The people don't believe. I'll have to explain. Our legs live off the arteries, which carry oxygen and nutrients to them. If the arteries fail, the legs rot away.
There are three ways in which smoking damages the arteries in your legs:
- Nicotine is a stimulant that accelerates the heart and narrows the arteries. Blood flows worse through spasmodic arteries.
- In smokers, the arteries are, in principle, stiffer, denser and narrower than they should be by age. These arteries look and behave like old ones.
- Smoking has a negative effect on blood cholesterol. From this, atherosclerosis develops faster, which blocks the arteries.
Well, that is, not only nicotine, but a bunch of other chemicals from cigarette smoke spoil people's arteries.
E-cigarettes are a slightly different story. There are fewer harmful chemicals, but more nicotine for the same reason. It turns out that the increased dose of nicotine compensates for the lack of other toxic chemicals.
You are not surprised that smoking causes heart attacks with strokes. There were arteries of the heart and brain, but there are about the same arteries in the legs.
I will reveal the secret
Usually, when we talk about cardiovascular complications, we often say the words "stroke" or "heart attack", but there is always "peripheral arterial disease" nearby. It's just that not everyone understands what these problems with peripheral arteries are. Therefore, we keep them in mind. But such problems! The arteries do not allow blood to flow to the legs, and the legs rot away. What is left of the legs has to be amputated.
Quit smoking!
