Smoking and Heart Disease

Imagine having such intense indescribable pain that is radiating through the chest area towards the arms, neck, and jaws that causes a black out. Now imagine waking up in a cold, stark white hospital room, machines hooked up everywhere making strange noises, and a Doctor speaking what sounds like a foreign language with their list of big words that include Myocardial Infarction, and angioplasty to name a few. Then the three most unnerving words come out of the Doctor’s mouth that would terrify even the most harden criminal, ‘the widow maker.’ After going over medical history after medical history, the determining factor for ‘the widow maker’ is cigarette smoking. Those that survive these heart attacks should count themselves extremely lucky. It is estimated that out of every five deaths in the United States, one will be caused by cigarette smoking (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institue). Research has shown, that smoking cigarettes increases heart attacks because of the effects of the chemicals in the blood stream.

Roughly the size of a fist, the heart’s main purpose is to pump blood throughout the body for nourishment. The blood that flows into the heart through the two atriums of the heart and the two ventricles of the heart. Blood flows into the heart from the superior and inferior vena cava. It then flows down into the right atrium up into the pulmonary trunk which divides into the right and left pulmonary trunks. These trunks travel into the respective lungs to pick up oxygen. From the lungs, blood flows into the heart from the pulmonary veins into the left atrium. From here, blood travels up into the aorta where it is then dispersed throughout the body (Gerard J. Tortora). In-between each ventricle and atriu...

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...ut as much stress on the heart.

Works Cited

Gerard J. Tortora, Bryan Derrickson. Principles of Anatomy and Physiology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012.

Jackson, Graham. Heart Health at Your Fingertips: The Comprehensive and Medically Accurate Manual on How to Avoid or Overcome Coronary Heart Disease and Other Heart Conditions. Barb Mews, London: Class Publishing, 2000. .

Kligfield MD, Paul and Michelle D. Seaton. The Cardiac Recovery Handbook: The Complete Guide to Life After Heart Attack or Heart Surgery. Long Island City, NY: Hatherleigh Press, 2006. Book.

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institue. n.d. 13 November 2013. .