Smoking high blood pressure
Smoking is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease. Your blood pressure rises during the time you actually smoke a cigarette. If you smoke and you also have high blood pressure, your arteries will become narrowed much more quickly. Stopping smoking is a great lifestyle change. If you stop smoking, your risk of a heart attack and stroke falls to about half that of a smoker within one year.
www.highbloodpressuresymptoms.co.uk is for people who smoke and who already have coronary heart disease. (‘ Coronary heart disease ’ is the term used to describe the gradual narrowing of the inner linings of the coronary arteries, which can lead to angina or a heart attack .)
www.highbloodpressuresymptoms.co.uk explains:
• how smoking damages the heart and circulation
• why second-hand smoking is dangerous
• the benefits of stopping smoking
• the services and treatments available to help you stop smoking, and
• how to find out about those services.
This site does not replace the advice that your doctors or nurses may give you, but it should help you to understand what they tell you.
The risks of continuing to smoke
If you have coronary heart disease (that is, if you have angina or have had a heart attack), you probably already know that smoking is bad for your heart, as well as for your lungs. Perhaps you have tried to quit already. But now you have an extra reason to stop smoking, because it is something positive you can do to improve your health and your quality of life.
Stopping smoking is the single most important thing a smoker can do to live longer.
If you already have coronary heart disease, it is particularly important to quit smoking, for the following reasons.
• Smokers are at almost twice the risk of a heart attack compared with those who have never smoked.1
• If you are waiting to have heart surgery, your recovery will be quicker if you quit smoking as soon as possible before your operation. Stopping smoking will help to reduce your risk of having complications – such as a chest infection – after surgery.
• People who continue to smoke have more angina and may have to go into hospital more often. There is no quick and easy way to quit.You have to want to stop smoking.This site concentrates on ways you can increase your chances of becoming ‘ smoke free ’.
How smoking damages your heart and circulation
Chemicals in cigarette smoke can damage the lining of the coronary arteries.This leads to atherosclerosis – the build-up of fatty material within the walls of the arteries which is the cause of coronary heart disease.
The carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke is the same type of poisonous gas found in car exhaust fumes. It puts the heart at risk because it deprives the heart of vital oxygen. Oxygen is carried around the body by red blood cells.The oxygen joins onto haemoglobin – the red protein within the red blood cells.However, the carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke also joins onto the haemoglobin, reducing the amount of oxygen that the blood can carry around the body. In some smokers, up to half of the blood can be carrying carbon monoxide instead of oxygen.
Tobacco smoke also has an effect on the sticky particles
in the blood called platelets. This makes the blood more likely to clot. The nicotine in cigarettes stimulates the body to produce adrenaline, which makes the heart beat faster and raises the blood pressure for a short while immediately after smoking.This means that, each time you smoke a cigarette, your heart has to work harder. It is the tar found in cigarettes that causes cancer.
However, if a cigarette is low in tar, it does not necessarily mean that it has less nicotine and carbon monoxide. So low-tar cigarettes can be just as harmful to your heart as regular cigarettes. Also, people who smoke low-tar cigarettes tend to compensate by taking more puffs and inhaling more deeply. Research shows that smokers of ‘light’ or ‘mild’ brands of cigarettes are likely to inhale as much tar and nicotine as smokers of regular cigarettes. Just three or four extra puffs on a cigarette can change a low-tar cigarette into a regular-strength cigarette.
The unpleasant facts about smoking
Smoking and your heart
• Coronary heart disease is the single most common cause of death in the UK.
• Smoking is one of the major risk factors for coronary heart disease. (A risk factor is something that increases the chance of getting the disease.) Up to 19 in every 100 deaths from coronary heart disease are associated with smoking.
Other risk factors for coronary heart disease are: having high levels of cholesterol in the blood; high blood pressure; physical inactivity; being overweight or obese; diabetes; and having a family history of coronary heart disease.
It is not only your heart
Cigarette smoking has dangerous effects on other parts of the body too.
• Four in every five deaths from lung cancer are caused by smoking.
• Ten in every 100 deaths from stroke are associated with smoking
• Smoking increases the risk of cancer of the lungs , larynx , mouth , pancreas, bladder , kidneys , cervix , oesophagus, and the stomach or gut.
• Smoking is the main cause of chronic bronchitis and emphysema (diseases that affect the lungs).
• Smoking can lead to diseases of the arteries in the leg ( peripheral arterial disease ), which can also lead to the need for the leg to be amputated.
• On average, cigarette smokers die about 10 years younger than non-smokers, and about half of all persistent smokers are killed by smoking.
The risks for women
Overall, coronary heart disease is the single most common cause of death in women. However, female hormones may give some protection to younger women before the menopause. Like men,women who smoke greatly increase their chances of developing coronary heart disease, cancer and chronic bronchitis.Women who take the contraceptive pill and smoke increase their risk of coronary heart disease and stroke.
Pregnant women who smoke are more likely to have an underweight baby or premature birth, or to have a stillbirth (where the baby has died before it is delivered). The children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy are more likely to suffer delays in physical and mental development up to the age of 11.
Second-hand smoke or passive smoking
Second-hand smoke, or passive smoking, is where non-smokers inhale other people’s smoke. It often makes the eyes sting, or causes a sore throat or headaches.
If you have coronary heart disease, breathing in other people’s cigarette smoke can harm you. The effects of being exposed to second-hand smoke for short periods of time are often nearly as bad as long-term active smoking.You should avoid breathing in other people’s smoke as much as possible. Second-hand smoke increases the risk of lung cancer in non-smokers.
Being exposed to second-hand smoke also doubles the risk of cot death in babies and can cause asthma, lung infections and middle-ear disease in young children.
The benefits of quitting
• Within 30 minutes of stopping smoking, your blood pressure and pulse rate go back to normal.
• Within 24 hours, your body will be clear of carbon monoxide and your lungs will start to clear some of the waste material from smoking.
• In two or three days you will be able to taste and smell things better, and you will be able to breathe more easily.
• Over the next few weeks and months your circulation will improve, and your lungs will gradually start to work better.
• By a year after you have stopped, your risk of a heart attack falls to about half that of a smoker.
• By 10 years after stopping, your risk of lung cancer will have halved compared to someone who still smokes.
• After 15 years of not smoking, your risk of a heart attack will be similar to someone who has never smoked.
How can I quit
Seven in every ten current smokers say they would like to stop smoking.
Stopping smoking is not easy.However,
around 11 million people in the UK have become successful ex-smokers.
Most of those who stop do so by themselves. Being determined is a vital ingredient in stopping smoking.There is no quick and easy way of stopping smoking and nothing can make you stop. But, if you really want to stop, there are ways you can increase your chances of becoming smoke-free. People who have support with their effort to quit are much more likely to give up smoking successfully than those who don’t have any support.
Stopping outright or cutting down
To make sure that your heart really benefits, it is important that you stop smoking completely rather than just cutting down.This is because even low levels of smoking damage your heart and circulation. Cutting down is much less likely to work than simply stopping outright. Unfortunately, even if you do manage to cut down, the numbers tend to creep back up again. So once you have planned ahead and chosen your date, it is better to stop completely.
If you feel that you can’t stop completely straight away, you may find that nicotine-replacement therapy can help you to cut down and move towards stopping completely. With nicotine-replacement therapy you could, for example, start by cutting out at least half your cigarettes and using nicotine gum or an inhalator to support you. You should continue to cut down with a view to stopping smoking.
Steps to help you quit smoking
1 Prepare for your attempt to quit. You need a lot of willpower to help break the addictive hold of nicotine.Take some time to think about what you would gain from stopping smoking, and what you would lose. If you feel you are likely to gain more than you would lose, now is a good time to quit.
2 Either decide to stop straight away, or plan a date, not too far ahead, for stopping. Not all smokers are the same. If you’ve had enough of being a smoker and want to stop, just do it! If you prefer to plan ahead, that’s fine too.You can use the time before your stopping date to find out what help is available, and what type of help would suit you best. Contact Quitline or the NHS Smoking Helpline. You’ll improve your chances of success if you get help as soon as possible.
3 Keep busy, to help take your mind off cigarettes. And throw away all your ashtrays, lighters and tobacco.
4 Drink plenty of fluids. Keep a glass of water or sugar-free drink by you and sip it steadily.Try different flavours.
5 Get more active. Exercise helps you relax and can boost your morale.Walk instead of using the bus or car.Try the stairs instead of the lift.
6 Get the support of family and friends. Family and friends can be an important support to help you quit smoking. If they are also smokers, you might be able to encourage them to stop smoking with you.
7 Think positively. The withdrawal symptoms you may get when you stop smoking can be unpleasant. But they are a sign that your body is recovering from the effects of tobacco. Irritability, urges to smoke and poor concentration are common.Don’t worry.They usually disappear after a few weeks.
8 Change your routine. Try to avoid the shop where you usually buy cigarettes. Perhaps you could avoid places where there are lots of smokers around you. Try doing something totally different. Surprise yourself!
9 No excuses. Once you’ve stopped smoking, don’t use a crisis, or even good news, to be an excuse for ‘just one more cigarette’. There is no such thing.You need to either stop completely straight away, or plan to cut down and then stop completely.
10 Treat yourself. This is important. If you can, use the money you are saving by not smoking to buy yourself something special – big or small – that you would not usually have.
11 Be careful what you eat. Try not to snack on fatty foods. If you do need to snack, try fruit, raw vegetables or sugar-free gum.
12 Take one day at a time. Each day without a cigarette is good news for your heart, your health, your family … and your pocket.
13 Remember that you can always call the NHS
Smoking Helpline on 0800 169 0 169 or Quitline® on
0800 00 22 00 for extra support.
© 2008 highbloodpressuresymptoms.co.uk
