Smoking is one of the major risk factors for developing heart
disease (cardiovascular disease). Smoking also interacts with
other risk factors. For example, if you smoke and also have high
blood pressure, your risk of having coronary artery disease is
greater than it would be by just adding the two risks.
Does smoking cause high blood pressure
(hypertension)?
If you do not already have high blood pressure, you will not get
it from smoking. If you do have high blood pressure, smoking speeds
up the development of a dangerous form of it (malignant hypertension),
and increases your risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Will smoking cause atherosclerosis?
Atherosclerosis or "hardening of the arteries" may be caused by
and accelerated by cigarette smoking. Atherosclerosis of the coronary
arteries occurs when there is a narrowing of the inner walls of
the arteries through build up of fatty deposits.
Smoking lowers your levels of high-density lipoprotein
cholesterol ("good" cholesterol) and raises your levels of low-density
lipoprotein cholesterol ("bad" cholesterol). It decreases the
movement of cholesterol through the body, and contributes to its
accumulation in your coronary arteries. This puts you at a higher
risk for heart attack and stroke.
Does smoking affect my other
arteries?
Smoking may cause peripheral vascular disease, which is the narrowing
of the arteries that carry blood to the leg and arm muscles. This
disease is found more often and more severely in smokers than
in nonsmokers. The likelihood of limping, amputation, and failure
to successfully treat this disease, is significantly higher among
smokers.
Smoking also narrows the arteries in the brain
and the arteries in the neck which lead to the brain (carotids).
This raises the risk of stroke.
What is coronary thrombosis
and how does smoking affect it?
Smoking increases the likelihood of coronary thrombosis or blood
clots in the arteries leading away from the heart. Smoking does
this by increasing the factors that lead to this disease. For
example, smoking causes platelets (clotting agents) to become
sticky and aggregate. It also makes the blood thicker and shortens
the time it takes to make a blood clot in the coronary arteries..
What is coronary artery spasm
and how does smoking affect it?
Coronary artery spasm is a spontaneous narrowing of a coronary
artery in the absence of exertion. You experience this narrowing
as chest pain (angina). The spontanesous narrowing of the coronary
artery, reduces blood flow to the heart muscle, which can lead
to a heart attack (myocardial infarction).
If you are a current smoker, you have twenty times
the risk of coronary artery spasm than if you are a nonsmoker.
Does smoking affect my blood
and heart rate?
The nicotine in cigarettes temporarily increases your heart rate
and blood pressure. It also raises the heart's oxygen requirements.
To complicate matters, the carbon monoxide in smoke lowers the
amount of oxygen available in the circulating blood.. This reduces
the oxygen going to various parts of the body - including the
heart - just when it's most needed.
The increased heart rate and blood pressure and
the decrease in oxygen also increase your chances of developing
a serious heart condition known as "arrhythmia" (irregular heart
beats).
What happens if I smoke after
undergoing heart surgery?
If you smoke after undergoing coronary bypass surgery, you may
cause damage to the blood vessel grafts. Smoking may cause the
cells in the grafts to proliferate and narrow the grafts This
increases your risk of having chest pain (angina pectoris), heart
attack and the need for repeat coronary bypass surgery
What is the relationship between
smoking and the birth control pill?
If you are taking birth control pills and you smoke, you are thirteen
times as likely to develop coronary artery disease than if you
do not smoke. You are also increasing your risk of peripheral
vascular disease and stroke.
Why is passive smoking bad for
me?
Environmental tobacco smoke, second hand smoke, or sidestream
smoke, is the smoke emitted into the surrounding air from a burning
cigarette between puffs. It is inhaled by both the smoker and
the nonsmokers in the room. This inhalation is often referred
to as "passive smoking".
Sidestream smoke contains similar harmful components
as does mainstream (puffed) smoke . It actually contains greater
amounts of some of these compounds, such as carbon monoxide, which
adversely affects the delivery of oxygen to the heart.
The amount of exposure is also important. A significant
association exists between the number of cigarettes smoked per
day by a spouse, and the risk of heart attack for the passive
smoker If your spouse smokes twenty or more cigarettes per day,
you have a four times greater risk of a heart attack.
Passive smoking is also dangerous outside the
home. The risks from passive smoking at work are approximately
the same as those from exposure at home.
As in active smoking, passive smoking affects
other coronary risk factors such as hypertension, family history
of heart attack and diabetes.
What about cigar smoking?
Whether smoking cigars increases your risk for coronary artery
disease is up for debate. Cigar smoking may be less likely to
cause coronary artery disease because cigar smokers are less likely
to inhale. Cigars may cause other problemssuch as raising the
risk of certain circulatory heart ailments.
If smoking has already caused
so much damage, will quitting really help?
Yes, within one year of quitting, your risk of developing coronary
artery disease will drop by 50%. Three or four years after quitting,
your risk will approach that of people who have never smoked.
Research has shown that you will reap the benefits of quitting,
no matter what your age.
I've decided to finally quit
smoking. What bodily changes should I expect?
According to the National Cancer Institute, within 12 hours of
smoking your last cigarette, the levels of carbon monoxide and
nicotine in your system will decline rapidly. Your heart and lungs
will begin to heal.
Do not be alarmed if you feel worse before you
feel better. You should expect to undergo withdrawal symptoms
. Remember these symptoms are just temporary.
When you quit smoking, your metabolism may slow
down. This leads to weight gain. You may experience irregularity
and dry, sore gums or tongue. Some people feel edgy, hungry, tired,
and short-tempered. You may have trouble sleeping and may cough
a lot.
Your body will be cleansed of nicotine in 2-3
days, but you may continue to experience withdrawal symptoms for
up to 1-2 weeks.
Within a few days your sense of taste and smell
may improve. You will breathe more easily.
What advice and recommendations
do you have about quitting?
There is no magical approach to quitting that is going to work
for everybody. You may find that a combination of the following
tactics, will be your best bet for success.
Nicotine replacement therapy:
gum and patches
Nicotine is a psychoactive drug that induces euphoria. Cessation
of smoking results in the loss of this effect. Nicotine replacement
therapy ameliorates some of the withdrawal symptoms associated
with loss of euphoria. and reduces your craving for cigarettes.
There are two types of replacement therapy: nicotine gum and nicotine
patch.
When you chew nicotine gum, you release its nicotine.
If you smoked one or more packs a day, you will get a reduction
of the discomfort of withdrawal by chewing gum, but it will not
eliminate the symptoms completely. You will also get some of the
euphoric effect and addiction potential of nicotine but less than
that with cigarettes.[deleted line about "swallowed nicotine]
You must chew the gum slowly to get the effect.
When you experience a "peppery" taste, you must then place the
gum between your check and gum. You may initially develop hiccups,
upset stomach or jaw aches. If you chew correctly, most of the
side effects will go away.
Nicotine gum replacement therapy usually takes
three to six months.
Nicotine patches deliver nicotine to the blood
in your veins through your skin. As with the gum, withdrawal symptoms
are reduced in intensity , but not eliminated.
You place a new patch somewhere on your body between
your neck and the waist, every day. Patches come in different
doses and also in full-dose versus tapering-dose programs. It's
a good idea to seek your physician's advice to determine which
dose is best for you. The full dose program usually lasts six
weeks.
Some people get a rash under the patch. These
rashes are usually mild and easily treated. It may help to move
the patch to another part of your body. Be aware that if you use
the patches at night you may experience sleep disturbances, including
vivid dreams.
If you smoke during nicotine replacement therapy,
you will likely return to your previous smoking habit.
Are there medications for quitting?
A presscription medicaton called "Bupropion" ( trade names "Wellbutrin"
or "Zyban"), has been shown to be effective in helping people
to quit. Some of the side effects of Bupropion include dry mouth
and insomnia. If you have a preexisting seizure disorder, anorexia
nervosa, or bulimia, your chances increase for a seizure while
on Bupropion..
Higher doses of Bupropion appear to work better
than lower doses and may decrease the weight gain that often accompanies
smoking cessation.
Do not take amphetamines to try to quit smoking.
They may actually increase smoking.
What else can I do to quit?
Here are some approaches suggested by the National Cancer Institute:
- Set a target date for quitting - quit day.
- Throw away your cigarettes and matches. Hide
your lighters and ashtrays.
- Have your teeth cleaned by the dentist.
- Buy flowers Enjoy the scent.
- Quit smoking during a vacation
- Involve your friends and family for support
- Change to a brand you find distasteful
- Drink milk (some find it incompatible with
smoking)
- Get up from the table after eating and brush
your teeth immediately
- Get plenty of rest
- Use positive thinking
- Learn relaxation techniques
- Keep your hands busy
Will cutting back on the number
of cigarettes lower my risks for heart disease?
Cutting back may help you as a way of practicing quitting. It
probably will not reduce your risks, because generally smokers
who cut back inhale more often and more deeply. In effect, they
haven't cut back at all. The same situation occurs when you switch
to low-tar or low-nicotine cigarettes.
What if I have a relapse?
Most relapses occur in the first week of quitting. The vast remainder
of relapses occur in the first three months. These are usually
preceded by a trigger event. If you know and can anticipate your
potential trigger events, you may deal with them effectively.
Potential triggers include:
Work pressure, eating, drinking an alcoholic beverage
or coffee, talking on the phone, being around smokers, playing
cards or games, being under time pressure, getting into an argument,
and feeling sad or frustrated
If you have a relapse, don't despair. Change is
easier said than done. Nowadays, people are more realistic about
what it takes to give up and stay off cigarettes. Remember: most
ex-smokers tried to quit several times, before they finally succeeded.
What are statistics on smoking?
- Every year, more than 400,000 people die from
smoking related illnesses in the United States alone.
- Cigarette smoking is one of the major risk
factors for heart disease. It is responsible for between 17%
and 30% of all deaths from cardiovascular illness.
- The effects of cigarette smoking are dose-related.
Women who smoke more than 25 cigarettes per day are five times
more likely to eventually suffer from coronary artery disease
than nonsmokers.
- Any amount of smoking is dangerous. Even if
you smoke as few as 1 to 4 cigarettes per day, you significantly
increase your risk of coronary artery disease.
- If you are taking birth control pills and also
smoke, you are thirteen times as likely to develop coronary
artery disease than if you do not smoke.
- The American Heart Association estimates that
every year from 37,000 to 40,000 people die from heart and blood
vessel disease caused by passive smoking.
- More than three million Americans quit smoking
every year.
