Can Quitting Smoking Raise Your Blood Pressure?

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What Is High Blood Pressure?

High blood pressure is very common amongst people who do not follow a healthy lifestyle. Also known as hypertension, high blood pressure means that there is a lot of pressure on your artery walls that need to be reduced quickly. When too much pressure is applied to your arteries and blood vessels for too long, this can result in a stroke, heart attack, or kidney failure.

Eating unhealthy foods that are high in saturated fat, not exercising, and smoking can significantly raise your blood pressure and put you at a higher risk of experiencing these life-threatening conditions. A blood pressure reading of around 120/80 mmHg is advised as healthy blood pressure for adults.

When you begin to live a healthier lifestyle, you will see your blood pressure begin to drop. This will help you to feel healthier and put you at a lower risk of getting any life-threatening illnesses. Having healthy blood pressure is vital in maintaining your healthy lifestyle, but it is important to not let it drop too low as this is also unhealthy and can prevent you from doing standard daily activities.

Does Quitting Smoking Lower High Blood Pressure?

Yes, quitting smoking can significantly lower your blood pressure. It is important to make changes to your unhealthy lifestyle and adopt healthy lifestyle choices to make sure that you can lower your blood pressure. Reducing the amount of alcohol you drink and regularly exercising can also help to lower your blood pressure and your risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke along with quitting smoking.

Long-term smokers are more susceptible to COPD, lung cancer, and emphysema, so some people think there is no point in quitting. This isn’t true and it is never too late to quit. As soon as you quit smoking, you will see numerous health benefits and notice a huge change in your health. As well as lowering your blood pressure, you will be able to lower your chances of having other smoking-related diseases.

How Can You Prevent High Blood Pressure?

As mentioned above, smoking is an extremely big cause of high blood pressure. If you quit smoking, this will help to lower your blood pressure by a huge amount. It will also allow you to pick up healthy habits to replace smoking, such as cooking fresh healthy meals and exercising, which will further lower your blood pressure.

Even if you are not a smoker, secondhand smoke can affect your blood pressure levels. If you live with a smoker, you will be more at risk of experiencing the same life-threatening conditions as the smoker. It is important to avoid smoking as you do not want to experience any poor health conditions. As secondhand smoke can cause the same problems for a non-smoker as it can to a smoker, getting rid of any smoke in your home or daily life is vital in protecting your health.

This is the most effective way of lowering high blood pressure, so it is never too late to quit smoking as this will help your blood pressure levels. No matter how long you have been smoking, your blood pressure will benefit greatly from you quitting smoking as the stress and strain on your body will be reduced.

How Does Smoking Affect Your Body?

Smoking affects your body in a lot of different ways. Most notably, smoking restricts your blood flow through your arteries. This means that oxygenated blood cannot pass through your arteries, which makes your heart work harder to pump the blood. This puts a lot of strain on your heart and increases your risk of a heart attack.

Smoking also adds more damage and pressure to your blood vessels that have already suffered due to high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. This increases your risk of having a heart attack or stroke as there is too much pressure being added to your body. Cutting out smoking will drastically reduce the strain on your heart, arteries, and blood vessels.

Nicotine has been found to raise your blood pressure as it negatively impacts your nervous system. As nicotine is known to raise your blood pressure, it needs to be cut out of your life to help lower it. If you already have high blood pressure, supplying your body with more nicotine will negatively impact your body and keep increasing your blood pressure.

How To Spot High Blood Pressure

Some people are unable to tell if they have high blood pressure as the symptoms can be due to other conditions, not necessarily high blood pressure. It is important to keep an eye out for any changes and to consult your doctor if you experience any of these symptoms.

Chest pain

Struggling to catch your breath
Blood appearing in your urine
Regular headaches

Regular Dizziness
Regular blurred vision

If you experience any of these symptoms, this can be a sign of high blood pressure. You can also purchase a blood pressure monitor and record your blood pressure to see if it is higher than recommended. It is always advised that you contact your doctor to discuss these symptoms and changes that you can make to your lifestyle.

As some of these symptoms do not always mean that you have high blood pressure, lots of people don’t usually associate them with high blood pressure. It is important that if you suspect that you are suffering from high blood pressure that you seek help.

Other Conditions Caused By High Blood Pressure

If you experience any of the following, you need to seek medical attention urgently. These are all causes of high blood pressure, so quitting smoking will help to reduce your risk of experiencing any of the following.

Stroke

Heart attacks
Kidney disease
Alzheimer’s disease

You need to seek urgent medical help if you are experiencing any of the conditions above. It has also been found that smoking can prohibit blood pressure medication from working. There is no downside to quitting smoking, so if you are looking to lower your blood pressure, it is important to give up smoking.

Atherosclerosis

It is a well-known fact that smoking can raise your blood pressure, and high blood pressure can also lead to the development of a chronic disease called atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis causes plaque to build inside of your arteries and makes it extremely difficult for the heart to pump blood around your body. Combined with high blood pressure, this puts a lot of strain on your heart and can cause a heart attack or a stroke.

As atherosclerosis is caused by high blood pressure, it is important to lower your blood pressure when you have the chance to. Quitting smoking will drastically reduce your chances of having atherosclerosis as the best way to prevent it is to live a healthy lifestyle. By quitting smoking, you are lowering your blood pressure, which means you are at less risk of having a life-threatening condition.

Although blood pressure may not seem like an important part of your health at first, high blood pressure leads to conditions that will negatively impact your life.

Final Thoughts

To conclude, smoking raises your blood pressure, and quitting smoking helps to lower it. If you have healthy blood pressure, you are less likely to have heart disease, a stroke, or a heart attack as there is less pressure on your heart. If you have high blood pressure, your heart will find it more difficult to pump blood around your body and it can lead to potentially life-threatening scenarios that you want to avoid at all costs.

As blood pressure may seem unimportant, keeping it at a healthy level can prevent you from suffering from lots of potentially fatal conditions. Quitting smoking will help you see your high blood pressure drop to a lower level, and by continuing to live a healthy lifestyle, you will be able to get your blood pressure down to a healthy level.

By quitting smoking, you will be putting yourself at a lower risk of having any of these problems. It is never too late to quit smoking, no matter how old you are or how long you have been smoking.

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