A member asked:

If you do not have heart disease can smoking cause a heart attack at 41 or do yiu have to be diagnosed with cad or pad first?

4 doctors weighed in across 2 answers
Dr. Stephen Southard answered

Specializes in Internal Medicine

Remember: The problem with heart disease is that you usually don't know that you have it until you have a heart attack. Also know, that even with a normal stress test, it doesn't mean that you don't have heart disease, just that if you do, it's not severe enough to cause blood flow issues even when exercises. Smoking and high blood pressure are issues that you want to address as soon as possible.

Answered 10/10/2014

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It can, but: It can but the risk is low. Heart attacks occur due to rupture of an existing plaque inside a coronary artery, often with superimposed spasm and clotting. Smoking elevates the risk of all 3 mechanisms. That said, your risk as a smoker is 0.1% per year (1 in a 100 over 10 years). For comparison, your risk of dying in childbirth in a given year is 1 in 5,000 or about 5X less than a heart attack.

Answered 10/10/2014

3.7k views

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