Will I Get a Heart Attack from Smoking / Chewing?

When someone asks you, “What is the health problem of tobacco consumption?” your immediate answer is “It causes Cancer”. Another answer might be “Nothing! I have not experienced anything yet. I have been smoking/chewing since years and I’m still healthy.” However, do you know that tobacco consumption can cause other diseases too? Have you ever got yourself screened to really know the damage tobacco has already caused in your body?

Tobacco consumption causes numerous chronic diseases of which Cardio-Vascular Diseases(CVDs), Stroke, CRD, TB, Asthma, COPD and NCDs are the most frequently caused diseases besides cancer. And, in this blog, I will enumerate on heart diseases caused by smoking/consuming smokeless tobacco products.

Let me tell you a few quick and interesting facts. As per the Factsheet released by WHO in 2018, deaths due to tobacco in India was more than 1 million and 48% of the deaths were due to CVD, 23% due to CRD and only 10% due to cancer. This is extremely alarming that more deaths are caused due to heart related diseases than cancer due to tobacco use. 4,49,844 deaths from CVDs could have been prevented if these people had quit tobacco on time (in 2018).

It is true that smoking/chewing can give you a heart attack or any other form of heart disease at some point in time in your life if you continue to consume tobacco regularly and do not quit on time. Smoking increases the risk of coronary heart disease by 200%-400%. I’m sure not many people would be aware about it.

The question is how does smoking/smokeless tobacco cause a heart attack or disease?

Tobacco smoke contains high levels of carbon monoxide (CO) that affects the heart directly. CO reduces the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. Vital organs like the heart, lungs, brains, kidney, etc. do not always receive the right level of oxygen to perform everyday functions. This implies the heart has to pump more and harder to supply the right oxygen to the organs thereby increasing the heart rate and blood pressure. Over time, this causes constant “wear and tear” on the cardiovascular system thus causing a heart attack, high BP, blood clots, strokes, hemorrhages, aneurysms and other disorders.

Use of smokeless tobacco products increases the risk of high blood pressure and heart rate. However, no study has proven that a severe heart disease can be caused due to smokeless tobacco consumption. This does not imply that a smoker should switch to smokeless form because oral cancer is caused in 98% of the smokeless tobacco consumers.

Smoking increases the risks for the following diseases:

• Coronary heart disease
• Rheumatic heart disease
• Hypertension
• Ischemic heart disease
• Pulmonary heart disease
• Cardiac arrest
• Cerebrovascular disease
• Atherosclerosis
• Aortic aneurysm
• Chest pain
• Arrhythmia

What Else Can Smoking Do?

• Increase the level of triglycerides in your body
• Lower the “good” cholesterol level (HDL)
• Make blood sticky and more likely to clot, which can block blood flow to the heart and brain
• Damage the cells that line the blood vessels, leading to build up of fatty material (atheroma) which narrows the artery which causes angina, heart attack or stroke.
• Increase the  build-up of plaque (fat, cholesterol, calcium and other substances) in blood vessels
• Cause thickening and narrowing of blood vessels thereby harming blood circulation
• It can also cause sudden cardiac death of all types in both men and women

“Beyond its status as an independent risk factor, smoking appears to have a multiplicative interaction with the other major risk factors for CHD—high serum levels of lipids, untreated hypertension, and diabetes mellitus (USDHHS 1983). For instance, if the presence of smoking alone doubles the level of risk, the simultaneous presence of another major risk factor is estimated to quadruple the risk (2 × 2). The presence of two other risk factors with smoking results in approximately eight times the risk (2 × 2 × 2) of persons with no risk factors.” (NCBI, 2010).

There is no doubt that smoking will definitely cause a heart attack or other forms of heart diseases. It is therefore important to quit immediately, if not, then identify the symptoms as soon as possible before it becomes severe and seek help to quit the habit of smoking.

References

Rostron BL, Chang JT, Anic GM, et al Smokeless tobacco use and circulatory disease risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis Open Heart 2018; 5:e000846. doi: 10.1136/openhrt-2018-000846

Office on Smoking and Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, January 2019, https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/diseases/heart-disease-stroke.html, accessed in July 2019

Amy Lukowski, PsyD (August 2015), https://www.nationaljewish.org/health-insights/smoking-and-tobacco-use/health/coronary-heart-disease-and-tobacco, accessed in July 2019

British Heart Foundation, https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/risk-factors/smoking, accessed in July 2019

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US); National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (US); Office on Smoking and Health (US). How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US); 2010. 6, Cardiovascular Diseases. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53012/