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Smoking kills, and everyone who smokes, is pretty much aware of this. But here is another piece of information for those who just can't resist the cancer stick.

A new study claims that smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day could double the risk of a potentially fatal brain bleed caused by a burst aneurysm.

Researchers say that even though the risk of aneurysm does reduce when a smoker quits, it still persists.

 An aneurysm is an abnormal widening or ballooning of a portion of an artery due to weakness in the wall of the blood vessel. Apart from cigarette smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are thought to be the other causes behind the condition. With a ruptured aneurysm, the patient's chances of survival are only about 50% and even if they survive, they end up living with disability for the rest of their life. 

For the study, the researchers analyzed the data of 426 cases of brain bleeds (subarachnoid hemorrhage) between 2002 and 2004, and compared it with the data of 426 people of similar age and sex who did not sustain a hemorrhage. The researchers studied and checked for details like their lifestyle, medical history and smoking habits from all participants whose average age was 50. 

In the brain bleed group, it was found that the number of people who smoked, those who had a family history of history of stroke and high blood pressure was high. 

About 38 percent people in the brain bleed group were current smokers, while only 24 percent were smokers in the comparison group. After taking into consideration such as working hours, salt intake, family history etc, the researchers could conclude that smokes were three times more prone to have a brain bleed when compared to non-smokers. 

It was also found that the longer the duration and number of cigarettes smoked, the more was the risk of brain bleed. 

Although quitting smoking did have an effect on lowering the risk in about five years, bringing it down to the level of non-smokers, it seems heavy smokers (20 or more cigarettes a day) still were at double the risk in comparison to non-smokers.

According to the authors, although there are previous studies which claimed that risk of an aneurysm in former smokers eliminates after 10 to 15 years, they either included only one gender and/or included too few people to draw firm conclusions, Medical Xpress reported. 

Smoking causes the blood to thicken, and thus raises blood pressure, increasing the risk of a brain bleed.

Quitting smoking can reverse these effects, however, smoking permanently changes the structure of artery walls and may cause grater changes in heavy smokers, say the authors according to the report.

The findings were published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.