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Healthy Heart Tip: Smoking & Heart Health

Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip, written by the Health Promotion and Education Team at Heart Research UK

Smoking isn’t good for you, we’ve all heard this by now. We know that smoking is responsible for 76,000 deaths a year in the UK, but what impact does smoking actually have on your heart? If you’re a smoker, why is stopping smoking most likely the most impactful thing you can do to improve your health and reduce your risk of heart diseases? As we kick off October (commonly known as Stoptober), this week’s healthy tip focusses on the physical impact smoking has on your heart health in an attempt to motivate you to finally ditch the habit that could cost you your life.

Cigarettes contain 4,000 chemicals

Many of these chemicals are extremely harmful to your body and include carbon monoxide, tar, and nicotine. Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas which reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood. Tar is a toxic chemical which accumulates in your lungs, forming a sticky residue. Nicotine is the addictive substance and when consumed it increases your heart rate and blood pressure.

Cigarettes increase your risk of heart diseases

Consuming the above-mentioned chemicals make the walls of your arteries ‘sticky’ which encourages fatty deposits circulating in your blood to stick to the artery walls. These build up over time and reduces the amount of oxygen-rich blood travelling through your arteries which can result in a heart attack or stroke.

It is time to stop

It is never too late to quit smoking. Even if you have smoked all your life, health benefits can be seen within only a few hours of quitting. After one year of not smoking, you reduce your risk of having a heart attack by 50%. There is a wealth of support available to help you quit, speak to your GP to discuss your options. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it – good luck!

To help keep your heart healthy, why not try out some of the Healthy Heart recipes from the website here

Or have a look through the Healthy Heart cookbook filled with recipes from top chefs, celebrities and food bloggers here

Heart Research UK
Proud to stand out from the crowd, Heart Research UK is the charity dedicated to your heart. They inspire and invest in pioneering medical research, ground-breaking training and education, and in communities to improve their heart health for themselves. For over 50 years they have driven advancements in the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease to benefit patients as soon as possible.