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Heart attack recovery – quit smoking

Your heart

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Key takeaways

2 min read

If you smoke or vape, did you know that quitting is one of the best things you can do for your heart after a heart attack? Quitting can help with your recovery and reduce the risk of another heart event.
Your GP is a great person to talk with about the steps you can take to quit smoking or vaping.
The most effective way to quit smoking or vaping is with a combination of:

speaking with Quitline (13 7848). Trained Quitline counsellors can help you find ways to manage your triggers to smoke or vape
taking stop smoking medicines like nicotine replacement therapy, which can help manage the physical aspects of nicotine addiction
talking with your GP, who can provide support and give you scripts for stop smoking medicines.

It’s completely normal to have a few tries before you quit for good. Remember that many people have successfully quit smoking and vaping, and you can too!

Heart health impacts of smoking and vaping

Smoking and your heart

Tobacco smoking affects the blood vessels (arteries) that supply oxygen-rich blood to your heart and other parts of your body.  

Smoking increases the stiffness of your arteries, making it harder for them to expand and contract as needed. These changes can increase your risk of a heart attack, stroke or angina.

Smoking also makes your blood more ‘sticky’. This means that you are more likely to form blood clots which can block the arteries supplying your heart muscle, causing a heart attack.

Vaping and your heart

Vaping involves using a battery-operated device to heat a liquid, producing an aerosol or ‘vapour’ that you breathe in. This vapour usually contains nicotine and dangerous chemicals including formaldehyde and acetone. The nicotine in vapes makes vaping highly addictive.

The short-term effects of vaping on your heart and blood vessels include:

increased blood pressure and heart rate
increased stiffness of the arteries.

The long-term effects of vaping on the heart are not clear. We also don’t know the long-term impact of vaping on people with existing heart disease. For this reason, if you’ve had a heart attack, the safest option is to not vape at all.

Secondhand smoke and your heart

Secondhand smoke is the smoke you breathe in from other people smoking. Breathing secondhand smoke impacts your heart in a similar way as if you were smoking.

Secondhand smoke damages artery walls, making them stiffer. Platelets in your blood become ‘stickier’ and can form clots, increasing the risk of a heart attack or stroke.

For people who already have heart disease, exposure to secondhand smoke can make heart disease worse.

The good news is there are ways you can limit your exposure:

Make your car and home smokefree
Avoid public places where people smoke (e.g. designated smoking areas)
If you live with someone who smokes, this might be a great time to encourage them to quit themselves - both for your health and for theirs!

Quit smoking or vaping

If you smoke (or vape), quitting is one the best things you can do for your heart! Did you know that for people with heart disease, quitting smoking can reduce the risk of complications and new heart problems?

There is a lot of support available to help you quit smoking or vaping. You don’t have to do it alone or go ‘cold turkey’.

Research shows the most effective way to quit smoking or vaping is with a combination of:

speaking with Quitline. You can do this by phone (13 7848), SMS, Watsapp or Facebook. Trained Quitline counsellors can help you find ways to manage your triggers to smoke or vape
taking stop smoking medicines like nicotine replacement therapy, varenicline or bupropion, which can help manage the physical aspects of nicotine addiction
talking with your GP, who can provide support and give you scripts for stop smoking medicines (meaning you may be able to get them at lower cost).

Benefits of quitting

You’ll feel the benefits of quitting almost straight away as your body starts to recover. 

Depending on how much you smoked, you should start seeing and feeling benefits within a week. 

The first day after quitting:

Your heart rate slows down and your blood pressure stabilises.
Oxygen can get to your heart and muscles more easily.
Your fingertips are warmer as your circulation improves.

The first week after quitting:

Your sense of taste and smell can improve.

In the first year after quitting: 

Within three months - your lungs will no longer be producing extra phlegm caused by smoking. Your immune system is recovering. Your blood becomes less sticky.
Within six months – you’re probably feeling less stressed and/or anxious than when you were smoking.
Within 12 months – your lung health has improved and you’re probably able to breathe more easily.

The longer term benefits of quitting: 

five years – your risk of stroke has dramatically decreased. 
10 to 15 years – your risk of lung cancer is half that of someone continuing to smoke (that is, if you did not already have lung cancer when you quit).
20 years – your risk of heart attack and stroke is almost the same as a non-smoker.

When you quit, it’s also normal to experience some feelings of nicotine withdrawal. This is your body getting used to being without nicotine. You might have cravings, difficulty concentrating, changes in appetite, trouble sleeping or a feeling of being on edge or irritable. Know that these feelings will pass and are usually gone in a couple of weeks.

More information

For information and support to quit smoking or vaping, visit the Quit website

For more information about vaping, visit the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care website

References

Briffa T, Greenhalgh EM, Winstanley MH. Smoking and cardiovascular disease. Tobacco in Australia: Facts and issues. 2021. Accessed 10 Feb 2025. tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-3-health-effects/3-1-smoking-and-cardiovascular-disease
Campbell MA, Ford C, Winstanley MH. Cardiovascular disease and secondhand smoke. Tobacco in Australia: Facts and issues. 2017. Accessed 10 Feb 2025. tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-4-secondhand/4-8-cardiovascular-disease-and-secondhand-smoke
Espinoza-Derout J, Shao XM, Lao CJ et al. Electronic cigarette use and the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022;9:879726. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2022.879726
Greenhalgh EM, Stillman S, Ford C. Health and other benefits of quitting. Tobacco in Australia: Facts and issues. 2020. Accessed 18 Feb 2025. tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-7-cessation/7-1-health-and-other-benefits-of-quitting
Taylor G, McNeill A, Girling A, Farley A, Lindson-Hawley N, Aveyard P. Change in mental health after smoking cessation: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ. 2014;348:g1151. doi: 10.1136/bmj.g1151
Quit. The health benefits of quitting smoking. 2024. Accessed 18 Feb 2025. https://www.quit.org.au/articles/the-health-benefits-of-quitting-smoking
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Smoking cessation: a report of the Surgeon General. 2020. cdc.gov/tobacco-surgeon-general-reports/reports/2020-smoking-cessation/index.html

Heart attack recovery – quit smoking

Key takeaways

Heart health impacts of smoking and vaping

Smoking and your heart

Vaping and your heart

Secondhand smoke and your heart