Smoking is not only bad for your lip colour or lungs, as that is what people commonly understand about its side effects. But it is also significantly bad for your heart! Nicotine, an addictive substance is derived from tobacco that is responsible for taking millions of lives every year around the world. To elaborate on the discussion, we have tried to put together some vital points below that will explain the harmful effects of nicotine on you and your heart.
Heart Diseases
Nicotine can lead to different cardiovascular disorders. According to many studies, it has been found that nicotine effects are much more on the heart than other parts. Smoking causes an irregular rhythm of your heart and hinder the flow of blood to your heart. Another deadly heart risk that can occur from smoking is mitral stenosis. It happens when the mitral valve becomes scarred or stiff and doesn’t open properly leading to heart failure or stroke.
The narrowing of the valve restricts the blood flow and hence causes failure of oxygen to reach the heart. Smoking leads to the severity and increase in inflammation during Rheumatic fever, which is the main cause of mitral valve stenosis. Symptoms like shortening of breath and heart palpitation are most common.
Other risks of cigarette smoking are causing the walls of your arteries to thicken up, hypertension, aneurysm, peripheral artery disease, etc. Further, if you are a non-smoker and come across second-hand smoke often, the chance of your death due to heart disease increases by almost 30 per cent.
What Would Happen If You Try To Quit Smoking?
Considering the deadly side effects of smoking like mitral stenosis, one must quit smoking. However, easier said than done, certain withdrawal symptoms can affect you severely at the beginning but gradually will become normal. These include:
- Confusion and trouble in straight thinking
- Irritation and anxiety
- Extreme craving for tobacco
- You might feel more hungry
- Fatigue, depression, restlessness, etc.
How Can You Protect Your Heart?
Mitral Valve Stenosis is a risk to your heart caused by rheumatic fever. Which happens due to untreated throat and other infections. A throat infection is aggravated by smoking; thus, indirectly smoking cigarettes can become extremely deadly. Hence the best way you can protect your heart from such deadly risks is by quitting nicotine altogether. When you inhale cigarette smoke that is a mixture of some thousand chemicals, you allow all those to mix with your bloodstream, hence polluting your entire body.
There are many medications and treatments available that can make your cigarette quitting journey easier. For that, you must consider your local doctor or health care clinic. If you start today, you work towards building a better future for yourself and your heart!