Smoking cigarettes increases the risk of nonfatal and fatal heart
attacks in both women and men. Smoking also increases the risk of a 2nd or
subsequent heart attack among heart attack survivors. Women who
take oral contraceptives
and smoke as well have an even bigger risk than smoking alone.
The good news
is that if you quit smoking your risk of having a heart
attack is greatly reduced. Twelve months after you quit smoking, the risk
then drops to about1/2 that of current smokers and slowly returns to normal in
persons without heart disease. Even among persons with heart disease, the
risk also diminishes sharply twelve months after quitting and it continues
to drop over time but the risk does not return to normal.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the following 5
medications to help you stop smoking and reduce the urge to smoke. They are: