Smoking is responsible for many diseases, such as cancer, long-term (chronic) respiratory diseases,
and heart disease, as well as premature death. In a year, smoking kills around 6 million people
worldwide. More than 5 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than
600 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
Smoking harms almost every organ in the body. It raises blood pressure, makes it harder to do exercise, makes the blood clot more easily than it should. Obesity is also prominent in many smokers.When you smoke, the toxins from cigarette smoke enter your blood. The toxins in your blood then make your blood thicker, and increase chances of clot formation.It inncreases your blood pressure and heart rate, making your heart work harder than normal. Lastly,it narrows your arteries, reducing the amount of oxygen rich blood circulating to your organs. Together, these changes to your body when you smoke increase the chance of your arteries narrowing and clots forming, which can cause a heart attack or stroke.
In an article published online in Medical News Today on 30 May 2013, we presented data demonstrating that, on average, smokers die ten years sooner than non-smokers.
If you smoke, you are more likely to have a stroke than someone who doesn't smoke. Smoking increases your risk of having a stroke by at least 50%, which can cause brain damage and death. And, by smoking, you double your risk of dying from a stroke. One way that smoking can increase your risk of a stroke is by increasing your chances of developing a brain aneurysm. This is a bulge in a blood vessel caused by a weakness in the blood vessel wall. This can rupture or burst which will lead to an extremely severe condition known as a subarachnoid haemorrhage, which is a type of stroke, and can cause extensive brain damage and death.