What is Atherosclerosis Disease? The Smoking Facts and Risks
Associated With Hardening of the Arteries.
What is atherosclerosis disease? It is commonly referred to as hardening of the arteries.
The effects of cigarettes and the smoking facts reveal the
really harmful effects of smoking on the health of your
blood vessels and the smoking risks associated with atherosclerosis disease.
Many of these effects can be fatal.
Hardening of the arteries is a chronic and degenerative disease process.
While the changes in the body are quietly occurring there are often no
real symptoms until blood supply to vital organs and tissues is compromised.
Smoking is a major influence on the development and progression of atherosclerosis disease.
Sometimes the first sign that this disease process is occurring is a major life altering event
like a stroke or
a heart attack.
Smoking Facts
there is a 200% increase in your risk of developing hardening of the arteries after several
pack years of smoking.
average life years lost to this disease is 7.5 yrs.
estimates are that 1 in every 58 people in the US are affected.
smoking is associated with more extensive atherosclerotic damage in the aorta.
atherosclerosis disease is systemic. If you have it in one area of the body then
likely there are changes in all of your major blood vessels.
So much more is going on than just your arteries getting hard. Hardening of the arteries is in fact a
layman's term and does not completely describe the pathological processes that narrow your
blood vessels and disrupt the smooth flow of blood to all tissues and organs that need it.
The process of plaque building starts with lipoproteins being deposited both within the artery walls
and the inside of the artery itself.
Blood clot formation is one of the real dangers of cigarette smoking. A blood clot that gets loose and travels throughout the
circulatory system is called an emboli.
Blood clots travelling in the circulatory system can get lodged and completely cut off blood supply to
an organ or the tissues.
Blood clots that travel to the lungs are called a pulmonary emboli.
Both can be fatal.
Free radicals in the body cause
more damage and the fat buildup becomes even more toxic and damaging to the artery lining.
This damage creates inflammation causing
another series of events to occur which results in more and more cellular activity in the area.
Eventually the fat buildup and the cellular debris create what is called a plaque.
Damage to the artery walls causes a series of small hemorrhages so blood clots also are formed.
All of this is mediated by a complex set of biochemical processes that are only partially understood.
We think we know a lot but there is still so much more to learn about these precise and complicated
mechanisms in the body!
The end result of course is a lot of junk in the arteries, loss of the elasticity of the
artery walls,
and poor blood supply to the tissues that need it.
That is the most important thing to remember about atherosclerosis. It starves your body's organs and
tissues of oxygen and essential nutrients. Slowly but surely important organs like
the heart and the brain cannot perform as they are required to.
The Vascular Effects of Cigarettes and Smoking Facts
When this process occurs in arteries that supply blood to the brain it is called cerebral atherosclerosis. If
blood supply is cut off completely, and no oxygen reaches part of the brain, cells will die.
This is the most
common cause of stroke.
When it occurs in the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle it is called
coronary atherosclerosis. This is only one of the ways that
smoking causes heart disease but a very significant way because
this is the cause of a heart attack
or myocardial infarct.
When blood flow to the legs is reduced it is called
peripheral artery disease. When the blockage is severe enough to cause tissue necrosis and gangrene, amputation is the only way to save the limb.
The really harmful effects of smoking on your blood vessels are illustrated in this video...
More Smoking Facts
Diabetes is also a risk factor for developing atherosclerosis disease. If you smoke and have diabetes, your
risk for developing atherosclerosis disease increases exponentially.
The purpose of the information provided here is to help you cooperate with your doctor and other
health practitioners. It is not intended to take the place of medical advice and you are encouraged to
discuss health concerns with your physician or a professional health care provider who is
familiar with you and your unique personal health context.
