Can Smoking Cause High Blood Pressure?
If you’re like many people, you may be concerned about the potentially harmful effects of smoking on your health. Even if you’ve never been stricken with hypertension, you may be at risk. Read on to learn more.
Here are a few facts about smoking you should know:
- Smoking is a major cause of cardiovascular disease and other circulatory problems.
- It’s also associated with an increased risk of stroke, coronary artery disease, and heart attack.
- Smoking is one of the leading causes of death around the world.
What is Blood Pressure?
But what exactly is blood pressure? It is a measure of how much blood flow to the heart. The lower the blood pressure, the easier it is for your heart to pump oxygenated blood through your body.
When blood flow is hindered, that means your heart has to work a lot harder, pumping harder blood to get the nutrients it needs to function. High blood pressure can lead to heart attack and stroke, so quitting smoking can dramatically reduce your risk.
What Can Cause High Blood pressure?
There are many possible causes of hypertension. Many believe it becoming a smoker can also trigger or worsen the condition, as cigarettes have chemicals and other ingredients that can cause blood pressure to rise.
But there are also some medications, environmental factors, genetic predisposition, and other factors that can increase blood pressure. If you’ve tried losing weight, quitting drinking, and other lifestyle changes without success, it may be time to look into the possibility that smoking might be the cause of your blood pressure problem.
How Does Smoking Affect High Blood Pressure?
Smoking is a very big risk factor for people with pre-existing conditions like hypertension. Cigarettes constrict the blood vessels in the body, which increases the amount of pressure they have to pump blood through.
Nicotine is one of the reasons why cigarettes are so deadly. The substance causes your pressure and heart rate to rise, causes your artery walls to become hardened (atherosclerosis), and tightens them, so they become narrow. It also causes clogged arteries.
This, in turn, can cause stress on your system, worsen your high blood pressure, and other serious health problems.
It also makes it more likely for your blood to form dangerous clots, and these clots are the first steps towards complications like stroke or heart attack, which can kill you on the spot. It is therefore important to avoid smoking altogether or to minimize your smoking at least.
Even if you’re not already at risk for high blood pressure, you should still avoid cigarettes if you’re trying to lower it. If you’ve been smoking for a long time, the tar and other chemicals from the tobacco make their way into your bloodstream and cause other problems.
The longer you smoke, the more your body will need to function under the extra pressure. Avoiding the chemicals and tar can go a long way toward lowering your blood pressure naturally.
Watch this video on smoking and blood pressure to help you better understand how it affects your health.
Conclusion
Smoking can increase your chances of getting high blood pressure and the dangerous complications resulting from high blood pressure if you already have it.
Smoking is so dangerous to people with high blood pressure because the chemicals in cigarettes make your heart work harder, which increases the strain on your circulatory system.
If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure or have been taking medications for long periods, you should stop smoking. Doing so will go a long way toward reducing or eliminating your high blood pressure.