Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy: Alcohol and Smoking Causes Heart Attack
Through associated with lung cancers and breathing problems, the most important threat factor of alcohol consumption and smoking is the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, mainly heart attacks and strokes. For many people, quitting smoking and keeping away from alcohol is the best thing they can do to improve their heart and artery health.
Cigarettes have injurious multiple poisons, especially addictive nicotine, hydrogen cyanides, tars, carbon monoxide along with thousands of varying chemical toxins and 43 deadly carcinogens that together increase the risk of peripheral vascular and coronary heart diseases. When compared to non-smokers, smokers have more than twice the risk of heart attack. In both men and women, smoking alone increases the risk of fatal and non-fatal heart attacks. It increases blood pressure and consequent heart problems as it decreases the amount of oxygen rich blood to heart that lead to coronary heart diseases. Smoking causes damage to the tissues and cells of our body and also decreases the production of high-density cholesterol known as good cholesterol that is needed for the body for normal heart functioning. Furthermore, cigarette smoking acts with other risk factors that significantly increase the risk for coronary heart disease.
Smoking can also lead to risks of blood clotting as well as building up of cholesterol fats in the arteries- thereby increasing blood pressure, damage of arteries and heart disorders. The risk of heart disease increases with prolonged use. Patients who smoke after bypass surgery have increased risk of recurrent strokes. Frequent exposure to cigarette smoke is also bad for heart and artery health. In addition to heart disease, tobacco use also increases the risk of stroke, bronchitis, emphysema, osteoporosis and cancers of the lung, kidney, bladder, pancreas, lip, cervix, mouth, larynx, tongue, esophagus and throat. When the person stops smoking, the risk of heart attack and other diseases decrease significantly. Quitting smoking all of a sudden is not an easy task, though numerous aids and medications are available.
Alcohol consumption is one of the main reasons behind immature death caused by cardiovascular diseases. Consumed in moderate amounts, alcohol can prevent heart attacks. However, heavy drinking leads to various malfunctioning of our body such as increase of LDL cholesterol and decrease of HDL cholesterol, decreases coronary blood flow, decreases estrogen hormone level, induces blood clotting and increases aggregation of platelets. Excessive amount of alcohol also leads to increased blood pressure and consequently increases the risk of a heart attack. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy is a cardiovascular disease caused by the toxic effects of alcohol on human heart wherein heart becomes enlarged and weakened. Heavy drinking gives rise to congestive heart failure, increased triglyceride level and stroke.
Alcoholism is characterized by an unsatisfying urge to go on with drinking. Though alcoholic people are aware of the ill effects of alcohol, they are often unable to quit the bad habit completely. Quitting of alcohol requires moral and mental support along with medical supervision and medications. There are also various health supplements available today that can help in removing the toxic effects caused by smoking and alcohol consumption in the body. Such heart support supplements consist of ingredients that not only protect heart from future disorders, but also nourish heart and artery health.
At Public Health Forums we offers various health articles on heart disease. Read our Cholesterol articles for Risk of Heart Disease and about Cholesterol Herbal Products. We have natural and herbal treatment options for other health problems such as colon cleansing, pain relief etc.
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