You had a massive heart attack 9 years ago, correct?
What are you currently taking to prevent another one?
Smokers now represent less than 25% of the population but the incidence of first heart attack has dropped only among the older quartile while the youngest quartile has experienced an increase in frequency.
The link between smoking and lung cancer is by far the greatest and most robust, so it would be a mistake to think that a smoke-free society would eliminate heart attacks.
Obesity is the new bugaboo and it will be a lot harder sell when they come to take your french fries away.
That makes perfect sense - the youngest quartile has the highest percentage of smokers - it makes sense they would have a higher incidence of heart attacks.
The link between smoking and lung cancer is by far the greatest and most robust, so it would be a mistake to think that a smoke-free society would eliminate heart attacks.
Of course it wouldn't eliminate heart attacks - but it would certainly cut down the number. Smoking is one of the major risk factors for heart attacks - genetics, blood pressure, cholesterol & smoking are the 4 main causes of heart attacks.
The warning label on the side of a cigarette pack says emphysema, lung cancer and heart disease. As a smoker, I never paid any attention to the heart disease part.
I had a rude awakening. I had no other risk factors when I had my heart attack - blood pressure - excellent, cholesterol -excellent, in perfect health, no family history of heart disease, not overweight. Two packs of Kools a day was my only risk factor. That was obviously enough.
I could always understand the link between smoking and lung problems - that's pretty obvious. I could not understand the link between smoking and heart problems until one of the intensive care nurses explained it to me.
The nicotine molecule is a perfect cube, with straight sides and sharp edges. (so it doesn't matter if you smoke, chew, snuff or whatever - nicotine in your bloodstream doesn't care how it got there).
The walls of your arteries should be smooth and slick, but when a nicotine molecule goes through the artery, it will score and scar the smooth walls leaving roughness.
Everyone has blood clots flowing through their arteries - but smokers have twice the number of nonsmokers.
When a blood clot comes sliding through an artery - it can get caught on the roughness caused by the nicotine molecule.
The third factor is that smoking causes your blood vessels to contract.
The triple whammy that causes the heart attack is a blood clot getting caught on the roughness caused by nicotine coupled with the contraction of the blood vessel.
Zap - there's the heart attack.
Once the mechanics of it were explained to me - it made perfect sense.
Again - far more smokers get heart attacks from smoking than they do lung disease.
As a smoker I never tried to quit, never wanted to quit, had no intentions of ever quitting. I really enjoyed smoking.
I had a rude awakening and was damn lucky to survive my "widow-maker" heart attack.
"Once bitten, twice shy."