What Are the Risks of Smoking?

Chemicals in tobacco smoke harm your heart and blood vessels in many ways. For example, they:

 

Smoking and Heart Disease Risk

Smoking is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). CHD is a condition in which plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries. These arteries supply your heart muscle with oxygen-rich blood.

 

Plaque is made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood. When plaque builds up in the arteries, the condition is called atherosclerosis.

 

Plaque narrows the arteries and reduces blood flow to your heart muscle. The buildup of plaque also makes it more likely that blood clots will form in your arteries. Blood clots can partly or completely block blood flow.

 

Over time, smoking contributes to atherosclerosis and significantly increases your risk of having and dying from heart disease, heart failure, or a heart attack.

 

Compared with people who don't smoke, people who smoke can be up to two to three times more likely to have heart disease and twice as likely to have a heart attack. The risk of having or dying from a heart attack is even higher among people who smoke and already have heart disease.

 

For some people, such as women who use oral contraceptives and people who have diabetes, smoking poses an even greater risk to the heart and blood vessels.

 

Any amount of smoking, even light or occasional smoking, harms your body. Research suggests that smoking can even cancel out the benefits of other efforts to reduce heart disease risk, such as taking aspirin or medicines to lower cholesterol.

 

Smoking and Peripheral Arterial Disease Risk

Peripheral arterial disease (P.A.D.) is a disease in which plaque builds up in the arteries that carry blood to your head and limbs. P.A.D. usually affects the arteries that carry blood to your legs.

 

Blocked blood flow in the leg arteries can cause cramping, pain, weakness, and/or numbness in your hips, thighs, and calf muscles. Blocked blood flow also can raise your risk of getting an infection in the affected limb. It may be hard for your body to fight the infection.

 

If severe enough, blocked blood flow can cause gangrene. In very serious cases, this can lead to leg amputation.

 

If you have P.A.D., your risk of heart disease and heart attack is six to seven times greater than the risk for people who don’t have P.A.D. Smoking is a major risk factor for P.A.D. Your risk of P.A.D. increases four times if you smoke or have a history of smoking.

 

Smoking even one or two cigarettes a day can interfere with P.A.D. treatments. People who smoke and people who have diabetes are at highest risk for P.A.D. complications, including gangrene in the leg from decreased blood flow.

 

What Are the Risks of Secondhand Smoke?

Secondhand smoke is the smoke that comes from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar, or pipe. Secondhand smoke also refers to smoke that’s breathed out by a person who is smoking.

 

Secondhand smoke contains many of the same harmful chemicals that people inhale when they smoke. 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.

 

What Are the Risks of Cigar and Pipe Smoke?

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. Also, studies have shown that people who smoke cigars are at increased risk of heart disease.

 

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