The risks of continuing to smoke:
If you have coronary heart disease (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. Even if you already have coronary heart disease,it is definitely worth quitting.
If you have already had a heart attack, continuing to smoke doubles your risk of having another attack within one year.
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 booklet concentrates on ways you can increase your chances of becomingmsmoke-free.
How stopping smoking will help your heart:
Carbon monoxide and nicotine are the two chemicals in tobacco smoke that probably have the most effect on the heart. 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. This deprives the heart muscle of vital oxygen. Nicotine stimulates the body to produce adrenaline which makes the heart beat faster and raises the blood pressure, causing the heart to work harder. Nicotine also has an effect on the sticky particles in the blood called platelets. This makes the blood more likely to clot. Other components of cigarette smoke appear to damage the lining of the coronary arteries and this leads to atherosclerosis (the build-up of fatty material within the walls of the arteries).