Smoking -- a habit which puts big risks on your heart health overtime
Smoking is not just a bad habit -- it is a bad habit which poses big health risks for your health and your entire organism. I know Giorgos, a 73 year old male from Greece, who smokes at least 15 strong cigarettes per day for more than 30 years. At this moment, Giorgos experiences more concomitant diseases, which are reducing his life quality and are limiting him from enjoying a good life quality at his age.
No one could certainly say if smoking was or not a big decisive factor in the outcome of his nowadays health status, and we can only guess at what extent smoking brought any harm to his body. The most worrying symptoms Giorgos is experiencing are hypertension (usually 150/100 mm/Hg), which fortunately responds to treatment with ACE inhibitors (such as Captopril) and periodic heartburn sensations, especially after some efforts or stressful situations. Also, 3 years ago he was diagnosed with diabetes type I and two years ago - with Parkinson.
No one could definitely say if smoking was a decisive factor in the Giorgos’ actual health status, but certainly it was a trigger. It is already established as a fact that smoking rises big health risks in those which are prone to develop cardiovascular diseases and Giorgos is not an exception as we can see. He refuses to quit smoking even now, when he can see how a damaged heart feels like and he continues to act irresponsibly with his health as he did for over 30 years.
His life history doesn’t reveal any special events which could be mentioned as semnificative stressful situations and he followed a relatively healthy diet, excluding alcohol, not more than 3 cups of coffee daily and a little or no physical activity, though he successfully avoided getting weight. Now, when he’s 73 and suffering some periodic heart discomfort and being permanently exposed to the risks of hypertension, he’s asking himself at what extent smoking is guilty for his actual situation. Is his case proving that even if you smoke a pack of cigarettes per day for more than 30 years you can still live happily to your seventies and ignore all those worrying warnings about the dangers of smoking?
Why heart suffering patients are still smoking?
Giorgos is a real-life example of a person which is in the situation of struggling with hypertension and occasional angina, but he is ignoring all these signs of cardiac disorder. He’s ignoring the fact that overtime smoking can put him at even higher risks, as myocardial infarction. When I asked him what is behind his desire to smoke daily, he says it’s the habit of it. Cigarettes left such a deep mark on his daily activities, that at this age and after more than 30 years of active smoking, cigarettes became part of his day-by-day activities.
Either if he meets some friends, driving his car back home, heading to visit some relatives, going for the groceries -- all these activities are accompanied by the "ritual" of smoking. And, as we now, the elder you get -- the harder it is to accept new habits and follow new rules. For him, learning to make these activities without having a cigarette is like learning a new language or how to drive a car by new. Quitting smoking puts in front of him new things to learn and elderly people are slow at learning. So instead of trying at least reducing the number of cigarettes per day, Giorgos is doing what millions of other smoking males of his age do: he alleviates himself with the idea that there’s not so much time to live and at least he lives his last years of life as he wants.
And not only the old habits is what put this seventy-year old in such a situation. It is known that nicotine from smoking cigarettes is creating dependence and a sudden cut over cigarettes calls an unpleasant sensation of discomfort.
How do cigarettes act on Giorgos’ heart?
The entire cardiovascular system of elderly people is suffering with each smoked cigarette. And not only the cardiovascular system, but the entire organism is fighting with the effects of smoke and derivates. After each smoked cigarette, the body is starting an extraordinary process of regeneration: the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, the heart, all the organs affected by vessels’ constrictions are starting regenerative processes to clean out the effects. But in time, if we worn out too much our immune system and the regenerative forces, because of the age and slower metabolism, the healing becomes weaker and weaker. The heart is the first but not the only organ which is affected by tobacco. But it is heart’s failure the most feared consequence as without it our body will stop functioning in a matter of seconds.
I am pretty sure each one of you knows someone who acts like Giorgos -- smoking and putting their lives at risk for nothing. If you do and want to talk about it, please share your opinions and points of view on our Discussion Board. Let’s talk about smoking -- the bad old habit some of us are struggling to cut.
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