First cigarette of the day most harmful

New Delhi: Tuesday, 4 December 2012: Heart patients should avoid smoking and drinking coffee early in the morning during winter, said Padma Shri & Dr. B.C. Roy National Awardee, Dr. KK Aggarwal, President, Heart Care Foundation of India.

Both smoking and caffeine can acutely raise the blood pressure by as much as 10 mmHg. The rise in blood pressure can be greater in susceptible individuals. The effect is most prominent with the first cigarette of the day in habitual smokers.

In patients with mild high blood pressure, habit of smoking and drinking coffee, elevation of day time upper systolic blood pressure can be up to 6 mmHg during winters.

Heart patients, therefore, should avoid taking coffee, or tea, with or without a cigarette early in the morning.

It was proved that smoking a cigarette in the first 30 minutes after waking up in the morning increases the risk of getting lung cancer by 79%. According to a recent US study, the morning cigarette considerably increases the risk of getting lung cancer.

The cause of this phenomenon has not been precisely determined, but it seems that if we smoke as soon as we wake up in the morning, the smoke and all its harmful components penetrate the lungs. Still, we must remember the fact that those who feel the need to smoke right after they wake up in the morning are hardcore smokers and they smoke more
during the day.

The results of this new study are what the doctors advise, who tell their patients who cannot manage to quit smoking to delay the first cigarette of the day for as much as possible.