smoking and heart disease?

[TheFied]

What is the connection? Why is smoking hard on the heart? I don't smoke but my father-in-law just passed away from a massive heart attack. He had no prior issues but did smoke. The doctor at the hospital told me that smoking can lead to heart disease. Can someone elaborate?

 

[whickums]

Nicotine constricts the blood vessels. It can cause elevated blood pressure, and, if you already have pre-existing heart disease can envoke a heart attack by constricting already occluded blood vessels, thus stopping the blood flow to coronary arteries.

 

[TheFied]

The doctor said he had blockage that was preventing oxygen from reaching the heart. EMS was at his house within 3 minutes and he had yet to get into cardiac arrest -- I guess that means his heart was still beating but it wasn't getting oxygen due to the blockage? As soon as he went into arrest, they began CPR but apparently too much of his heart had died due to lack of oxygen to his heart.

If anyone can expand on this, I know that the family still is trying to figure out what happened. An external autopsy was performed and the coroner/medical examiner agreed that the cause of death was cardiovascular disease.

 

[whickums]

Depending on where the blockage was, how many vessels were affected, and how complete the blockage was (i.e. 100% vs. 90%) it may not have mattered how fast treatment was started.

 

[next2naus]

how about all the tar that builds up in the lungs, making it harder to breath, making it harder to oxygenate the blood, making the heart work harder to pump more blood.

there is nothing beneficial to smoking.

 

[BLESSMEHORNS]

I quit smoking 6 months ago. My hearty rate has dropped 35 bpm.

 

[shotgun427]

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[pmg]

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[shotgun427]

...and smoking has pleasure benefits. There a millions of things that people do that are harmful and they shouldn't do. You shouldn't speed. You shouldn't drink. You shouldn't eat transfats. You should cool down after exercising. The list is endless. Why smoking has become the boogy man, I don't know.

 

[pmg]

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[shotgun427]

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[pmg]

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[BLESSMEHORNS]

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[pmg]

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[shotgun427]

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[pmg]

Yes, I understood what you said.

 

[ScoPro]

Anyways, the last time while talking with my cardiologist about this topic, he said if I hadn't quit smoking when I did (1976) we would not have been having that conversation.

I shoulda been dead at least 8 years ago.

Luckily I did, then didn't....so y'all are the beneficiaries of my good fortune.

 

[TheFied]

pmg, I wish my FIL had stopped completely. He had stopped for about 10 years and then started up again about 2 years ago. He was smoking probably1- 2 packs a day. Of course we didn't really find this out until recently. I knew he had started up again but he never smoked in front of us.

He was ~5'10, 176 pounds, < 60 years old. No previous health issues. I have to think that the smoking didn't do his heart and his years on this planet any favors.

 

[sessamoid]

If any morons want to keep smoking, just make sure you guys have good health insurance. That way, at least I get paid when I treat you for your heart attacks, emphysema, and peripheral vascular disease.

 

[NCAAFBALLROX]

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[goofyboy]

my father in law smoked his last cig an hour before he had his quintuple bypass surgery. Yep - he got to have 5 arteries done. He was 48. Smoked at least a pack a day if not more. Smoking was the direct cause of it.

 

[Uninformed]

Besides Cardiovascular Disease and Lung Disease, smoking also causes head and neck cancer and periodontal disease (and potential loss of teeth) and weakens your immune system.