Smoking and Heart Failure: Why You Need to Quit

If you have been diagnosed with heart failure, it is crucial to quit smoking. In this video, Dennis A. Goodman, MD, explains how smoking worsens heart failure and why it’s crucial to quit.

Written by Lauren Smith, MA | Reviewed by Alexandra Schwarz, MD

Updated on September 30, 2023

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If you have been diagnosed with heart failure, your heart is already working overtime to do its job: pumping nutrient-rich blood throughout the body. One of the most effective ways to give your heart a break and improve your heart failure symptoms, according to cardiologist Dennis A. Goodman, MD, is to quit smoking.

Years of smoking not only cause heart failure, but increase the complications associated with heart failure. The effects of smoking attack the lungs, the airways, the blood vessels, and the heart itself, all putting extra stress on the heart. That’s like hooking up a seven-ton camper to a truck with a faulty engine. For more tips, here are eight healthy habits for living with heart failure.

Additional Medical Contributors

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• Dennis A. Goodman, MDDr. Goodman is board-certified in cardiology, internal medicine, lipidology, integrative medicine, and cardiac CT. He is the director of integrative medicine at the NYU Langone Medical Center and a clinical professor of medicine at NYU.

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References

American Cancer Society. (2020). Health Benefits of Quitting Smoking.

American Heart Association. (2023). Lifestyle Changes for Heart Failure.

View All References (3)

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European Society of Cardiology. (n.d.). Smoking | Vaping.

Johns Hopkins Medicine. (n.d.). Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease.

Ockene, I, et al. (1997). Cigarette Smoking, Cardiovascular Disease, and Stroke. Circulation.

GoodRx Health has strict sourcing policies and relies on primary sources such as medical organizations, governmental agencies, academic institutions, and peer-reviewed scientific journals. Learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate, thorough, and unbiased by reading our editorial guidelines.