People who like to start the day with coffee and a cigarette may be doing particular damage to their arteries, new research suggests. Among 24 healthy young adults in the study, the combination of smoking and caffeine consumption temporarily increased stiffness in the aorta -- the main artery carrying blood from the heart to the rest of the body -- more than either caffeine or smoking did alone. In fact, the effect of the cigarette-caffeine combo was more than just the sum of the effects of each, according to findings published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
