Smoking damages the arteries leading to a build up of fatty material (atheroma) And reduced space for the blood to pass through. The carbon monoxide smoking produces reduces the oxygen in the blood that can be carried to your heart and body. The nicotine in cigarettes increases the adrenaline in your body, which thickens the blood. Coupled with fatty deposits in the already narrowed arteries in your heat - well, you can imagine the result. Added to this, your blood pressure can also be increased. It's a license for disaster - as I am living testament to. I had an HA 5 weeks ago and I smoked 10 cigarettes per day - not particularly a heavy smoker.

Without my knowing, I also had family history of heart disease. Had I have known, perhaps I would have made some life changes. As it is, it took a heart attack, a cardiac arrest and some pretty hairy moments to be where I am now.

My advice? Give up the smokes , honey. It really is possible to be dying for a cigarette.....

God bless

Alli
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Neilster,

I smoked for years I mean decades and smoked 1-2 packs per day. There were times that I would just stop for a year or so and then pick them up once again. For what reason, I cannot answer that. As Miss Alli said it causes adverse effects on your heart, causes your pulse rate and blood pressure to increase. As with her, I my family have a history of heart disease, high cholesterol which are both passed from generations to generations.

What I have told the group many times I can frighten myself by focusing on a test, medication or the reality that a heart transplant lay in my future. As you are thinking about your stress test I would suggest that you search for additional information on the internet. You will be given more information and perhaps you could find what you are looking for.

Look for the effects of smoking on the heart and relation to a heart attack. Look up the stress test, what you can expect and what or how they determine what is taking place within your heart and arteries. Heart attacks can happen at most any age, at 41 you can have blockage (a family history). Seriously you are in ways behind the bullet: A family history, active smoker, high cholesterol and poor dieting habits all combined to make you or place you at a higher risk.

This is the time to change your life style, realize that you are the best advocate for your heart health. Finding the strength to act now is much easier than waiting until you have a heart attack and having no choice but to change the life style.

You are in my prayers and wishing blessings. Your stress test will give you some idea of what damage your heart has suffered if any. It will allow you to make the decision to change your life style or not.

Alli pretty much gave you the scoop. The adrenaline inhibitors we all take can cut down the effects of the extraproduction but we can't miss the point here. It is about assuming and adopting a healthy life style. I enjoy a cigar once in a while also a pouch between my cheek and denture. Both these prractices although not aerobically damaging are still not where I want to be. This year I have set a goal to be nicotine free. Cigarettes are for the birds. They make you smell, yellow your teeth, wrinkle your skin and yes more importantly you will look like hell in your casket after years of smoking. I prefer to have people say I looked better alive as well as dead. Ha1 Ha!

Best Regards,

Just Joe

Ditto on everything said by Jerry and Alli, neilster. Smoking will kill you, plain and simple. Why don't we get stress tests every year? Well, most MD's are not going to prescribes something and most insurance companies are not going to pay for something that is unnecessary. And while a stress test every year can be looked at as preventive medicine, that's not the kind of medicine that is practiced very much in our nation. Stenting a 50% blockage? Again, most MD's probably wouldn't go for that until the blockage is worse, and they would instruct you to change your diet and your lifestyle (i.e. smoking, exercise, etc.) to help prevent the blockage from getting worse.

What can you expect from the test? Well, unless your stress test is drug induced, they will put some dye in you, you will get on a treadmill, you will try to get your heart to a certain rate and they will take pictures of it. That's my simplified version of it, anyway. It's not hard at all. I have not had a drug induced stress test, so I'd rather let someone comment on it who has had one.

I always thought I'd live to be 80 and then die in a car wreck. Instead, I had a heart attack at 50, which, statistically speaking has probably shortened my life by several years. Nope, life is not always fair, but it is what you make of it. I'll bet you'll make it just fine. Please let us know how your stress test goes. We are all pulling for you.

Hugs and prayers,
Pam

Thanks everybody... in fact i don't smoke that much tobacco but mostly the unmentionable herb.. but i do mix, so twice as bad i bet even.

Luckily i can get a vaporizer which i heard is vastly less damaging because if i'm going to give up fatty foods - which i could see as possibly not too too hard - i am not going to be able to go cold turkey on the vice. My brother died at 44 but at least he enjoyed all the food and herbs a man could ask for. He was very sedentary and medium overweight, very high strung, very stressed and angry.. i'm very active and very slim... kind of mellow... i eat much less... so that is the hope i am clinging to between now and next week with the stress test. Anyhow i used to be a hard drug user and smoked SO much of so many chemicals included years of crack cocaine.. well.. i dunno if there's much i can do about it now...the photo on the stress test will not be pretty that much i'm quite sure about.. i sure hope there is a delay and i'm not going to walk on the treadmill and the fast i walk the wider the doctor's eyes go...

Sad day tomorrow... my brother was a stand up comedian and they are doing a night in his honor with a film about his life and everything, i'm getting on the bus to the big city in 8 hours to go to it, it's going to be like a second funeral. He didn't do 1/100th of the crap i've done chemical/smoke wise... i cannot believe he is gone.

Hi, Neilster

Survival guilt is the last thing you need, here. Focus on what your brother left you - an awareness of your own health. If anything, this is an enormous legacy. He may well have just saved your life.

God bless

Alli
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