Heart attack and stroke risk from smoking
If you smoke, your chance of dying from a heart attack is 2 to 3 times greater than that of a person who does not smoke. About 1 out of every 4 heart attacks is believed to be directly related to smoking. Smoking is a much more important risk factor for a heart attack than high cholesterol, obesity, high blood pressure, or stress. Exercise and a good diet cannot erase the risks to your heart caused by smoking.
After you quit:
- Your risk of having a heart attack is cut in half 1 year after you quit smoking. And 15 years after you quit, your risk of a heart attack is similar to that of a person who never smoked.
- Even if you have already had a heart attack, quitting smoking will reduce your risk of having a second one, perhaps by as much as 50%.1
- Even if you gain weight when you quit, your risk of heart attack decreases.
A person who smokes is twice as likely to die from a stroke as a person who does not smoke. From 5 to 15 years after you quit smoking, your risk of stroke is the same as if you had never smoked.2 No one has completed a study on the benefits of quitting smoking in people who have had strokes. But since quitting reduces the risk of having a second heart attack, it is likely that it also reduces the risk of having a second stroke.
| Author: | Debby Golonka, MPH Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS | Last Updated: July 24, 2007 |
| Medical Review: | Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine John Hughes, MD - Psychiatry | |
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