Heart attack recovery – quit smoking
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Heart attack recovery – quit smoking

Smoking is a major risk factor for heart disease. Get the facts on quitting and how it can help you recover.

Key takeaways

  • Smoking is a significant risk factor for heart disease.  
  • If you already have heart disease, you’re at greater risk from exposure to second-hand smoke than people who don't. 
  • There are many different ways to quit smoking.  
  • Get support to help you stop smoking. 
  • You’ll feel the benefits of quitting almost straight away. 
Quitting smoking can be one of the most rewarding things a person can do. 

As smoking is addictive, giving it up might take time. It can be hard as your body is dependent on nicotine. However, it’s important to remember that many people have successfully quit smoking, so you can too. 
If you’re recovering from a heart attack, quitting smoking can reduce your risk of another one. 

Smoking and your heart

Smoking affects the vessels that supply blood to your heart and other parts of your body.  

It reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood and damages blood vessel walls. 

Smoking contributes to atherosclerosis, which occurs when there’s narrowing and clogging of the arteries. This reduces blood supply and the amount of available oxygen throughout the body.  

Smoking and heart disease

Arteries are the blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood from the heart to the other parts of the body. Smoking increases the stiffness of the arteries, making it harder for them to expand and contract as needed, making them more likely to split. These changes to the arteries can cause a heart attack, stroke or angina. 

Smokers not only have more heart attacks, strokes and angina than non-smokers, but also at a much younger age. 

Smoking is a major risk factor for heart disease. When combined with other risk factors, smoking further raises the risk of heart disease. 

Other risk factors include: 

  • Unhealthy blood cholesterol levels 
  • High blood pressure 
  • Being overweight or obese. 
Smoking can increase your risk of heart disease. If you smoke, you are: 
 
  • Four times more likely to die of heart disease (heart attack and stroke).  
  • Three times more likely to die from sudden cardiac death. 
  • Two times more likely to have a heart attack.  
  • Three times more likely to have a stroke. 
  • 20 times more likely to have angina.  
  • Five time more likely to develop Peripheral Arterial Disease.  
Second-hand smoke is the smoke you breathe in from other people smoking. It can cause heart disease in non-smokers. Breathing second-hand smoke damages your arteries. Platelets in your blood can get sticky and may form clots, just like in a person who smokes. 

If you already have heart disease, you’re at greater risk from exposure to second-hand smoke than people who don't. 
There are a few different ways to quit smoking, including: 
 
  • Going cold turkey  
  • Gradually cutting down  
  • Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) 
  • ​Prescription medications. 
There’s lots of support available to help you quit.  
Talk to your doctor or health practitioner about giving up smoking if you’re:  
 
  • Ready to quit smoking 
  • Thinking about quitting smoking 
  • Want to help someone else to quit. 
You can also call the Quitline on 13 7848 or visit the Quit website. 

Remember, many people slip up after they quit and start smoking again. Don’t see this as a failure. Instead, think about what made you smoke again. How can you deal with this next time? What worked and what didn’t work? Learn from this and try quitting again. You become better at quitting each time you try. 
You’ll feel the benefits of quitting almost straight away as your body repairs itself. Depending on how much you smoked, you should start seeing and feeling benefits in a week. 

The first month after quitting smoking: 
 
  • 12 hours – excess carbon monoxide is out of your blood. 
  • 5 days – most nicotine is out of your body. 
  • 1 week – your sense of taste and smell improves. 
  • ​1 month – your skin appearance is likely to improve. 
In the first year after quitting smoking: 
 
  • 2 months – your lungs will no longer be producing extra phlegm caused by smoking. 
  • 3 months – your lung function and blood flow improve. 
  • ​12 months – your risk of heart disease has halved. 
The longer-term benefits of quitting smoking: 
 
  • 5 years – your risk of stroke has dramatically decreased. 
  • 10 years – your risk of lung cancer is less than half that of a continuing smoker, and it continues to fall. 
  • 15 years – your risk of heart attack and stroke is almost the same as a non-smoker. 
It’s never too late to quit. Quitting smoking is the best thing most smokers can do to improve and protect their health.  
Research on the safety of e-cigarettes indicates there are risks for heart health. Also, they haven’t been proven successful in helping people to quit smoking. The Heart Foundation doesn’t support the use of e-cigarettes. 
Take the first steps to quit and call the Quitline on 13 7848, or visit the  Quit website to get started.


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