What is the effect of smoking on the cardiovascular system? What ailments can develop in people who do not want to fight addiction to tobacco products? What harmful substances are found 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 are wondering what chemicals are in a regular cigarette. During combustion, several thousand hazardous compounds are formed. Let's just mention a few of them:
- Carbon monoxide is known by the term "carbon monoxide". Sources of substance in everyday lifeemissions from cars and industrial enterprises. Entering the body in small quantities, the substance causes gradual respiratory depression. However, a single large dose of carbon monoxide can lead to rapid death.
- Resins cause gradual clogging of lung cells. In experienced smokers, they are excreted from the body when coughing in the form of a foul-smelling, viscous substance of a yellow-brown hue.
- Nicotine is a highly reactive substance. Intake from the outside leads to rapid addiction.
- Cyanide is a famous potent poison. It is found in cigarettes in very small quantities. Otherwise, it would lead to a quick and painful death.
- Formaldehydes are substances that are used to preserve the bodies of living organisms in the laboratory.
- Arsenic is another known poison. Has a destructive effect on the cells of the body.
- Cadmium is a metal with the highest toxicity rates. Known for being used in the manufacture of batteries.
- Vinyl chloride is a chemical that is widely used in the manufacture of plastic products.
- Naphthalene is a substance with a moderate level of toxicity. Known as an effective moth control.
This is just a small list of the chemicals that are produced in tobacco smoke. However, even the list presented is enough to understand what effect smoking has on 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 bodily fluid provokes a surge of adrenaline. Then the action of the chemical stops, and the vessels narrow rapidly. This effect of smoking on the cardiovascular system leads to an increase in blood pressure levels. The result is an accelerated heartbeat effect.
Among other things, the ingestion of nicotine into the body causes a decrease in the permeability of body cell membranes for oxygen and nutrients. This provokes disturbances in the structure of body tissues. Especially dangerous is the lack of calcium in the body, which, first of all, negatively affects the work of the heart.
On the negative effects of tobacco smoke on the body
Puffing in smoke leads to saturation of the blood with carbon dioxide. The substance begins to displace oxygen from the structure of the bodily fluid. The latter enters the cells of the body in insufficient quantities. How does smoking affect the heart? The above process causes oxygen starvation of tissues. The heart muscle suffers especially from the negative effect, the functioning of which is significantly inhibited.
The intake of carbon dioxide also causes the concentration of cholesterol in the tissues. The substance forms deposits on the vascular membranes. Ultimately, this greatly increasesthe likelihood of developing dangerous diseases.
Heart disease caused by smoking
The effect of smoking on the cardiovascular system is expressed primarily in the formation of two main pathologies. We are talking about atherosclerosis and ischemic disease. There are also many consequences of these ailments, such as:
- chronic heart failure;
- myocardial infarction;
- cardiosclerosis;
- arrhythmia;
- angina;
- stroke.
Some statistics
To fully understand how negative the effect of smoking on the human cardiovascular system is, just look at the statistics. According to he alth organizations, smoking kills about 330,000 people every year. Currently, about 75% of men and 21% of women of 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 in the leading positions in the world in terms of mortality rates as a result of the development of cardiovascular diseases.
What happens to the body after quitting smoking?
As you can see, the negative impact of smoking on the heart and cardiovascular system is enormous. At the same time, I would like to talk about positive aspects. almost immediatelyafter the last smoked cigarette, the body begins to mobilize and return to normal. If you stop inhaling smoke over the next few hours, most 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 quitting smoking:
- Approximately 12 hours after the last cigarette smoked, characteristic coughing fits disappear, breathing returns to normal.
- During the first day, the body is cleared of toxins. Such processes contribute to the improvement of blood composition, enrichment of body tissues with oxygen.
- During the first week after parting with a habit, a person may feel an unpleasant smell from himself. However, this should not be a reason for unnecessary worries. This effect is caused by harmful substances leaving the body.
- With the onset of the second week, taste and olfactory buds are completely renewed. The ex-smoker is once again enjoying the thrill of eating and enjoying the variety of flavors around him.
- After 21 days, about 99% of the previously accumulated tar and nicotine leaves 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.
In closing
Every smoker should be aware that a he althy heart and addiction to tobacco products are incompatible concepts. To people whodream of a bright future, wish to keep the body and mind invigorated for many years, you should not take cigarettes in your hands. The faster a person breaks up with an addiction, the lower the risk of developing pathologies such as heart attack and stroke.
