Smoking and having an unhealthy HDL cholesterol level can be a deadly combination because they both increase your risk of a heart attack. In addition, smoking causes "substantially lower levels of HDL," according to "Controlling Cholesterol The Natural Way." This increases your heart-disease risk even more because HDL cholesterol is good cholesterol that removes bad cholesterol from the arteries leading to your heart and moves it to the liver, where it isn't harmful.
Significance
Smoking causes 443,000 premature deaths annually, according to the American Cancer Society's "Cancer Prevention & Early Detection Facts & Figures 2009" report. Cancer causes 169,000 of those deaths, and 49,400 of the 443,000 deceased are nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke. Low HDL cholesterol levels cause higher risks of atherosclerosis and heart disease. Your risk of heart disease is high if your HDL is less than 40 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) and low if it's more than 60 mg/dL, according to the National Institutes of Health's "Your Guide to Lowering Your Cholesterol" report.
Connection
There is a direct connection between smoking and a harmful HDL cholesterol level, according to "Controlling Cholesterol." Your HDL cholesterol falls more as you increase the number of cigarettes you smoke. Men and women who smoke 20 or more cigarettes per day have HDL cholesterol levels that are 11 and 14 percent lower than men and women who don't smoke. Cigar and pipe smokers have approximately the same good cholesterol levels as nonsmokers, but giving up cigarettes for cigars and pipes doesn't change your HDL level.
Risks for Men
The NIH report uses five factors to figure out adults' risks of having a heart attack within 10 years. The factors are smoking, HDL cholesterol, age, systolic blood pressure and total cholesterol. A 55-year-old man who doesn't smoke has a total cholesterol of 190, systolic blood pressure of 120 and HDL cholesterol of 55 has a 6 percent chance of a heart attack within 10 years. If he smokes and his HDL cholesterol is 39, his heart-attack risk soars to 20 percent.
Risks for Women
Smoking increases women's heart-attack risks more than men's, according to the NIH report. The report adds nine, seven and four risk points to women who are 20 to 39, 40 to 49 and 50 to 59 years old, respectively, but eight, five and three risk points to men who are the same age. A 55-year-old woman's risk of a heart attack within 10 years if her total cholesterol is 240 and systolic blood pressure is 140 jumps from 4 to 17 percent if she smokes and her HDL cholesterol is below 40.
Solutions
Quitting smoking is one of the five best ways to raise your HDL cholesterol and can increase your HDL by "as much as 15 percent to 20 percent," according to Harvard Women's Health Watch. The other best ways are exercising, losing weight, eating healthier foods and taking niacin. Quitting smoking also cuts cancer and heart disease risks. Within 10 years, ex-smokers have the same heart disease death rate as nonsmokers, according to "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease."
References
- "Controlling Cholesterol The Natural Way"; Dr. Kenneth Cooper and William Proctor; 1999
- American Cancer Society: Cancer Prevention & Early Detection Facts & Figures 2009
- National Institutes of Health: Your Guide to Lowering Your Cholesterol
- Harvard Health Publications: 5 Tips to Increase HDL Cholesterol
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program For Reversing Heart Disease"; Dr. Dean Ornish; 1996
