Smoking And Heart Disease

Many people are aware of the association between lung cancer

, respiratory disease, and breathing problems with smoking, but some are unaware that smoking is also a lead cause in heart disease. The main reason is because smoking can cause furring and clogging of the vascular system and coronary arteries, which can lead to heart failure if left untreated.

What Is Heart Disease?

The heart is a muscle and gets the energy required for functioning from the blood supply which carries Oxygen and nutrients. A constant supply of nutrient and Oxygen rich blood is essential for the health functioning of the heart. Heart disease is a group of conditions that impair the normal functioning of the heart causing disease.

Coronary artery disease- when fatty substances, Calcium and scar tissue build up in the coronary arteries preventing blood supply to the heart.

Risk factors for Heart disease are:

* Smoking

* Obesity

* Diabetes

* High blood pressure

* High cholesterol

* Physical inactivity

Smoking is even more of a risk factor as it can also lead to high-blood pressure and high-cholesterol, and many smokers are less physically active than non-smokers.

How Smoking Increases Heart Disease

* Smoking increases blood pressure and heart rate

* Damage to cells that line coronary arteries and other blood vessels, caused by increased lipids in the blood.

* Increase in blood clot formation

* Decreased Oxygen supply to heart

Smoking And Heart Disease Facts

* In the U.S. 20% of heart disease cases are directly related to smoking

* The risk of heart disease increases in proportion to the number of cigarettes smoked, and also the length of time smoked

* People who smoke one pack a day have over 50% more chance of heart attack than non-smokers.

* Women who smoke while taking oral contraception pills have several times the risk of heart attack; stroke and vascular disease.

* An estimated 35,000 non-smokers die from heart disease as a result of passive smoke.

Quitting smoking has an instant impact on your heart's health. Within 20 minutes of stopping smoking, blood pressure is returned to normal. Within 72 hours, Carbon Monoxide, Nicotine and many other toxic chemicals have left the bloodstream, and Oxygen has returned to normal levels, literally allowing your heart to breathe! After 1 week, circulation has improved, and continues to improve in the first 10 weeks of stopping, and after just 1 year the risk of heart attack has halved. It is never to late to prevent heart disease and to reverse the effects of smoking on your heart.

Copyright (c) 2011 William McKenna

by: William McKenna

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