Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip, written by the Health Promotion and Education Team at Heart Research UK
Healthy Heart Tip: Smoking & Heart Health
Smoking isn’t good for you, we’ve all heard this by now. We know that smoking is responsible for 76,000 deaths a year in the UK, but what impact does smoking actually have on your heart? If you’re a smoker, why is stopping smoking most likely the most impactful thing you can do to improve your health and reduce your risk of heart diseases?
As we kick off October (commonly known as Stoptober), this week’s healthy tip focusses on the physical impact smoking has on your heart health in an attempt to motivate you to finally ditch the habit that could cost you your life.
Cigarettes contain 4,000 chemicals
Many of these chemicals are extremely harmful to your body and include carbon monoxide, tar, and nicotine. Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas which reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood.
Tar is a toxic chemical which accumulates in your lungs, forming a sticky residue. Nicotine is the addictive substance and when consumed it increases your heart rate and blood pressure.
Cigarettes increase your risk of heart diseases
Consuming the above-mentioned chemicals make the walls of your arteries ‘sticky’ which encourages fatty deposits circulating in your blood to stick to the artery walls.
These build up over time and reduces the amount of oxygen-rich blood travelling through your arteries which can result in a heart attack or stroke.
It is time to stop
It is never too late to quit smoking. Even if you have smoked all your life, health benefits can be seen within only a few hours of quitting. After one year of not smoking, you reduce your risk of having a heart attack by 50%.
There is a wealth of support available to help you quit, speak to your GP to discuss your options. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it – good luck!
For more tips on how to stay healthy, sign up for weekly healthy tips at www.heartresearch.org.uk/health-tips.
