Smokers tend to suffer heart attacks years earlier than non-smokers, suggests a new study from Michigan.

"Individuals who smoke are much more likely to have a heart attack and will present with a heart attack a decade or more earlier," says Dr Gregg Fonarow, a cardiologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, who wasn't involved in the new study.

The findings, he says, also show that "you could have a heart attack in the absence of other risk factors if you smoke".

Researchers led by Dr Michael Howe from the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor studied about 3,600 people who were hospitalized with a heart attack or unstable angina - pain caused by low blood flow to the heart that is often a precursor to a heart attack.

Fonarow says the findings are just one more example of the heart dangers posed by smoking, and emphasizes that kicking the habit can erase those extra risks.

"It's never too late to quit, and the benefits are very early," he says.

Reuters-AP