viable sperm. But on the bright side, a medical team at the University Hospital Brussels and the Free University of Brussels (VUB) found that they successfully restored sperm production in one such patient.

How to preserve fertility in men after chemotherapy?

In a new case study, which is now in peer review, researchers explained how they treated a male patient with no viable sperm by retransplanting his own childhood testicular tissue into his adult testicle. The anonymous patient was born with sickle cell anaemia, an inherited disease that can be managed with small chemotherapy doses or through a donated bone marrow transplant. In 2008, before the treatment, the patient's family consented to the removal of one of his testicles and had it frozen for future use. The patient was 10 years old at the time.

Later, in 2022, the patient returned to Brussels IVF at VUB hoping to become a father. However, it was found that there was no viable sperm in his testicle. He requested a transplantation of the frozen tissue. In 2025, during the trial, he underwent surgery to receive four tissue grafts within his testicle and four in his scrotum. A year later, some of these produced motile, mature sperm. However, only the parts of the testicle with the transplants held viable sperm — and these were not connected to the patient's sperm duct. The sperm, therefore, was not likely to reach his semen. Consequently, IVF was the only option for the patient to have a baby — but the silver lining was that, if he wanted a baby, it was possible.

What is sperm banking?

According to doctors, adults who undergo radiation and chemotherapy must undergo sperm banking in the conventional way. However, before puberty, patients are not fit for freezing sperm, as the body is not producing mature sperm yet. In childhood, the testicles contain spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) — these have the potential to become sperm later. Freezing this tissue could be a way to preserve fertility in younger patients who are prone to infertility.

The University Hospital Brussels became the first-ever hospital to introduce this practice in 2022. Years later, other hospitals followed suit and offered cryopreservation for over 3,000 boys globally. The samples collected were banked for future studies and research to determine whether the approach is, in fact, viable or not. For many patients, it is the only way to restore existing fertility. Although a single patient is not enough to prove that the procedure works, the Brussels story offers hope for men dealing with infertility.

Is there a downside?

Animal studies have found that the grafts have a shorter lifespan. However, how long they can last in humans is still unknown; furthermore, researchers are yet to ascertain whether these sperm can lead to healthy babies. This step is important for further research on preserving fertility.