Why Smoking is Dangerous for The Heart?

It is true that smoking is very dangerous for the heart, why is that so? Cigarette smoke has more than 4800 identified chemical compounds and 69 carcinogens. Nicotine is the component responsible for the addiction, but is probably not the major agent acting on the cardiovascular system. The precise components of cigarette smoke responsible for its cardiovascular effects are not fully established, but include the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, oxidizing agents, and particulate matter.

Smoking is worse than you could imagine. It is also bad as it says on the pack of cigarettes, it is even worse. Smoking increasing the risk of angina and heart attacks, strokes, narrowing of the leg arteries (claudication), lung cancer, bronchitis, emphysema, and other cancers, it takes away the sense of smell and taste, and it causes the skin to age prematurely and the hair to become hard and dull.

Smoking makes the blood sticky and liable to clot in arteries. It discolors the skin and the nails, it smells, and to many people, it is unattractive. It is highly addictive. Most smokers die of a problem related to smoking rather than another condition.

The mechanisms by which cigarette smoke causes cardiovascular disease are multiple and are synergistic. They include thrombosis, endothelial dysfunction, atherosclerosis, and hemodynamic effects. In addition, tobacco smoke may also cause insulin resistance, a risk factor for diabetes and CVD. The same mechanisms responsible for CVD in active smokers are nearly as large in passive smokers, which explain the highly nonlinear dose-response effect of cigarette smoke. Many of these effects occur immediately after a smoker or nonsmoker inhales cigarette smoke.

Here’s another fact why smoking is dangerous for your health, especially the heart: The nicotine, the tar, and all the other dangerous chemicals in the tobacco and the carbon monoxide in the smoke, become even more dangerous when they burn and get hot. The tar causes cancer. Nicotine is also dangerous when cold. This is why chewing tobacco can cause all the problems of smoking cigarettes. Moreover, chewing tobacco is a powerful cause of mouth cancer. The nicotine damages the lining of the arteries, making them thicker and narrower. Nicotine also makes the blood sticky and causes cracks in the layers of fat in an artery.

Tagged : heart, negative effects, Smoking