Smoking and your body
Smoking brings to mind the fact that it affects many parts of the human body starting from the mouth to the lungs and bronchi, the heart, and the other body organs. Smoking puts you at a risk of cancer of mouth, gun disease, tooth decay and bad breath with teeth acquiring an unsightly yellow color and narrowing of blood vessels leading to life threatening diseases like stroke and heart attacks. It is true that gases like hydrogen cyanide and other chemicals that reach the bronchi and then the lungs could cause serious damage to the bronchi lining by inflaming it and causing smokers cough. In addition the mucus secretions of the lungs could also be seriously impaired with smokers being 10 times more likely to get emphysema and lung cancer.
In addition smoking could affect other systems like the digestive system, with increased acid secretion in the stomach causing heart burns and ulcers. It is also seen that smoking accounts for the highest rates of the deadly cancer of the pancreas, with this habit also acting as a trigger for cancers of the throat and esophagus. It is still more significant to note that smoking cigarettes excretes many cancer causing substances that are secreted through the urine and could be one of the most prominent risks for cancer in the bladder. Again smoking is found to cause blood pressure that could hamper the functioning of the kidney.
It cannot be denied that smoking causes over 230,000 deaths due to cardiovascular diseases. Smoking can have devastating effects with nicotine raising the blood pressure and leading to the deposit of bad cholesterol on the arteries. This could lead to poor blood circulation, heart attacks, loss of effective circulation of blood and also impotency. In addition cigarette smoking could cause atherosclerosis, stroke, angina and peripheral artery disease. In addition women that smoke increase the risk of cervical cancer, with pregnant smoking women have babies that are born still or underweight and with a lot of health problems.
How smoking can affect the heart
Cigarette smoking is the most known cause for coronary heart disease that could present itself as angina and heart attacks. Presenting 3 times the risk than for non-smokers, coronary heart disease occurs when the arteries that carry blood to the heart vessels gets either blocked or narrowed with deposits of fatty substances. Called atherosclerosis this could bring about angina that is a severe pain bought about in the chest by exertion and relieved with rest or it could be a heart attack where a part of the heart muscle is dead due to the deprivation of oxygen.
Smoking is the cause for heart attacks in men under the age of 45, with heavy smokers having 10 to 15 times the chance of getting fatal heart attacks than non-smokers. It is again worthwhile in noting that even light smokers have an increased risk of coronary heart disease, with many women that just smoked about 1 to 4 cigarettes having about 2 ½ times the risk for coronary heart diseases than non-smoker women.
Inhaling tobacco smoke could cause instant responses within the heart that starts off with increase in heart rate by more than 30%. Nicotine present in tobacco is responsible for this because it leads to narrowing and constricting of arteries. In turn it is also responsible for increasing the resistance for the blood flow that is responsible for the increase in blood pressure. Next it is the carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke that plays the role in reducing the ability of the blood to carry oxygen.
Carbon monoxide, an important byproduct of tobacco smoke has always played the role of boosting the level of cholesterol in the blood, increases the level of white blood cells and has been the prominent cause of heart attacks. It is this gas that hampers the blood’s ability to transport oxygen throughout the body. Carbon monoxide not only adversely affects the heart’s ability to transfer oxygenated blood throughout the body, but it also causes damage to the arteries lining and increases the rate at which the plaque builds up on the arteries.
It is but natural that atherosclerosis or the arteries in the heart getting clogged with plaque makes the affected smoker to experience not just pressure in the chest, left arm and jaw, but also pain. These symptoms of angina could ultimately cause the heart muscle to die and lead to heart attack. The hard pumping of the heart and its effort to overcome the resistance caused by plaque in the arteries could lead to tissues in the heart becoming thicker and less efficient and ultimately leading to congestive heart failure or disease.
It is also vital to note that blood cholesterol levels are impacted by smoking, with increased fibrinogen levels and platelet counts making the blood more sticky and also being easily attached to the hemoglobin in the blood and bringing about reduction in the life saving oxygen that is to be available to the tissues. It is true that smoking increases the total cholesterol by the chemicals present in cigarettes and is also instrumental in raising the bad cholesterol and bringing down the amount of good cholesterol or HDL. Smoking cigarettes has also been said to be associated with higher levels of triglycerides.
All this goes to the how can smoking affect your heart.