Saturday, August 1, 2009

Heart Attack Calculator: Quitting Smoking Can Save Your Life

Smoking significantly ups your odds of having a heart attack; within a year or two of quitting, your risk decreases substantially.
If asthma, lung cancer, andemphysema aren't enough to scare you off, it turns out smokers are two to four times more likely to developcoronary artery disease (CAD) than nonsmokers. Cardiovascular disease—including CAD, heart failure, and heart attack—is the leading killer in the U.S., claiming more than 860,000 lives in 2005. Smoking ups your risk for heart disease by decreasing the flow of oxygen to the heart and raises your risk for atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Lighting up also damages the cells that line the coronary arteries and increases your likelihood of blood clots. In fact, heart-related complications are one of the main reasons cigarettes can take so much time off a smoker's lifespan. link....

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