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.

Citations

1. Wilson K, et al. (2000). Effect of smoking cessation on mortality after myocardial infarction. Archives of Internal Medicine, 160(7): 939–944.

2. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1990). The Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation: A Report of the Surgeon General, 1990 (DHHS [CDC] Publication No. 90-8416). Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.