(866) 552-4866 Mike* had been told for years by friends and family that he had to quit smoking. After all, the billboards, TV spots, educational articles and videos, and medical professionals preached the same warning: smoking is bad for your health. It was not like Mike disagreed, either. He knew it was a bad habit—yet he justified it by insisting that he only did it in social settings or when he was stressed. In his eyes, smoking only causes lung disease if you smoke five packs a day. But the body does not see smoking the same way Mike does. Even occasional smoking exposes the body to chemicals that create long-term health problems.
Additionally, those problems go well beyond lung issues. Smoking can quietly damage blood vessels, restrict circulation, and gradually harm overall vascular health. It wasn't until Mike began feeling an ongoing unusual tightness and heaviness in his legs that he started to wonder if maybe all that chatter about the dangers of smoking was right after all.
With May as Anti-Tobacco Campaign Month and World No Tobacco Day on May 31, it is a good time to understand how smoking impacts the body—especially the blood vessels that keep everything functioning properly.
Do Any of These Symptoms Sound Familiar?
- Restless legs and muscle cramps
- Feelings of leg achiness
- Burning, throbbing, itching, and swelling in the legs
- Cold or numb legs
- Leg discomfort when sitting or standing
- Skin discoloration on the legs and possible bruising
- Visible spider veins or varicose veins
- Heaviness or fullness in your legs
Leg pain symptoms you are facing could be vascular-related caused by smoking. Request a vascular screening with a StrideCare vascular specialist today. Our team ensures you receive the support you need from a qualified doctor close to home.
The Basic Facts Behind Smoking
Smoking refers to the act of burning tobacco and inhaling the resulting smoke. Roughly 11.6% of U.S. adults about 28.8 million currently smoke. In total, nearly 1 in 5 adults in the United States uses some form of tobacco product. The most common way to do this is through cigarettes, though alternatives include cigars, pipes, hookah, and smokeless tobacco products such as chewing tobacco or snuff. Many people also use e-cigarettes or vaping devices, which deliver nicotine without burning tobacco, but can still expose the body to harmful chemicals.
Regardless of the method, most smoking products contain nicotine—a highly addictive chemical that keeps users coming back and makes quitting difficult. But it's not just the nicotine that makes smoking bad. Nicotine and tobacco smoke each play different roles in how these products affect the body. Nicotine acts as a stimulant that quickly enters the bloodstream and brain, triggering the release of chemicals that create feelings of pleasure, alertness, and relaxation. This is what makes tobacco products so addictive and why many people find it difficult to stop using them once they start. At the same time, the smoke produced when tobacco burns contains thousands of chemicals, including substances known to irritate and damage tissues throughout the body.
Together, nicotine and smoke are a dangerous 1-2 punch that explains why tobacco use continues to be linked to a wide range of health problems.
Vascular Effects: Smoking Doesn't Just Hurt Your Lungs
Many anti-smoking campaigns zero in on the impact smoking can have on a person's lungs. And for good reason: we literally use our lungs to inhale these dangerous chemicals. And the results can be catastrophic. Lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema are among the most widely recognized health risks linked to smoking. But focusing only on the lungs can sometimes overshadow the fact that these chemicals do not stay there.
Once inhaled, the chemicals in tobacco smoke can spread throughout the body and contribute to a wide range of serious health problems, including:
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Lung, throat, and mouth cancer, to name a few
- Weakened immune system
- Poor wound healing
- Type 2 diabetes
- Gum disease and tooth loss
Another serious health problem from smoking that often receives less attention is the effect it can have on blood vessels and overall vascular health. In fact, studies consistently show that it has a direct impact on the formation of varicose veins and other venous diseases and complications.
How does this happen?
When we say vascular system, we refer to all the vessels that carry blood and other bodily fluids to support critical functions. There are veins that return deoxygenated blood from your organs back to your heart. The veins in your legs include valves that are supposed to help keep blood from flowing backward. Then there are your arteries, which serve a slightly different function from veins, delivering oxygenated blood away from the heart to the rest of your body.
As powerful as this interconnected system is, it is not immune to factors such as age and poor lifestyle choices. When you smoke, the chemicals found in tobacco smoke and nicotine can cause blood vessels to narrow and stiffen. At the same time, plaque can start building up inside the arteries faster than it normally would. As a result, blood that once flowed freely begins to slow to a crawl. Meanwhile, vein valves and walls begin to weaken. This is particularly true in the legs, where veins already work against gravity to return blood to the heart, thus leading to blood pooling. The risk of narrowed arteries and blood clots also increases.
You do not have to leg pain control your life. Schedule a consultation with a StrideCare vascular specialist about the benefits of kicking your smoking habit and options for a vascular screening. Our collaborative approach ensures that you receive the care you need.
Vascular Diseases Linked to Smoking
The impact smoking has on vascular health becomes even clearer when looking at the specific diseases it can cause or worsen.
- Peripheral Arterial Disease — When too much plaque builds up on the walls of major blood vessels, the arteries become narrower and lead to poor blood flow. Too much restricted blood flow or complete blockage causes tired legs and feet. PVD or PAD affects 8.5 million U.S. adults and 113 million people worldwide. It is no coincidence that up to 80% of patients with PAD are current or former smokers.
- Chronic Venous Insufficiency — This is when blood pressure builds up in the lower legs. The signs of CVI include leg swelling, painful varicose veins, cramps, skin changes such as shiny skin or lost leg hair, and open chronic wounds that are difficult to heal on their own.
- Deep Vein Thrombosis — Blood clots in one of the veins deep within your body are extremely worrisome in that you are no longer dealing with occasionally tired legs. DVT is a life-threatening condition. Nicotine makes blood platelets sticky, thus promoting clot formation. Toxins also damage vein walls.
What You Can Do To Improve Your Vascular Health
For starters, make a plan to stop smoking. You would be surprised how quickly your body responds to no longer having to fight off the dangerous chemicals associated with smoking. In fact, the World Health Organization lists out these beneficial health changes, some of which start within 20 minutes of kicking the smoking habit.
- Within 20 minutes, your heart rate and blood pressure drop.
- Within 12 hours, the carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
- Within 2-12 weeks, your circulation improves, and lung function increases.
- In 1-9 months, coughing and shortness of breath decrease.
- At one year, your risk of heart disease is half that of a smoker's. At five years, stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker 5 to 15 years after quitting.
- After 10 years, your risk of lung cancer falls to about half that of a smoker, and your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas decreases.
- After 15 years, the risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmoker.
Beyond quitting smoking, there are steps you can take to know exactly what you are dealing with. That includes visiting a vascular surgeon. Vascular screenings are an early detection tool and provide a clear view of what is going on in your blood vessels. These tests are noninvasive. In other words, there is no surgery or recovery time involved—they are painless, quick, and can be done in your local vascular clinic. They use ultrasound technology to evaluate key factors such as blood flow, plaque buildup, and potential narrowing or blockages in arteries and veins.
Vascular screenings can also assess circulation issues before symptoms like pain, swelling, or visible vein changes appear.
There are generally two forms of vascular screenings we offer at StrideCare:
- Venous Doppler Ultrasound — This test uses ultrasound technology to get a full view of the circulatory system and its structures beneath the skin. Patients can lie back during their Doppler ultrasound and relax. We will apply a small amount of gel to the skin where the ultrasound will be conducted. The specialist will then guide the ultrasound probe over the skin to the desired area to visualize the venous and arterial structures.
- Venography — This procedure is also painless and allows our board-certified vascular specialists to see the veins in your body and your circulatory system on an X-ray. To do so, we inject an iodine-based solution into the veins to allow them to be seen without requiring an ultrasound.
Featured in this video is StrideCare's expert Interventional Radiologist, Dr. Danny Chan, M.D., discussing a diagnostic venogram.
From there, we work with you to develop a customized, innovative treatment plan based on your diagnosis and the severity of your condition. Treatment may include lifestyle changes, such as adopting a heart-healthy diet and increasing physical activity, as well as prescription medications, non-surgical procedures such as vein ablation, or surgical interventions.
StrideCare Wants You To Live Your Best Life
Smoking may feel harmless at first, but the long-term impact on your health cannot be ignored. This is especially true when it comes to your vascular health. Your veins and arteries are directly impacted by the combination of addictive nicotine and the harmful chemicals in tobacco and smoke. Stopping now could prevent everything from varicose veins to PAD and blood clots. The bottom line is that your health matters, and we are here to help.
StrideCare's mission is to surround ourselves with the best in this field so that our patients are never short of options for reclaiming their lives. Our doctors stay on the cutting edge of medicine, helping patients avoid traditionally long, invasive surgeries used in the past to treat vascular disease. The experts at StrideCare will recommend a personalized plan to help you achieve the best results. They diagnose and treat using innovative, minimally invasive procedures with little to no pain, short recovery times and high success rates.
Our vascular specialists and caring staff utilize the latest technologies and treatments to help our patients reclaim their lives. At StrideCare, we are here to help, all while providing compassionate patient care. Please contact us at 866-552-4866 or complete the appointment form to schedule a consultation.
Before starting any new treatment or questions regarding a medical condition, always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health provider. This information is not a substitute for professional medical advice.
StrideCare Vascular serves South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia communities: Charleston, Orangeburg, Mount Pleasant, Murrells Inlet, Summerville, Walterboro, West Ashley, Addison, Allen, Anna, Arlington, Austin, Carrollton, Celina, Clear Lake, Craig Ranch, Dallas, Euless, Flower Mound, Forney, Fort Worth, Frisco, Garland, Houston, Irving, Katy, Kaufman, Mansfield, McKinney, Mesquite, including Midland, North Dallas, Odessa, Paris, Pecos, Plano, Prosper, Rockwall, Round Rock, Rowlett, Royce City, San Antonio, Sherman, South Dallas, Southlake, Stone Oak, Sugar Land, Sulphur Springs, The Woodlands, Waxahachie, Webster, Petersburg, Tappahannock, Richmond, Colonial Heights, Mechanicsville, Midlothian, Henrico, and more.
*Patient names and/or photos may be changed to protect patient confidentiality.