Dangers Of Smoking:Heart and Lung Disease

Heart disease, as well as strokes, is the leading cause of deaths by smoking. In addition to the stress it puts on the heart to smoke, you also get a build up of plaque in your arteries from the toxins in the cigarette smoke, which ultimately leads to the hardening of the arteries. It is possible for smoking related heart diseases to lead patients to have congestive heart failure, which is one of the leading causes of death in the Western world. Smoking increases blood pressure, increases your risk for blood clots, and also decreases your tolerance for exercise, which can all add to your risk factors for coronary heart disease and stroke. Although the damage to your heart and blood vessels from smoking is very serious, after five to fifteen years your risk of strokes goes back to that of a non-smoker, so the sooner you quit the better.

Smoking is the cause for emphysema in eighty to ninety percent of the cases of the disease diagnosed. This disease presents itself slowly and usually not until after many years of continuous exposure to cigarette smoke. Although emphysema is caused by a few other things as well as smoking, smoking does make you ten times more likely to die from emphysema than a person who has never been exposed to cigarette smoke. Some major symptoms of emphysema include anxiety, constant cough, shortness of breath, swelling of the ankles and feet, wheezing, and weight loss. Because emphysema is a slow developing disease, you do not even know you have it until it is already preventing you from breathing properly, which in some cases is too late to really do anything about it. Although the terrible effects of the disease are permanent and incurable once they develop, you can stop smoking right now, and help prevent any more damage from happening and possibly  increase some lung function.