The heart pumps nutrient-enriched blood throughout your body. Smoking, taking drugs, or drinking alcohol excessively can make your heart work harder to perform its main function. Your heart can only handle this stress for a given period of time. Eventually, the overall health of your heart will suffer.

Smoking:
Scientists have proven that cigarrette smoking doubles your risk of having a heart attack and doubles, triples, or quadruples your risk of sudden cardiac death. The mixture of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide in tobacco will increase the risk of your arteries hardening, which restricts blood flow to the heart. Every year, over 300,000 Americans die of smoking-related heart disease. Former smokers lower their risk of cardiac diseases within 1 year of quitting.

Drugs:
Drugs are foreign substances being introduced into your body, therefore any drug can effect your heart. Illegal drugs (cocaine, heroin, marijuana, amphetamines, etc.), even a small amount of a drug, can be fatal to your heart. Some cardiovascular complications associated with drug abuse include chest pain syndromes, heart attacks, strokes, fatal and nonfatal arrhythmias, inflammation of the heart muscle or inner lining of the heart, fluid in the lungs, blood clots in blood vessels, enlarged heart, etc. Many of these complications can occur in a first-time user.

Alcohol:
Drinking alcohol excessively can pose a serious hazard to your heart. When alcohol is introduced in the blood stream, the nutrient-enriched blood is less able to properly nourish the heart. More alcohol in the blood stream results in higher risk of heart disease.