Ask a Health Advocate: How can quitting tobacco help my heart?

What is the leading cause of death of smokers aged 35 or older?  If you answered lung cancer, you’d be wrong.  Heart disease claims more smokers’ lives every year than lung cancer.  

Cigarette smoking is the main preventable cause of death and illness in the U.S.

To reduce your risk of heart disease and other health conditions, it’s important to quit tobacco as well as aim to reduce your exposure to secondhand smoke.

Smoking harms your heart

The chemicals in tobacco smoke hurt your heart and blood vessels in many ways.  Here are a few examples:

·     Stresses your heart. Smoking raises your blood pressure and heart rate, making your heart work harder than normal.  Over time, this stress can weaken your heart, making it less able to pump blood to other parts of the body. This increases risk of heart disease, including heart attacks.

·     Thickens your blood. Smoking makes your blood thicker, making it more difficult for your blood to carry oxygen. It can also increase your chance of forming blood clots that block blood flow to your heart and brain. Over time, thick blood can damage blood vessel walls, increasing your risk of heart attack or stroke.

·     Increase fatty deposits. Smoking lowers your HDL cholesterol (sometimes called "good" cholesterol) and raises your LDL cholesterol (sometimes called "bad" cholesterol). Smoking also increases your triglyceride level. Triglycerides are a type of fat found in the blood. Over time, these fats narrow the arteries and block normal blood flow to the heart and brain, which may cause a heart attack or stroke. 

How you can reduce your heart disease risk

Quitting smoking reduces your heart disease risk immediately, and your risk continues to decrease over time.

·     Your risk is cut in half 1 year after quitting. If you have not developed heart disease within 15 years of quitting, your risk is nearly the same as the risk in someone who has never smoked.

·     Deaths from heart disease are reduced by one-third in people who quit smoking compared with people who continue smoking. Repeat heart attacks are reduced by about the same amount.

·     Lower risk of sudden cardiac death, second heart attacks, and death from other chronic diseases for those who already have heart disease

·     Your risk of atherosclerosis and blood clots declines over time after you quit smoking. Atherosclerosis is a condition where plaque builds up in the arteries, which can lead to heart attack or stroke.

Quitting tobacco isn’t easy, but it can be done with the right resources and support. In fact, there are more former smokers – nearly 50 million -- than current smokers in the U.S.  Are you ready to put out that last cigarette? If you’re a Health Advocate member with access to the Wellness Coaching program, call your Wellness Coach and ask how you can quit. If you are not a Health Advocate member, we encourage you to check out the free tobacco cessation resources available on smokefree.gov. 

Have a question for a Health Advocate? Email nhess@healthadvocate.com, and your question may be the topic of an upcoming “Ask a Health Advocate” column!

Join the Great American Smokeout!

Today, the American Cancer Society (ACS) hosts its 37^thGreat American Smokeout, which takes place annually on the third Thursday of every November. It’s a day that encourages tobacco users to quit their habit. By quitting, they will be taking an important step towards a healthier life, one that can lead to reducing their risk for cancer.
 

Quitting is hard, but you are not alone. The Great American Smokeout is a way to quit alongside millions of people across the country. Through the Great American Smokeout, the ACS aims to help increase people’s chances of success by providing them with quit-smoking programs, resources and support.

On the fence about quitting?

If you are thinking about quitting smoking, or want someone you love or care about to quit, consider these facts about smoking.

·         Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the US, yet about 43.8 million Americans still smoke cigarettes –that’s nearly 1 in every 5 adults (ACS.com).

·         In the United States, cigarette smoking causes more than 440,000 deaths annually (including deaths from secondhand smoke).

·         Life expectancy for smokers is at least 10 years shorter than for nonsmokers because smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causing many diseases and affecting the health of smokers in general.

 

It’s never too late to quit

The health benefits of quitting smoking begin almost instantly after you finish your last cigarette. These stats from the American Cancer Society show how your body starts to heal itself over time after you quit:

 

Immediate benefits include…

·         Your breath smells better

·         Your teeth can become less discolored

·         Your clothes and hair will not smell of smoke

·         Your fingernails will return to their natural color and be less yellow

·         Your sense of smell returns

·         You can feel less short of breath after doing light activities

 

After you quit, your body will begin to heal itself over time. Here’s how…

·         After 20 minutes: Your heart rate and blood pressure drop to normal levels.

·         After 12 hours: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.

·         After 2 weeks to 3 months: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.

·         After 1-9 months: Coughing and shortness of breath decrease.

·         After 1 year: The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a continuing smoker’s.

·         After 5 years: Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder are cut in half. Cervical cancer risks falls to that of a non-smoker.

·         After 10 years: The risk of dying from lung cancer is about half that of a person who is still smoking. The risk of pancreas and larynx cancer decreases.

·         After 15 years: Your risk of coronary heart disease is that of a non-smoker’s

 

Save your lungs and your wallet

If these health benefits aren’t enough, you should consider the financial benefits you would receive if you quit smoking. Calculate the cost of your smoking habit with The American Cancer Society’s Smoke Cost Calculator, which breaks down how much your habit has cost you throughout your lifetime—and will continue to cost you if you don’t quit.

 

Other resources

For more tools and resources to help you quit smoking, visit:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Quit Smoking Page: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/quit_smoking/index.htm

The American Cancer Society Great American Smokeout and Support and Treatment pages: http://www.cancer.org/healthy/stayawayfromtobacco/greatamericansmokeout/indexhttp://www.cancer.org/treatment/index

SmokeFree.gov’s website which covers many different scenarios for people wanting to quit and ways to approach someone about wanting them to quit: http://smokefree.gov/

If you are a Health Advocate member and want to quit smoking, call us today! Our Personal Health Advocates can connect you with resources to help you quit. And if you have access to Health Advocate’s Wellness Coaching program, you can get tobacco cessation help from one of our Wellness Coaches. You can do it—quit today!

Chantix too risky? Learn what other smoking cessation resources are available

Medications are supposed to help patients get well—but what happens when they have the potential to cause patients harm? A recent study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, along with researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University of East Anglia, shows that using varenicline (whose brand name is Chantix) is associated with a 72% increased risk of hospitalization as a result of a serious cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or an arrhythmia. One of the reasons that people quit smoking is because they want to reduce their risk of heart disease, yet varenicline—one of the most commonly-used drugs to aid people in quitting smoking—appears to be associated with one of the very diseases that people are trying to avoid by taking the drug in the first place.

If you want to quit smoking but don’t want to risk taking medications that are associated with adverse cardiovascular events, there are a number of other resources available to you. Below is a comprehensive list of resources that includes written information about tobacco cessation, smartphone apps, how to obtain individualized counseling, in-depth information about smoking cessation medications, and more.

NCI Smoking Quitline at 1–877–44U–QUIT (1–877–448–7848) provides individualized counseling, printed information, and referrals to other sources.View this NCI fact sheet, "Where To Get Help When You Decide To Quit Smoking": http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/tobacco/help-quitting

SmokeFREE.gov resources
This Web site is dedicated to helping you quit smoking: http://www.smokefree.gov/

National Cancer Institute resources

http://www.smokefree.gov/

is a Web site created by NCI’s Tobacco Control Research Branch; check out their Step-by-Step Quit Guide.

Smokefree QuitGuide app for your smartphone: http://www.smokefree.gov/apps/
"Help for Smokers and Other Tobacco Users" is a free booklet created by the US Department of Health and Human Services packed with tips on how to quit:

http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/tobacco/helpsmokers.htm

"FDA 101: Smoking Cessation Products" is an article put out by the Food and Drug Administration that discusses the variety of approved products, both over-the-counter and prescription, that can help you quit smoking.

http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm198176.htm
Your employer.

Many employers offer tobacco cessation programs as part of the employee benefits package. One such program is

Health Advocate’s Tobacco Cessation

program. This 13-week program provides employees with unlimited one-on-one support from trained specialists. Check with your employer to find out if they offer Health Advocate’s Tobacco Cessation program or any other smoking cessation initiatives.

American Cancer Society

http://www.cancer.org/Healthy/StayAwayfromTobacco/GuidetoQuittingSmoking/index
Their website includes a guide to quitting smoking.

American Heart Association

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/QuitSmoking/Quit-Smoking_UCM_001085_SubHomePage.jsp
1-800-AHA-USA1

BecomeAnEX.org http://www.becomeanex.org/This website features a free, online plan to help you quit smoking.

American Lung Association http://www.lungusa.org/
1-800-LUNG-USA