Key Points - Quitting Smoking

• Cigarette smoking causes about 1 in every 5 deaths in the World each year. It’s the main preventable cause of death and illness in the World.

 

• The chemicals in tobacco smoke harm blood cells and can damage the function of the heart and the structure and function of blood vessels.
• Smoking is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease. Over time, CHD can lead to chest pain, heart attack, heart failure, arrhythmias, or even death.

 

• When combined with other heart disease risk factors - such as unhealthy blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and overweight or obesity - smoking further raises the risk of heart disease.

 

• Smoking is a major risk factor for peripheral arterial disease. People who have P.A.D. are at increased risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.

 

• Any amount of smoking, even light smoking or occasional smoking, damages the heart and blood vessels.

 

• Secondhand smoke also can cause harm. It damages the heart and blood vessels in the same ways that active smoking does. Secondhand smoke greatly increases the risk of heart attack and death.

 

• Researchers know less about how cigar and pipe smoke affects the heart and blood vessels than they do about cigarette smoke. However, the smoke from cigars and pipes contains the same harmful chemicals as the smoke from cigarettes.

 

• One of the most important things you can do to reduce your risk of heart disease is to avoid tobacco smoke. Don’t ever start smoking. If you already smoke, quit. No matter how much or how long you’ve smoked, quitting will benefit you.

 

• Avoid secondhand smoke. Don’t go to places where smoking is allowed, and ask friends and family members who smoke not to do it in the house and car.

 

• Quitting smoking will reduce your risk of developing or dying from heart disease. Over time, quitting also will decrease your risk of atherosclerosis and blood clots.

 

• If you smoke and already have heart disease, quitting smoking will reduce your risk of sudden cardiac death, a second heart attack, and death from other chronic diseases.

 

• Quitting smoking is possible, but it can be hard. Millions of people have successfully quit smoking and remain nonsmokers. A variety of strategies, programs, and medicines are available to help you quit smoking. Most people who smoke make repeated attempts to quit before doing so successfully.
• Half of those who have ever smoked have now quit.

 

• Not smoking is an important part of a heart healthy lifestyle. A heart healthy lifestyle also includes following a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and doing physical activity regularly.

 

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will"