With Valentine’s day around the corner, I have been thinking a lot about love…self love. One of the best ways to show yourself love is to take precautionary measures to make sure you live a healthy, long life. February is American Heart Month, a time when all people can focus on loving their heart more. There are many things you can do to keep your heart healthy but one of the main things you should stop doing immediately is smoking. 

To some breaking this habit sounds like a real drag, but it actually is a real heart throb—the kind that hurts! If you smoke cigarettes, you don’t need me to tell you that it’s bad for your health. When people think about the danger of smoking, they tend to think about (or try not to think about) lung cancer statistics, but the fact is that smoking cigarettes is not only the most common preventable cause of death on the planet. It’s also a major risk for heart disease. 

Cigarettes Will Break Your Heart (Or At Least Tear It) 

Cigarettes do serious damage to your endothelium (that important lining of your arteries). With every inhalation of toxic smoke, you are making little cuts and tears in your endothelium that will eventually lead to hardened arteries that don’t work as well. 

Smoking also forces your blood vessels to contract, increasing your blood pressure. Your HDL (good) cholesterol plummets, and you have increased risk of clotting with each inhalation. Clotting can cause a heart attack. In fact, when I see young people wheeled into the Emergency Room because of a heart attack, nine times out of ten cigarettes had something to do with it. Every inhalation is like a round of Russian Roulette. For every single inhalation of that cigarette you put yourself at risk, at that moment, during the act. 

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do 

For many people, giving up smoking is not easy. I get it. I really do. I’m not going to blow smoke at you and tell you it’s easy. But we’re talking about your life here. We’re talking about your heart. 

Any amount of smoking, no matter how small is dangerous for your health. If you smoke just one to three cigarettes a day, if you only bum a cigarette off your friends at happy hour after work, you are at greater risk for a heart attack, not to mention a stroke, cancer, and a bunch of other unpleasant diseases you’d probably rather not even know about, like peripheral vascular disease and COPD. And if you use birth control pills and smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, your risk of having a heart attack goes up thirty-fold. Yes, we all have the freedom to make choices, but I’ve never met a smoker who didn’t feel tied to their cigarettes. I wouldn’t call that freedom. I would call that a dangerous game that you’re going to lose. 

Smoking Triggers

After you quit smoking and especially during the process of trying,  there may be certain situations that can prompt you to light up again. 

A few triggers may include:

• Boredom

• Stress

• The smell of smoke

• Alcohol consumption 

Stay away from these situations as much as you can until they don’t give you that urge anymore and keep in mind most cravings last only a few minutes. Here are some more helpful tips to overcoming smoking triggers, Smoking Triggers: 10 Tips to Overcome Them.

The good news is the minute you stop is the minute your body begins fixing itself. 

So if you don’t smoke, never do it. If you do smoke, stop. The sooner, the better. There are many ways to get help quitting smoking. Ask your doctor about it. Make an appointment today. Find out if the patch or medication might be helpful for you. 

Get whatever help you need to quit smoking and help keep your heart healthy. 

Do it for love…self love.