Smoking and Heart Disease
Smoking is one of the important remediable risk factor of heart attack. Tobacco products produce IHD in many ways:
1. Smoking produces platelet aggregation (blood cell clogging) and helps in the formation of block inside the coronary arteries. It also helps in the formation of blood clot (solidification of blood).
2. Blood clotting factor, fibrinogen level is higher in the smokers. In Framingham study, fibrinogen value was found significantly higher in the smokers.
3. Cigarette smoking has been found to have adverse effect on the blood fat level. Compared with nonsmokers heavy smokers have lower levels of HDL (good cholesterol) and higher levels of LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides.
4. Acute inhalation of smoke is associated with increase in blood pressure which may have detrimental effects in patients with IHD.
5. Approximately 50 to 150 microgram of nicotine is absorbed through the lung mucosa with each puff of tobacco. Nicotine is potent agonist for the adrenergic nervous system and it causes contraction of coronary and prevents normal blood flow in heart.
