If you smoke cigarettes you are jeopardizing your cardiovascular fitness. The American Heart Association reports that around 440,000 deaths out of the nearly 2.4 million deaths each year are associated with the harmful effects of cigarette smoking. These harmful effects are most often linked to diseases within the cardiovascular system. Quitting smoking today could greatly improve your cardiovascular fitness in as little as two to eight hours.
Function
The cardiovascular system is one of the biggest and most important systems in the human body. Consisting of the heart, blood and blood vessels, the circulatory system moves blood from the heart, delivering oxygen and nutrients to the entire body. As the blood flows back to heart, it picks up waste products, which the body will excrete.
Chemical Dangers
When you smoke a cigarette you inhale more than 4,000 chemicals. Some of these chemicals, such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, and lead, can be harmful when ingested alone, and combining them can be fatal.
Effects
The tar in cigarettes slowly clogs the avioli that line your lungs. Avioli are the areas in your lungs where oxygen is defused into the blood stream. The more avioli that are clogged, the harder it is for oxygen to circulate to the body. Over time, this will lead to wheezing and shortness of breath.
Additional Effects
Smoking also increases your heart rate and blood pressure, raising the body's demand for oxygen. While at the same time depriving the body of oxygen due to the intake of carbon monoxide. This action triggers the heart to have to work harder to meet the body's demand for oxygen, which over time could lead to a condition known as ischemia, or a lack of oxygen, due to poor blood supply.
Time Frame
In as short as 20 minutes the cardiovascular system can benefit from you stopping smoking. Your heart rate and blood pressure will return to normal levels, and within eight hours carbon monoxide levels in the blood will drop and the oxygen level will rise. Only 72 hours later, you may notice the relaxation of the bronchial tubes and benefit from greater lung capacity. In fact, the longer you go without a cigarette the greater the benefits will be. Studies have shown individuals who stop smoking see as much as a 30 percent increase in lung function, no doubt a great gain for your cardiovascular fitness goals.
