Tobacco use and your heart

You can help your heart and your health by managing your risks factors and living a healthy lifestyle. Risk factors are behaviors, habits or conditions that can put your heart at a high risk for problems. Some of these you cannot control while others you can. Tobacco use is one of the major risk factors you can control.

Tobacco use is the most preventable cause of death in the U.S. Cigarette smokers are two to four times more likely to develop heart disease than nonsmokers, and 10 times as likely to develop peripheral vascular disease (known as PVD).

People who smoke are at an increased risk for heart attack, stroke and circulatory problems, as well as cancer, lung disorders and reproductive health issues.

What's in tobacco

Tobacco products (cigarettes, cigars and pipes) contain about 4,000 chemicals — more than 60 of which are known to cause cancer in humans. Every time you inhale a cigarette, cigar or pipe, you inhale chemicals such as:

benzene (fuel additive)
formaldehyde (embalming fluid)
cyanide (poison)
methanol (wood alcohol)
acetylene (fuel)
ammonia (cleaning fluid)
acetone (nail polish remover)
carbon monoxide (poisonous gas)
arsenic (poison)

Why tobacco is addictive

People become addicted to tobacco because of nicotine, a drug that affects the central nervous system. Cigarette smoking is the most common form of nicotine addiction in the U.S. Nicotine is both a stimulant (having effects like caffeine) and depressant (having effects like alcohol).

During smoking, nicotine is absorbed into the bloodstream and travels to the brain in 10 seconds. The smoker gets a "kick" because the brain releases chemicals that cause pleasure. The effects of the nicotine last only a few minutes, leading to a sense of depression. This leads to the need for more nicotine.

According to the National Institutes of Health, a person who smokes will take 10 puffs on a cigarette during a 5-minute period. A person who smokes 30 cigarettes a day gets 300 "hits" of nicotine to the brain.

The addiction to nicotine is what makes quitting difficult (but not impossible).

What tobacco does to your body

Cigarette smoking has been linked to about 90 percent of all lung cancer cases, and one-third of all cancers. Smoking:

causes heart disease and stroke
increases your heart rate, blood pressure and the workload of your heart
causes lung diseases (such as bronchitis, emphysema and lung cancer)
causes most cancers of the mouth, larynx, esophagus and bladder
adds to the risk of cancer of the stomach, pancreas, cervix and kidney
makes asthma symptoms worse
increases the risk of osteoporosis (brittle bones)
can delay healing from surgery
dries the skin and causes yellow teeth, bad breath and wrinkles.

Smoking even one cigarette each day results in:

an increased heart rate, blood pressure and narrowing of major blood vessels, causing the heart to work harder
a decreased oxygen supply in the bloodstream, resulting in shortness of breath and lack of oxygen
faster blood clotting, resulting in an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and circulatory problems.

What secondhand smoke does to your body

Secondhand smoke contains smaller amounts of the same chemicals in cigarettes. Secondhand smoke (also known as environmental tobacco smoke) is a mix of smoke exhaled by smokers and smoke coming from the tips of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

It is so dangerous the Environmental Protection Agency has listed it as a known cause of cancer.

Quitting tobacco use

Quitting tobacco use may be difficult, but it isn't impossible. To get help quitting, talk with a member of your health care team.