How Smoking Damage the Brain and Heart

Aside from lung damages, cigarette smoking can also cause detrimental injuries to both the brain and heart organs.

Oxygen is what keeps us healthy. The air we breathe in has kept our body organs active and fit. When a person smokes, thousands of toxic substances are added inside his body. This then directly affects the internal organs' function and condition. Apparently, smoking can trigger a lot of severe infections to occur inside the body. Two of the most common health issues a person may develop from smoking cigarettes are heart and brain diseases.

What does smoking do to the heart?

When you smoke, the amount of oxygen obtained by the heart will reduce significantly. Instead of inhaling pure oxygen, the air breathe in will be combined with other gases as such with carbon monoxide. In order to enhance oxygen transmission inside the body, the heart needs to function harder. Each extra effort denotes a rising of heart rate. When this happens, arteries and blood vessels will become constricted due to the fats, carbon monoxide and nicotine build-ups. Such condition will also lessen the supply of blood to the heart. All in all, these would cause damage to the heart muscles, thereby putting you in a higher risk of having a heart attack.

What does smoking do to the brain?

Cigarette smoking can also damage the brain. When you smoke, blood vessels will become constricted. This then would halt the circulation of blood towards the brain. When this happens, strokes can happen. This is the rationale behind the higher number of stroke cases with smokers than non-smokers.  Strokes are fatal that more often could lead to paralysis.