Interactive Tool: How Does Smoking Increase Your Risk Of Heart Attack?

Interactive Tool: How Does Smoking Increase Your Risk Of Heart Attack?
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What does this tool measure?

Interactive health icon

Click here to find out how much smoking increases your heart attack risk .

This interactive tool measures how smoking—independent of other risk factors—affects your chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years. The tool uses the values you enter to calculate your risk. The information is based on the Framingham Heart Study. During the past 50 years, the Framingham Heart Study has studied the progression of heart disease and the risk factors of heart disease. The data were then developed into a risk assessment by the U.S. National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP), part of the National Institutes of Health. ¹

The values you enter include your age and gender. The tool uses a systolic blood pressure of 120 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), an HDL cholesterol measurement of 55 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), and a total cholesterol measurement of 200 mg/dL to calculate your risk based on smoking alone.

In the real world, smoking has some additional negative effect on both cholesterol and blood pressure. If you smoke and also have other risk factors for heart disease, your risk may be higher than this tool says it is.

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Last updated:	November 24, 2006
Author:	Kathe Gallagher, MSW
Reviewed By:	Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine, Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD - Cardiology
Editors:	, Pat Truman

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