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Smoking more than doubles the risk of unexplained strokes among younger adults, a new study warns. And heavy smoking is even worse, with stroke risk more than quadrupled among adults who smoke more than a pack of cigarettes every day for 20 years compared to people who don’t smoke, researchers found. “Our findings suggest that continued public health efforts around preventing smoking, especially heavy smoking, may be an important way to help reduce the number of strokes happening to young people,” lead researcher Phillip Ferdinand with Keele University in the U.K said in a news release. For the study, researchers focused on a type of stroke called cryptogenic stroke. These strokes are caused by a blockage of blood flow, but it’s not clear what caused the clog. “While smoking has long been linked to ischemic stroke, little is known about how smoking affects people under 50, especially in those with unexplained stroke,” Ferdinand said. His team compared the medical records of 546 people aged 18 to 49 who suffered an unexplained stroke, to 546 people of matched age and sex who hadn’t had a stroke. About 33% of smokers had suffered an unexplained stroke, compared to 15% of non-smokers, researchers found. Gender, age and smoking intensity all played a role in stroke risk among younger adults, results show. Male smokers had more than three times… read on > read on >