The effect of smoking on the cardiovascular system - features and consequences

What is the effect of smoking on the cardiovascular system? What ailments can develop in people who don’t want to fight tobacco addiction? What harmful substances are in cigarette smoke? All this will be discussed in our publication.

What substances are in cigarettes?

There are many people who are extremely concerned about the presence of flavor stabilizers, all kinds of dyes in food. However, only a few wonder what chemicals are in a regular cigarette. In the process of combustion, several thousand hazardous compounds are formed. We mention only a few of them:

1. Carbon monoxide is known as carbon monoxide. Sources of matter in everyday life are automobile exhausts and industrial enterprises. Entering the body in small quantities, the substance causes a gradual respiratory depression. However, a single large dose of carbon monoxide can lead to rapid death.
2. Resins cause gradual blockage of the lung cells. In smokers with experience, they are excreted from the body when coughing in the form of a foul-smelling viscous substance of a yellow-brown hue.
3. Nicotine is a substance with high chemical activity. Entrance into the body from the outside leads to rapid addiction.
4. Cyanide is a famous potent poison. Cigarettes are found in very small quantities. Otherwise, it would lead to a quick and painful death.
5. Formaldehydes are substances that are used to preserve the bodies of living organisms in the laboratory.
6. Arsenic is another known poisonous substance. It has a destructive effect on body cells.
7. Cadmium is a metal with the highest levels of toxicity. Known for being used in the manufacture of batteries.
8. Vinyl chloride is a chemical that is widely used in the manufacture of plastic products.
9. Naphthalene is a substance with a moderate level of toxicity. Known as an effective moth control agent.

This is just a small list of chemicals that form in tobacco smoke. However, even the list presented is enough to understand how smoking does not affect the cardiovascular system.

The harmful effects of nicotine

In short, the effect of smoking on the cardiovascular system is as follows. With each next puff, the blood is saturated with nicotine. The presence of a substance in body fluid provokes a jump in adrenaline. Then the action of the chemical ceases, and the vessels quickly narrow. This effect of smoking on the cardiovascular system leads to an increase in blood pressure. The result is the appearance of an accelerated heartbeat effect.

Among other things, the ingress of nicotine into the body causes a decrease in the permeability of the cell membranes of the body for oxygen and nutrients. This provokes disturbances in the structure of body tissues. Especially dangerous is the lack of calcium in the body, which, in the first place, negatively affects the work of the heart.

On the negative effects of tobacco smoke on the body

Puffing with smoke leads to saturation of the blood with carbon dioxide. The substance begins to displace oxygen from the body fluid structure. The latter enters the body cells in insufficient quantities. How does smoking affect heart function? The above process causes oxygen starvation of tissues. Especially from the negative effect of the heart muscle, the functioning of which is significantly inhibited.

The intake of carbon dioxide also causes a concentration in the tissues of cholesterol. The substance forms deposits on the choroid. Ultimately, this greatly increases the likelihood of developing dangerous diseases.

Heart Diseases Caused by Smoking

The effect of smoking on the cardiovascular system is expressed, first of all, in the formation of two main pathologies. We are talking about atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease. There are also many consequences of these ailments, such as:

• chronic heart failure;
• myocardial infarction;
• cardiosclerosis;
• arrhythmia;
• angina pectoris;
• stroke.

Some statistics

To fully realize how negative is the effect of smoking on the human cardiovascular system, just look at the statistics. According to health organizations, smoking annually kills about 330,000 people. At present, about 75% of men and 21% of women in the total population suffer from addiction to tobacco products in Russia. Therefore, it is not surprising that since the end of the last century, our country has been at the leading position in the world in terms of mortality as a result of the development of cardiovascular ailments.

What happens to the body after quitting smoking?

As you can see, the negative impact of smoking on the heart and the cardiovascular system is enormous. At the same time, I would like to talk about the positive aspects. Almost immediately after the last smoked cigarette, the body begins to mobilize and return to normal. If you stop drawing on smoke for the next few hours, the bulk of the absorbed toxic substances will have time to leave the lung tissue and blood vessels.

Let’s find out exactly what processes and in what sequence occur in the body when you stop smoking:

1. After about 12 hours after the last smoked cigarette, characteristic coughing attacks disappear, breathing returns to normal.
2. During the first day, the body is cleansed of toxins. Such processes contribute to the improvement of blood composition, the enrichment of body tissues with oxygen.
3. During the first week after parting with a habit, a person can feel an unpleasant odor from himself. However, this should not give rise to unnecessary unrest. This effect is caused by the fact that harmful substances leave the body.
4. With the onset of the second week, taste and olfactory receptors are completely updated. The former smoker again begins to receive a vivid sensation from eating and enjoy the variety of flavors surrounding it.
5. After 21 days, about 99% of the previously accumulated resins and nicotine leave the body. A person gradually begins to feel how much the harmful effects of smoking on the cardiovascular system, the work of other organs, in particular the stomach, have decreased.

Finally

Every smoker should be aware that a healthy heart and addiction to tobacco products are incompatible concepts. People who dream of a brighter future, wish for many years to keep their body and mind alert, do not take cigarettes in their hands. The faster a person breaks up with addiction, the lower the risk of the formation of pathologies such as heart attack and stroke.