Cigarettes contain about 600 ingredients. When they burn, they generate more than 7,000 chemicals.
Many of those chemicals are poisonous and don’t just affect and harm your heart, they can affect nearly every organ in your body.

 

Smoking is a major cause of cardiovascular disease that is considered as the largest cause of death in the United States, killing more than 800,000 people a year. More than 16 million Americans have heart disease. Almost 8 million have had a heart attack and 7 million have had a stroke. www.heart.org

 

How smoking harms your cardiovascular system and increases your risk of having a Sudden Cardiac Arrest?
 

1. Cigarette smoke increases your risk of Atherosclerosis and harms your blood cells, causing the blood vessels to become thick and narrow.
2. Smoking raises your blood pressure to unhealthy levels, which is considered as one of the most important causes of sudden cardiac arrest.
3. Smoking decreases HDL (good) cholesterol in your blood that helps remove other forms of bad cholesterol from your bloodstream.
4. Smoking increases the tendency for blood to clot.

Read more about smoking and heart disease

 

Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when arteries that carry blood to the heart muscle are narrowed by plaque or blocked by clots.
This blockage makes the heart muscle become starved for oxygen and the blood can no longer flow properly to various parts of the body.

 

How to quit smoking?...Quitting smoking is difficult but it is not impossible.

 

1^st step: Decision

-  The first step toward being tobacco-free is deciding to quit.

-  Make your own decision to end your addiction to tobacco and begin a new smoke-free phase of your life.

2^nd step: Get rid of all your cigarettes

-  Go through every place you may have cigarettes and get rid of them.

-  Don’t just throw the cigarettes in the trash. Destroy them!

-  Don’t keep an emergency cigarette hidden anywhere.
 

3rd step: Awareness

-   Knowing all the good things that are happening in your body might help keep you on track.

-   After quitting smoking, the first few weeks are usually the hardest. It usually takes at least eight to twelve weeks for the
    human body to start feeling more comfortable without smoking.

 

 Within:

• 20 minutes: Your blood pressure, pulse rate and the temperature of your hands and feet have returned to normal.
• 8 hours: Remaining nicotine in your bloodstream has fallen to 6.25% of normal peak daily levels.
• 12 hours: Carbon monoxide levels in your blood have dropped to normal.
• 2 days: Your sense of smell and taste are beginning to return to normal.
• 3 days: Damaged nerve endings have started to regrow.
• 2 To 3 weeks: Your entire body will test 100% nicotine-free and over 90% of all nicotine metabolites, your bronchial tubes relax.
      That means that your lungs will be more relaxed, breathing will become easier and your lung's functional abilities will start to increase.
• 1 to 9 months: The number of benefits you’ll experience from quitting smoking will be huge. Tiny hairs in your lungs will regain
      its normal function and they will be better able to clear mucus and reduce infection.
• One Year: Your risk of coronary heart disease, cardiac arrest and stroke are reduced by half.

 

4^th Step: Staying tobacco-free 

-   Staying tobacco-free is the longest and most important part of quitting smoking journey.

 

 

How could you get through the rough spots after quitting?

 

• Get active.
• Reduce your stress.
• Fight the urges and avoid triggers.
• Remember your reasons for quitting and think of all the benefits to your health and your family.
• Keep your hands busy with cards, a rubber band, or doodling.
• Chew gum or drink water.
• If you’re worried about weight gain, put some energy into planning a healthy diet.
• Never believe anyone who will tell you that “one cigarette won’t hurt,” because it very likely will.
• Reward yourself for being smoke-free. Anytime you get past an urge to smoke, count that as a success.   

     

Every time you light up a cigarette, you are saying that your life isn't worth living. Save your heart and the hearts of those you love and quit smoking today.

 

References:

www.cdc.gov

https://rehabilitateyourheart.wordpress.com/category/recovery-from-heart-disease/

https://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/QuitSmoking/QuittingResources/Smoking-Cardiovascular-Disease_UCM_305187_Article.jsp#.WoLYiyVubIU