SMOKING AND HEART ATTACK RISK

     The American Heart Association reports that there are about 920,000 heart attacks every year. If you are a smoker, the risk of having a heart attack rises. Cigarette smoke can trigger heart attacks in people with underlying heart disease by causing spasms in the blood vessels or by causing clots. Being a smoker raises your risk.  One way this was proven was in studies of community smoking bans and heart attack rates.  In 2009, two seperate analyses of laws in the United States, Europe and Canada found a dramatic correlation between community smoking bans and reduced number of heart attacks.  These studies found that heart attack rates fall 17% within a year after the smoking bans take effect. 

     One analysis considered eleven studies and appeared in the JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY.   A second analysis of thirteen studies appeared in CIRCULATION: JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION.  The CARDIOLOGY paper concluded that public smoking bans could prevent more than 150,000 heart attacks every year.  But those bans may or may not happen.  If you are a smoker thinking about becoming a non-smoker, check out my web site: www.BeaHealthyNonsmoker.com. Hypnotherapy can be a valuable tool in becoming a nonsmoker thus lowering your risk for heart attack.