In the UK, nearly 100,000 people die each year due to smoking. Smoking related mortality and morbidity is mainly due to lung cancer, heart disease and COPD (combination of chronic bronchitis and emphysema) along with stroke.
About half of smokers die of smoking related disease eventually. Anyone who is smoker his or her life expectancy is reduced by ten years as compare to non-smoker. Most of smoking related deaths are not quick deaths, for example if someone develop COPD (chronic bronchitis and emphysema) or heart failure or stroke they can develop several years of distressing symptoms before death.
Smoking and Heart.
Smoking increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases which include coronary artery disease and stroke.
Smoking damages lining of arteries that leads to thickening of blood vessels and build-up of fatty material and combination of it is called atherosclerosis which narrows the arteries that eventually leads to angina, heart attack (myocardial infarction) and stroke. Carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke reduces the ability of blood to carry oxygen, which means heart has to pump harder to supply oxygen to the body that it needs.
Nicotine in cigarettes stimulates the body to produce more adrenaline which makes the heart faster and that leads to increase in blood pressure and oxygen requirement of heart due to increased work load. Tar is the collection of solid particles that smokers inhale when they light a cigarette. It is a mixture of lots of chemicals, many of which can cause cancer. When it settles, tar forms a sticky, brown residue that can stain smokers' teeth, fingers and lungs. When smoked this sticky substance coats the inside of your lungs - preventing oxygen from reaching the circulatory system. All of the above factors leads to thickening of blood vessels supplying the heart that has to work harder to supply blood to the heart leading to clot formation and heart attack.