Cardiovascular Disease risk factors:
Smoking
If you smoke, quitting is the single most important step you can take to protect the health of your heart. Smoking cigarettes makes the walls of your arteries sticky from the chemicals, so fatty materials can stick to them. If the arteries that carry blood to your heart get damaged and clogged, it can lead to a heart attack. If this happens in the arteries that carry blood to your brain, it can lead to a stroke. The chemicals in cigarettes affect your body while you are smoking and after the cigarette is finished. Some of the harmful chemicals in cigarettes include:
This is a poisonous gas that you breath in when you smoke cigarettes. It prevents your blood cells from carrying oxygen around your body as well as they should. Having high levels of carbon monoxide in your blood greatly increases your risk of heart and circulatory diseases.
This is also found in the cigarette smoke and can cause cancer. When you breath it in, 70% of the tar stays in your lungs and damages them. Cigarettes labelled “light”, “mild” or “low tar” are misleading, all cigarettes are bad for your health.
This is the addictive chemical found in cigarettes and most e-cigarette products. It increases your heart rate and blood pressure. Untreated high blood pressure permanently damages your arteries and your heart.
E-cigarettes (also known as vapes) are devices that allow you to inhale nicotine in a vapour rather than smoke. They have been shown to be less harmful that regular cigarettes, as they don’t contain tobacco and do not produce tar or carbon monoxide. However, e-cigarettes can still be addictive because the liquid that is used in them usually contains nicotine. That is why they should not be used by non-smokers or young people.
Shisha (also known as hookah, narghile, waterpipe, or hubble-hubble) is a way of smoking tobacco through a bowl and tube. Shisha traditionally contains cigarette tobacco, and so like cigarettes contains nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide and other harmful chemicals. During one session of Shisha (around 60 minutes), you inhale the same amount of smoke as you would get from smoking 100 or more cigarettes.
Smokeless tobacco includes products that can be chewed, sucked, or inhaled (such as “snuff”). Smokeless tobacco is not a healthier alternative to smoking, as it can still cause cancer and other serious health problems. If you use these products you increase your risk of developing serious heart and circulatory diseases such as heart attack and stroke more that someone who does not use tobacco at all.
Quitting smoking is the best thing you can do for your health. You could have smoked for years, quitting will still reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. It is never too late to quit. You certainly will notice the benefits as soon as you quit.:
- After 2-3 days your sense of smells and taste improves
- After 2-12 weeks exercise becomes easier and your breathing improves
- After 1 year your risk of having a heart attack is half that of a smoker.
Second-hand smoke (passive smoke) is when you breathe in someone else’s cigarette smoke. When the people around you breathe in your cigarette smoke, it increases their chance of getting heart and circulatory diseases, cancers and breathing problems. Children are especially vulnerable to the health effects of second-hand smoke.
Second-hand smoke (also known as passive smoke) is when you breathe in someone else’s cigarette smoke. When the people around you breathe in your cigarette smoke, it increases their chance of getting heart and circulatory diseases, cancers and breathing problems. Children are especially vulnerable to the health effects of second-hand smoke.
