It's all here, from the British Heart Foundation website:
How the smoke affects your heart
You have a cigarette. What happens? The chemicals released into your body make your blood vessels sticky.
This causes fatty deposits, called atheroma, to collect in your arteries. This is called atherosclerosis.
When too many fatty deposits build up the inside lining of the artery can rupture, which leads to a clot. The clot then blocks the flow of blood to the heart, starving it of vital oxygen.
It’s all in the research
There’s a clear link between smoking and the permanent damage caused in your arteries.
Some research suggests smoking increases the amount of LDL cholesterol the artery wall takes up – and this increases the build-up of atheroma in the arteries.
Cigarette smoke also appears to damage the inside of the artery and this allows the fatty deposits to build up more easily.
More harm than good
Smoking also has other harmful effects on the heart.
Carbon monoxide joins onto the red protein of the blood cell (haemoglobin) making it less able to carry oxygen to the heart and other parts of the body.
Nicotine stimulates the body to produce adrenaline, which makes the heart beat faster and raises blood pressure.
The tar in cigarettes causes cancer.
No tar not low tar
Even if a cigarette is low in tar it does not necessarily mean that it has less nicotine and carbon monoxide. So low tar cigarettes can be just as harmful to your heart.
People who smoke low tar cigarettes also tend to make up for this by taking more puffs and inhaling more deeply.
Just three or four extra puffs on a cigarette turns a low-tar cigarette into a regular-strength cigarette.
How the smoke affects your heart
You have a cigarette. What happens? The chemicals released into your body make your blood vessels sticky.
This causes fatty deposits, called atheroma, to collect in your arteries. This is called atherosclerosis.
When too many fatty deposits build up the inside lining of the artery can rupture, which leads to a clot. The clot then blocks the flow of blood to the heart, starving it of vital oxygen.
It’s all in the research
There’s a clear link between smoking and the permanent damage caused in your arteries.
Some research suggests smoking increases the amount of LDL cholesterol the artery wall takes up – and this increases the build-up of atheroma in the arteries.
Cigarette smoke also appears to damage the inside of the artery and this allows the fatty deposits to build up more easily.
More harm than good
Smoking also has other harmful effects on the heart.
Carbon monoxide joins onto the red protein of the blood cell (haemoglobin) making it less able to carry oxygen to the heart and other parts of the body.
Nicotine stimulates the body to produce adrenaline, which makes the heart beat faster and raises blood pressure.
The tar in cigarettes causes cancer.
No tar not low tar
Even if a cigarette is low in tar it does not necessarily mean that it has less nicotine and carbon monoxide. So low tar cigarettes can be just as harmful to your heart.
People who smoke low tar cigarettes also tend to make up for this by taking more puffs and inhaling more deeply.
Just three or four extra puffs on a cigarette turns a low-tar cigarette into a regular-strength cigarette.
