Smoking and the Effects on the Heart Essay

Tobacco smoking is the largest preventable cause of death and diseases in the United States of America. Close to 480,000 Americans lose their life each year due to illness caused by smoking cigarette. (Healthy People 2020, 2010).

Exercising helps eliminate all the extra fat and waste that surrounds the heart. Also quitting smoking avails the whole body, especially the heart. Smoking cigarettes causes about 1 in every 5 deaths in the United States each year. (National Institutes of Health). Tobacco has many chemicals that harm the organs in the body. It also damages the blood vessels, which increases the risk of atherosclerosis (Smoking & Cardiovascular Disease (Heart Disease)). The carbon dioxide that is coming from the cigarette binds to the hemoglobin, a substance that is found in red blood cells, preventing the blood from carrying a full load of oxygen that is needed to sustain the body. Making it harder to breath and stressing the heart. Smoking also damages the heart vessels, which affects how well the blood flows around the body making the heart work more. For some people, such as women who use birth control pills and people who have diabetes, smoking poses an even greater risk to the heart and blood vessels. Cigarettes have nicotine in them which produce adrenaline, therefore causing the heart to work harder and gaining a high blood pressure and rate

Smoking is a major cause of coronary heart disease. A year after leaving, the risk of an attack to the heart falls to approximately the half of a smoker.

How does smoking cause heart disease, or arteriosclerosis? Smoking causes heart disease by creating several dangerous conditions, both short term and long term:

More and more health risks caused by tobacco are being discovered every day. Some risks are that you can get blood clots and aneurysms in the brain, blood clots in the legs, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, poor blood supply to the legs, decreased ability to taste and smell, harm to sperm, loss of sight due to an increased risk of macular degeneration, tooth and gum diseases, wrinkling of the skin, and many more. (Zieve)

The American Heart Association reports an even gloomier number, “Cigarette smoking is the most important preventable cause of premature death in the United States. It accounts for more than 440,000 of the more than 2.4 million annual deaths. Cigarette smokers have a higher risk of developing a number of chronic disorders. (AHA, 2005).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, secondhand smoke causes over 34,000 premature deaths from heart disease per year in the U.S. among nonsmokers.

According to the NRDC, nearly 18,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease were caused by active smoking in 1990. Smoking a single cigarette can damage blood flow to your heart for people with a pre-existing coronary artery disease. Cigarette smoking has been found to be the leading cause of pulmonary illness and death in the US. In 1990, smoking cause more than 84,000 deaths anywhere from lung disease, such as pneumonia, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.

Perhaps the body system that smoking interferes with the most, is the cardiovascular system. The cardiovascular system is affected in a number of ways including, adverse lipid profile. Nicotine increases the amount of “bad” fats (low density lipoproteins, triglycerides, and cholesterol) circulating in the blood vessels and decreases the amount of “good” fat (high density lipoproteins) available (Mitchell et al., 1999). Another effect on the cardiovascular system is, atherosclerosis. This is when fat and cholesterol stick to the walls of an artery. Nicotine damages the blood vessel walls to allow the accumulation of fat and cholesterol to occur at a faster rate thus increasing the risk for heart disease (Mitchell et al., 1999). Smoking also

Cigarette smokers are two to four times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than non-smokers, and tobacco use doubles risk for stroke. It also causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels, and it causes premature wrinkles because it constricts the oxygen and warmth from all parts of the body so the skin ages faster.

Additionally, nicotine tightens the blood vessels which slows down blood flow. The health effects of smoking are frightfully damaging and in many cases, deadly. The chemicals in tobacco smoke are breathed in into the lungs and then travel throughout the body.

Regardless of consumer belief, smoking dramatically increases the chances of contracting many diseases - such as heart disease or high blood pressure. Although not every user experiences these diseases, it is well known that smoking can decrease one’s life time dramatically. The information given states, “It’s virtually impossible to escape the effects of tobacco” (Jordan). This stated, Jordan expresses that essentially if you use tobacco, there is a fairly high chance that one will damage his/her body in some way. Furthermore, there are many more diseases that can be contracted and the ones stated are only the most common. Continuing, the author explains the affects of smoking, “Expose to specific elements of secondhand smoke causes blood clot more easily and damages arterial lining” (Jordan). As stated, certain components in tobacco increase the chances of high blood pressure and blood clots to form in the body. Concluding, respiratory problems in young children can occur through second hand smoking, these include asthma. Children that asthma effect increases from smoke, “Asthma turns out to be about twice as common in children exposed to high levels of second hand smoke” (Secondhand Smoke: Is it a Hazard). Not only does tobacco smoke increase other diseases, it also increases the severity of diseases already contracted as shown in the previous quote. To conclude, tobacco smoke

To begin let’s talk about the many, many health risks that are caused from smoking. I’ll start off with the biggest consequence smoking causes. Cancer. According to the CDC.gov website, nine out of ten lung cancers are caused from smoking cigarettes. And although lung cancer is the most common cancer associated with smoking, it is definitely not the only one. Smoking can cause cancer anywhere in the body. From the mouth to the colon, nothing is safe from cancer when you smoke. According to betobaccofree.gov, the chemicals in cigarettes harm your blood cells and damage your heart, increasing your likelihood of developing aneurysms, cardiovascular disease, Coronary heart disease, and strokes. Smokers also develop mouth sores and ulcers and as stated on deltadentalins.com, smokers are about 4 times more likely than non-smokers to develop gum disease. Smokers experience muscle deterioration because blood and oxygen are restricted and can’t reach the muscles.

Another cardiovascular malfunction that cigarette smoking may cause are strokes. A stroke is damage to the brain caused by leakage from a ruptured blood vessel or an interruption in blood supply. Nicotine and carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke affect the adhesives of blood platelets, the main clotting factor in blood. This can cause blood vessels to harden and form blood clots that can flow to the brain, a major cause of strokes. Nicotine can also cause the blood vessels to constrict. When a smokers arteries become too constricted,

Smoking increases the risk of suffering from heart diseases, stroke, other lung diseases and other respiratory illnesses. The body develops horrific reactions to the daily onslaught of smoking. It damages the blood vessels in the legs and arms for example, which lead to restricted circulation and even amputation of the limbs. Also, a smoker addict will eventually start getting eye irritations (which leads to blindness), foul smelling hair, hair loss and even start developing a loss of smell. All of these reactions are due to the dangerous chemicals cigarettes contain.