Smokers are four times more at risk of suffering from a heart attack than non-smokers; and that risk becomes almost eight percent if the smoker is a diabetic.
At the Annual Convention of the Cardiological Society of India, experts opined that control of cholesterol, regular exercise and restraint from smoking could greatly reduce the risk of heart disease. Passive smokers are also at risk for heart trouble and the increasing incidence of cardiovascular disease in India is a cause for concern within the medical community.
Smoking is as much a psychosocial dependence as it is a physiological one. Adolescents usually begin to smoke under peer pressure and it soon becomes a habit and the individual becomes dependent on nicotine. In due course, smoking starts affecting the cardiovascular system.
Constant smoking causes the heart to require more oxygen for the same amount of work. It also causes a rise in blood pressure and changes in the heart rhythm. Nicotine is also known to increase the fatty acid concentration of the blood making blood more prone to clotting.
There are some alarming facts that chain smokers need to know. While 15 percent of non-smokers over the age of 35 years can expect to die before they are 65, this figure increases to about 40 percent in case of people who smoke more than 25 cigarettes a day. The average loss of life for a smoker is approximately 5 years. The time by which a habitual smoker's life is shortened is about 5 minutes per cigarette smoked.
December 2, 2000 (PTI)