Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. and is the major preventable reason for all deaths, according to the American Cancer Society. Even if it doesn’t give you cancer, or before it gives you cancer, it can cause health problems such as cardiovascular disease, emphysema and stroke. It can limit your fertility, increase your risk of miscarriage and lead to premature births and low birth-weight babies. Cigarette smoke can affect the blood flow throughout your body and can affect your potassium levels.
Potassium
Potassium is a mineral abundant in many foods. In your body, it serves primarily as an electrolyte, a charged molecule that can conduct electricity. Potassium levels are much higher inside your cells than outside, and potassium works with sodium -- an electrolyte concentrated on the outside of your cells -- to create an electrochemical gradient that conducts nerve impulses, contracts muscles and maintains a regular heartbeat. Cigarette smoking is associated with health problems related to the potassium levels in your blood serum, your brain and in the blood vessels surrounding your heart.
Serum
Cigarette smokers whose serum potassium levels are high may be at a greater risk for dying, particularly from lung cancer. A study described in the October 1996 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology compared the serum potassium levels of middle-aged men and found that smokers with elevated serum potassium showed a greater mortality rate than nonsmokers whose serum potassium levels also were high. Study investigators were unsure of the connection but speculated that high potassium levels might play a role in the increased risk of death or might be a biomarker for another cause of death.
Brain
Cigarette smoke can not only lead to stroke but also inhibit your brain’s normal uptake of potassium following a stroke. In the January 2006 issue of The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, investigators measured the amount of potassium crossing the blood-brain barrier following a condition that mimics stroke. In a cell culture model as well as a rat model, the nicotine from cigarette smoke inhibited the ability of potassium transporters to move potassium from the blood to the brain, leading to an unnaturally high concentration of this electrolyte on the outside of the cells.
Heart
In normal heart function, the arterioles, or small blood vessels, around your heart dilate in response to an influx of potassium. Cigarette smoking, however, impairs the ability of these blood vessels to dilate appropriately. Investigators, reporting in the January 2011 issue of the American Journal of Physiology Heart and Circulatory Physiology, discovered that tobacco smoke hinders the activity of the cellular mechanisms that move sodium and potassium in and out of your cells in response to changes in your physiological condition. They conclude that smoking can therefore lead to heart arrhythmias and impaired circulation.
References
- American Cancer Society: Cigarette Smoking
- Linus Pauling Institute: Potassium
- American Journal of Epidemiology; Serum Potassium, Cigarette Smoking, and Mortality in Middle-Aged Men; S. Wannamethee, et al.
- The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics; Tobacco Smoke Chemicals Attenuate Brain-to-Blood Potassium Transport Mediated by the Na,K,2Cl-Cotransporter During Hypoxia-Reoxygenation; Jennifer Paulson, et al.
- American Journal of Physiology Heart and Circulatory Physiology; Cigarette Smoking Impairs Na+-K+-ATPase Activity in the Human Coronary Microcirculation; H. Miura, et al.
