Wait...smoking RAISES your blood pressure?

Hello amazing people,

Ever heard of free radicals? Great name for a rock band, right?

In reality, these are tiny molecules that wreak havoc in the body—and cigarette smoke is loaded with them. When smoke or chemical fumes are inhaled, the toxin they contain pass through the lungs directly into the bloodstream. Free radicals react with cholesterol and other fats in the blood, increasing their potential to sink on the walls of the arteries, thus creating plaque and calcifying them.

Free Radicals ruin hemoglobin which causes the body to ramp up its production of red blood cells. They also ruin insulin causing high amounts of glucose to remain in the blood. These factors, together, end up thickening the blood and raising the blood pressure. Inhaled toxins affect the nervous system by evoking an acute stress response in the body, which causes the body to raise its blood pressure instantaneously.