Smoking and vaping
Quitting smoking and vaping can reduce your risk of stroke.
Smoking
Someone who smokes 20 cigarettes a day is six times more likely to have a stroke than someone who is a non-smoker. Chemicals in cigarette smoke:
- speed up the formation of plaque on blood vessel walls resulting in atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries)
- thicken the blood and make it sticky and more likely to clot
- tighten the blood vessels which restricts blood flow and increases blood
All of this leads to an increased risk of stroke, both for you and any non-smokers you live with.
Quitting smoking will not only reduce your own risk of stroke, but it will also reduce the risk of those who live with you as well.
What about vaping?
Some people choose to use vapes when they are quitting smoking cigarettes. However, vaping is not without risk. While it hasn’t been around long enough for us to study its long-term effects, some studies have shown that vaping can alter the function of your blood vessels, which is associated with an increased risk of strokes.