Nicotine has Long Been Known to Cause Heart Attacks and High Blood Pressure GMAT Critical Reasoning

Question: Nicotine has long been known to cause heart attacks and high blood pressure. Yet a recent study has shown that the incidence of heart attacks and high blood pressure is significantly higher among cigarette smokers who do not chew tobacco than among nonsmokers exposed to an equal amount of nicotine through tobacco chewing.
Which one of the following, if true, helps LEAST to resolve the apparent discrepancy described above?

(A) People who smoke but do not chew tobacco tend to exercise less than those who chew tobacco but do not smoke.
(B) Chemicals other than nicotine present in chewing tobacco but not present in cigarette smoke mitigate the effects that nicotine has on the cardiovascular system.
(C) People who chew tobacco but do not smoke tend to have healthier diets than those who smoke but do not chew tobacco.
(D) Chemicals other than nicotine present in chewing tobacco but not present in cigarette smoke can cause cancer.
(E) Chemicals other than nicotine present in cigarette smoke but not present in chewing tobacco raise blood pressure.

Correct Answer: D
Explanation: The argument of the passage claims that people who are cigarette smokers suffered from high blood pressure and higher heart attacks. On the other hand, people who chew tobacco i.e non-smokers witnessed relatively lesser heart attacks and normal blood pressure. However, it has been analysed that Nicotine is present in both these items. The option that helps to analyse why cigarette smoking is more harmful than chewing tobacco is the wrong answer. This answer choice D depicts a disease, cancer, that can be induced by chewing tobacco. However, it accomplishes nothing to depict why consuming tobacco might not cause high blood pressure and higher heart attacks than smoking cigarettes. Therefore, option D is the correct answer as it satisfies the question asked in the passage. Let’s take a look at the other options.

Option A

The passage indicates that people who are cigarette smokers suffered from high blood pressure and higher heart attacks. On the other hand, people who chew tobacco i.e non-smokers witnessed relatively lesser heart attacks and normal blood pressure. However, it has been analysed that Nicotine is present in both these items. The option that helps to analyse why cigarette smoking is more harmful than chewing tobacco is the wrong answer. This option A depicts that people who do not chew tobacco but smoke suffered from lesser heart attacks and high blood pressure. On the other hand, those people who do not smoke but chew tobacco suffer from higher heart attacks and high blood pressure. Hence, the statement depicted in this answer choice is incorrect since it does not satisfy the question asked in the passage. Therefore, option A gets eliminated.

Option B

The argument of the passage claims that people who are cigarette smokers suffer from high blood pressure and higher heart attacks. On the other hand, people who chew tobacco i.e non-smokers witnessed relatively lesser heart attacks and normal blood pressure. However, it has been analysed that Nicotine is present in both these items. The option that helps to analyse why cigarette smoking is more harmful than chewing tobacco is the wrong answer. This option B says that chemicals except for Nicotine that is in chewing tobacco but not in cigarettes reduce higher heart attacks and high blood pressure. It implies that it diminishes the effects of the presence of nicotine on the cardiovascular system. This answer depicts why smoking cigarettes is more harmful than chewing tobacco. Hence, the statement depicted in this answer choice is incorrect since it does not satisfy the question asked in the passage. Therefore, option B gets eliminated.

Option C

The passage claims that people who are cigarette smokers suffer from high blood pressure and higher heart attacks. On the other hand, people who chew tobacco i.e non-smokers witnessed relatively lesser heart attacks and normal blood pressure. However, it has been analysed that Nicotine is present in both these items. The option that helps to analyse why cigarette smoking is more harmful than chewing tobacco is the wrong answer. This answer depicts that people who don’t smoke but chew tobacco mainly have more nutritious diets than those who do not chew tobacco but smoke. Therefore, it depicts why smoking cigarettes is more harmful than chewing tobacco. Hence, the statement helps to analyse the effects that are described in the passage. Thus, the statement depicted in this answer choice is incorrect since it does not satisfy the question asked in the passage. Therefore, option C gets eliminated.

Option E

The passage indicates that people who are cigarette smokers suffered from high blood pressure and higher heart attacks. On the other hand, people who chew tobacco i.e non-smokers witnessed relatively lesser heart attacks and normal blood pressure. However, it has been analysed that Nicotine is present in both these items. The option that helps to analyse why cigarette smoking is more harmful than chewing tobacco is the wrong answer. This answer explains that chemicals except for Nicotine that is in cigarettes but not in chewing tobacco enhance blood pressure. This answer choice thereby implies the reason why smoking cigarettes induces high blood pressure. Hence, the statement depicted in this answer choice is incorrect since it does not satisfy the question asked in the passage. Therefore, option E gets eliminated.

“Nicotine has long been known to cause heart attacks and high blood pressure”- is a GMAT critical reasoning topic of the GMAT exam. This topic has been taken from the book “Manhattan Prep GMAT Critical Reasoning”. This GMAT critical reasoning section comes with five options and candidates must choose the one which is correct. GMAT critical reasoning tests the logical and analytical skills of the candidates. These GMAT critical reasoning questions are designed to access a certain set of facts that relate to logic.

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