Medical Questions » Smoking Questions » Question No. 938
| Question: | How does smoking cause poor circulation? Does it damage the blood vessels, or does it cause the blood to thicken? |
| Answer: | With the first inhalation of cigarette smoke, the nicotine and other chemicals in the smoke enter the lungs and the blood stream. Within seconds, there is an effect on the arteries and veins throughout the body.
Smoking primarily acts upon arteries and veins by causing them to go into spasm. The tiny muscles in their walls contract, and the blood vessel shrinks in size, narrowing the tube through which the blood passes, and therefore depriving of oxygen the tissue supplied by that artery.
In elderly people or those who have high blood pressure, excess cholesterol or heart disease, this narrowing of the arteries can have very severe consequences, as a vital organ may have its already limited blood supply reduced to a point where it is unable to function properly.
The heart muscle itself is supplied with blood that comes through small arteries. If these go into spasm, angina or a heart attack may result. For this reason, it is imperative for those with other risks of heart disease to stop smoking.
In advanced cases, a condition known as Buerger' s disease (or thromboangiitis obliterans) can result from smoking.
Smoking can have serious affects upon every body organ, not just the lungs.
|
|
|
