Smoking After A Heart Attack – What Are The Consequences?

If you are a smoker, one of the first things that your doctor would advise you to do after you have a heart attack is to stop smoking. Do not take this advice lightly. This is one recommendation that would save your life if you follow it; or kill you if you do not. There are plenty of reports that tie smoking to deaths by heart attack; there is no doubt about this - smoking after heart attack means death. Smoking Kills - In More Ways Than One You would associate smoking with lung cancer, which is a fact. However, it is also a fact that smoking is one of the major factors that cause heart attacks. As a smoker, you are primarily exposed to the risk of cancer of the throat and the lungs. However, a lot of people lead a cancer free life, but develop heart diseases. Smoking steals oxygen from the tissues and cells. As a result, regeneration of cells does not take place in the manner that it should. This is why people who smoke have translucent looking skin, early wrinkles, and scrawny hands. They age earlier as smoking halves the capacity of the muscles to work, and prevents the immune system from fighting against free radicals and infections. Smoking literally smothers the body by squeezing the flow of oxygen from the cells. Smoking And The Heart Smoking narrows the arteries in your body and promotes the building and rupturing of plaque. This makes you a prime candidate for heart disease. When it comes to survivors of a first heart attack, smoking means sure death. There are no two ways about this. An MI usually results in the death and/or damage of a portion of the muscles of the heart. This interferes to some extent with its optimal functioning. When you smoke following a heart attack, you prevent healing of the damaged muscle(s) and at the same time starve it of oxygen. The result is that the heart would overwork itself and cause a repeat MI, which often would be very serious if not fatal. rnWhat If You Cannot Quit Smoking? In that case, you need to learn - as soon as possible - how to draw a legal binding will. It is imperative that you do not die intestate, as this would add further stress to your family after your death - and this would be anytime from months to years following the first heart attack. It would also be good if you plan and allot funds for your funeral ceremony. rnI am not being morbid. Smoking after a heart attack is a sure method to invite death early. This is one point on which all doctors agree upon; smoking affects the heart and is a primary and major factor that leads to heart attack. The Good News Quitting smoking cuts the risk of death by repeat heart attacks by 82%, which is a whooping figure under any circumstances. What would you want? Give up smoking and live a long and a quality life; or continue to smoke and end up in an early grave. The choice is of course, yours. For more information on this and other subjects on heart attack and heart health products, go to http://www.heartattackprofessor.comrn