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How Does Smoking Affect Your Heart?

Health risks of smoking are widely known, and its connection to breathing problems and lung cancer is prominent. But smoking's impact reaches far beyond your lungs. Cigarette smoking harms nearly every other organ in your body, including your heart.

In general, smoking causes blood to thicken, increasing the risk of blood clots and damage to blood vessel walls. This can lead to a condition called atherosclerosis, a disease in which plaque builds up in the arteries, eventually narrowing them and limiting the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your heart. Smoking also can cause heart disease or eventually lead to chest pain, heart failure or a heart attack.

According to a multi-study analysis by The BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal), smoking as little as one cigarette per day carries a 50% higher risk of developing coronary artery disease and 30% higher risk of stroke compared to those who have never smoked. When combined with other unhealthy lifestyle factors such as unhealthy cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and obesity, the risk for heart disease grows even more.

The good news is that heart disease risk drops dramatically within the first year a person quits smoking. Quitting smoking can even lower your risk more than common medicines used to lower heart disease risk, such as aspirin or beta blockers.

Whether you're a constant smoker, trying to quit or previously have quit, learn more about your risk factors for developing heart disease by taking our heart health assessment. You'll find out your heart's real age and what you can do now to reduce your risk of developing heart disease in the future.

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Why Choose Us?

Regional Clinics - Cardiology, in partnership with Longview Regional Medical Center, offers a range of patient-centered cardiovascular care close to home. The team at Regional Clinics - Cardiology is committed to provide every patient with a high level of cardiovascular care, guided by experience, compassion and up-to-date treatments—right here in East Texas.

  • Recognized as a Top 50 Heart Hospital by IBM Watson
  • Designated as Accredited Chest Pain Centers by the Society of Chest Pain Centers
  • Accredited Chest Pain Center with PCI by ACC Accreditation Services (American College of Cardiology)
  • Cardiac Cath Lab Accreditation with PCI from the American College of Cardiology
  • Member of the Peripheral Artery Disease (P.A.D.) Coalition

Our Services

Longview Regional Medical Center's cardiovascular medicine program—supported by the team at Regional Clinics - Cardiology—is known for its heart failure program, heart valve center and wide range of diagnostic and noninvasive cardiology services. Other services include:

  • Personalized care from diagnosis through recovery by an experienced team of cardiovascular surgeons, interventional cardiologists and rehabilitation specialists
  • Modern diagnostic and imaging technology to detect heart disease early, when it's most treatable
  • Open-heart surgeries, including coronary bypass and valve repair or replacement
  • Heart failure clinic offering ongoing management and support
  • Atrial fibrillation (AFib) clinic for specialized rhythm disorder treatment
  • Structural heart program featuring TAVR, transcatheter mitral valve repair and left atrial appendage closure
  • Peripheral vascular disease clinic addressing peripheral arterial disease and venous insufficiency
  • Heart and vascular rehabilitation programs combining education, lifestyle guidance and exercise therapy

Heart Healthy Resources

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Healthy Connections

How Does Smoking Affect Your Heart?

Smoking's impact reaches far beyond your lungs, harming nearly every other organ in the body. Get the specifics on how smoking can influence your heart's health.
Read more »

Journey to a Healthy Heart

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Your liver makes cholesterol in your body, but you also get cholesterol from eating certain foods. Find out how the wrong kind of cholesterol can impact your heart.
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