While the link between smoking and range of cancers is well known, the World Health Organization warned on Thursday that there was too little awareness of tobacco's impact on the human heart. On the occasion of "World No Tobacco Day" on Thursday, the UN health agency announced that smoking rate had declined significantly since 2000, but warned that there was "a serious lack of knowledge" about the different health risks associated with tobacco.

▲ World Health Organization

Tobacco killed more than seven million people every year and half of them died due to cardiovascular diseases, including heart attack and stroke. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyeesus stated that most people know that using tobacco causes cancer and lung diseases, but many of them are not aware that it also causes heart disease and stroke - the world's leading killers. For instance, in China, a large WHO survey showed that more than 60 percent of the population is unaware that smoking can cause heart attacks, while in India and Indonesia, more than half of adults are unaware that smoking can cause the stroke.

▲ Smoking

Then, how does smoking cause heart attacks? As we know, a lot of chemicals are contained in a cigarette. Not only tobacco has many chemicals, but also its concentration of harmful matters are 500 million particles per one cubic millimeter. So, smoking can be a reason for heart attacks. Smoking releases good cholesterol, HDL and increases the LDL and neutral fat. It also increases the ingredient of helping blood clot and platelet's adhesive strength. This makes the artery blocked, shut down blood and myocardial infarction. In addition, decreasing the amount of oxygen to the heart causes the weakening of the heart tissue.

▲ Heart attack by smoking

In accordance with a hundred-year-old age, we need to have careful management about our health to spend a happy and healthy old age. Keep your heart and blood vessels healthy by exercising and stop smoking.

June 3, 2018, by Kim Dae-Hwan