Hypertension, or high blood pressure, can be caused by chronic presence of cigarette or tobacco smoke in the bodily system. In fact, cigarette and tobacco smoke, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, obesity and diabetes are the six major independent risk factors for coronary heart disease that you have the ability modify or control yourself. It’s important to drop the smoking habit and continue in a regimen of exercise and a healthy diet of at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. No amount of prescription drugs can do that for you.

Complications Resulting from Smoking

There are a number of health complications that can result from smoking and cause poor lung circulation, chest pains, heart attacks and stroke. Statistics show that smoking kills nearly 114,000 people in the UK each year. Approximately 42,800 of those deaths are from smoking-related cancers, 30,600 from cardiovascular disease and 29,100 die slowly from emphysema and other chronic lung diseases. It may be hard to believe, but cigarettes actually contain more than 4000 chemical compounds and at least 400 toxic substances. When inhaled, a cigarette will burn at 700°C at the tip and around 60°C in the core. This heat breaks down the tobacco to produce various toxins in your body. The bi-products from the breakdown that are most damaging are: tar, a carcinogen (substance that causes cancer); nicotine, and addictive agent which increases cholesterol levels in your body; carbon monoxide reduces oxygen in the body; components of the gas and particulate phases cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD). The damage caused by smoking is influenced by the number of cigarettes smoked, whether the cigarette has a filter, and how the tobacco has been prepared. With all these damaging results, it’s no wonder why the Surgeon General has called cigarette smoking "the leading preventable cause of disease and deaths in the United States."Aside from the aforementioned results, cigarette smoking alone also increases the risk of coronary heart disease. When combined with other factors, smoking can greatly increase the risk. Smoking increases blood pressure, decreases exercise tolerance and increases the tendency for the blood to clot throughout your body. Furthermore, smoking increases the risk of recurrent coronary heart disease after bypass surgery.

Cigarettes contain many hazardous substances that damage the lung when inhaled, including tar nicotine, carbon monoxide, and cyanide. Long-term exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke and/or repeated respiratory infections also can increase a person's risk for chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.

Risk Factors of Smokers

As far as risk factors are concerned, cigarette smoking is the most important risk factor for young men and women because, surprisingly, it produces a greater relative risk in persons under age 50 than in those over 50. In addition, women on oral contraceptives who are habitual smokers are at great risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke, compared with their nonsmoking counterparts. Smoking also decreases the HDL (good) cholesterol in your body. Therefore, cigarette smoking combined with a family history of heart disease also seems to greatly increase the risk.