While moderate alcohol consumption does have its benefits, and coffee is a really good antioxidant, smoking is one habit that brings absolutely no health benefits whatsoever. Smoking is bad for the heart, lungs, throat, the others around you, but is it related to cholesterol as well?
Smoking and the heart
While smoking can do a lot of irreparable damage, the heart is an organ that starts to heal as soon as you quit. The heart rate starts to improve, and you blood pressure begins to lower. Smoking has a number of drastic impacts on the body: it clogs the arteries, causes tar build-up in the lungs, makes your blood thicker, weakens the bones and the immune system, and increases inflammation.
If cigarettes were all about tobacco, the situation wouldn’t be so grim. However, cigarettes contain all sorts of chemicals that are extremely dangerous for your heart.
- Carbon monoxide is one of the most dangerous ingredients. It’s a poisonous gas that invades your bloodstream and your lungs. Your red blood cells make oxygen for your tissues and organs to stay healthy, but carbon monoxide steals some of it away. It’s also one of the culprits responsible with making your artery walls stiffer and harder, a problem which can lead to heart attack.
- Nicotine is also a threat. This additive chemical is found in both electronic cigarettes and normal cigarettes. Nicotine is also known for narrowing the blood vessels, as well as causing blood pressure spikes and increasing heart rate.
- Cigarettes force your body to go through some chemical changes which are a threat for your health. Platelets (the cells in your bloodstream) have a specific reaction to cigarette ingredients, causing them to clump together. As a result, the blood changes its consistency, getting thicker and stickier. As a consequence, blood no longer flows smoothly through the arteries.
Cholesteryl ester transfer protein is the substance that normally takes care of this balance. Those who suffer from genetic defects can cause the cholesteryl ester transfer protein to work extra, meaning that good cholesterol particles are much easier to break down, and therefore get eliminated from the bloodstream.
Smoking and cholesterol
Our bodies have a protective enzyme which takes care in keeping bad cholesterol intact. When this enzyme doesn’t function properly, bad cholesterol particles are subject to oxidation, a process that changes the molecular structure of these particles.
As a result, the bad cholesterol particles are no longer recognized by the immune system, and are therefore considered a threat. Consequently, the immune system starts releasing white blood cells, in an attempt to “cure” the body of the “disease”. This can lead to inflammation, as well as increases the risk of stroke and heart disease.
Acrolein is a cigarette smoke component that can interfere with a person’s bad cholesterol. It inhibits the efficiency of the aforementioned protective enzyme, therefore causing modifications in the particles of bad cholesterol.
Is the damage reversible?
The bad news is that smoking and high cholesterol can do a lot of damage. The good news is that the moment you stop smoking, your heart condition can improve. Back in 2013, a study was published, revealing the fact that people who stop smoking have a 30 percent good cholesterol level boost in just three weeks.
One year after quitting smoking, the chances of having a heart attack drop by 30 percent. The results in blood pressure and cholesterol improvement are immediate. It can also take anywhere between five and ten years of not smoking for the heart to look almost as it would if you never smoked.
The dangers of second-hand smoke
While you might not be a smoker yourself, you might be sharing the same house as someone who does smoke. It is a well-known fact that second-hand smoke is also dangerous to your health, but at what extent?
People who breathe second-hand smoke will also inhale the toxic vapors that come with it. This means that living with a smoker can also lead to heart attacks. In the US alone, about 34,000 non-smokers die of coronary heart disease induced by breathing second-hand smoke.
Workers who don’t smoke, but have to inhale second-hand smoke at their workplace, are 25 to 30 percent more likely to develop a heart disease. Naturally, it is also possible for second-hand smokers to develop problems with their blood circulation and their vascular system.
Even more, non-smokers forced to inhale tobacco smoke are also 20 to 30 percent more likely of having a stroke compared to non-smokers who don’t breathe in cigarette smoke.
Conclusion
The CDC reported that a third of cardiovascular-induced deaths are caused by smoking. The chances increase proportionally when the person suffers from other issues, such as diabetes or high blood pressure.