Is There A Direct Link Between Smoking And Heart Disease/lung Cancer ?

Hi My answer will be Yes. Smoking increases risks of developing Lung Cancer and Heart Diseases. Both the conditions greatly increase with the number of cigarettes smoked. The risk increases more, the longer they smoke as well. People who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day have more than twice the risk of heart attack than non-smokers. Women who smoke and also take birth control pills increase several times their risk of heart attack, stroke, blood clots, and peripheral vascular disease. The nicotine present in cigarettes causes: Decreased oxygen to the heart, Increased blood pressure and heart rate, Increase in blood clotting, Damage to cells that line coronary arteries and other blood vessels. Smoking causes lung cancer, but it’s also clear that some people smoke their whole lives and never develop lung cancer. In a 2006 European study, the risk of developing lung cancer was: 0.2% for men who never smoked (0.4% for women), 5.5% for male former smokers (2.6% in women), 15.9% for current male smokers (9.5% for women), 24.4% for male “heavy smokers” defined as smoking more than 5 cigarettes per day (18.5% for women). An earlier Canadian study quoted the lifetime risk for male smokers at 17.2% (11.6% in women) versus only 1.3% in male non-smokers (1.4% in female non-smokers). The earlier in life a person begins smoking, the higher the risk of developing lung cancer. The risk also depends on the number of “pack-years” a person has smoked. A pack-year is a number that is calculated by multiplying the number of years smoked times the number of packs of cigarettes smoked daily.Quitting smoking lowers the risk of lung cancer. In one estimate, a 68-year-old man who had smoked two packs per day for 50 years (100 pack years) had a 15% risk of developing lung cancer in the next 10 years if he continued to smoke. This risk would drop to 10.8% if he quit smoking. Regards Ranjit