We all know smoking is bad for your lungs but how much damage does it do to your vascular system?
Dr. Phillips from The Vascular Institute of Chattanooga breaks down the effects of smoking and what peripheral artery disease is.
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[Music] welcome to local business spotlight everyone i'm troy thompson joining me today is dr phillips from the vascular institute of chattanooga welcome to the show thank you so much i'm glad to be here you're the rock star i've been told well i don't know about that but i'll take it okay all right well we know smoking is bad for your lungs but how does smoking affect your vascular health we've heard a lot about smoking and lung disease how it affects the vascular health is the heart rate and blood pressure increase with smoking and also it makes you form blood clots quicker there's inflammation that damages the arteries and it's a cumulative process all right so let's just dig a little bit deeper if we can what is peripheral artery disease let's explain to everyone that at home and try to dumb it down a bit okay so i understand as well well that works for me very well um peripheral artery disease is damage or cholesterol deposits in the arteries that is outside the brain and the heart so we treat basically all the arteries in your body except for brain and heart so stroke can be caused by peripheral artery disease and amputations in the legs and that sort of thing all right well what are some of the symptoms people may need to look for when we have and let's call it pad pad so the most common symptom that i would say is pain in the legs or weakness in the legs with walking so it's not normal to have especially non-joint pain in the legs with walking that's a concern for pad all right what does it look like if someone has an issue explain visually what they should be looking for because we've just said what it should feel like so you're thinking about you know taking a walk with your family and you only can make it so far until you have to stop and rest sometimes people will have sores or wounds on the feet or toes that will be slow to heal and sometimes it's swelling in one or both extremities color change like a reddish discoloration can be a warning sign okay is this caused from smoking or is this a hereditary issue it is caused by smoking actually some patients we see have never smoked and it's all hereditary or other factors like diabetes high blood pressure that smoking does directly cause pad and that's been proven all right what do we do what are the treatments for it we all involve treating the source so treating what's causing it if it's smoking you know that we determine is causing the peripheral artery disease then we'd want to target that and help our patients completely quit smoking do you help them in the office here yes absolutely so we like to offer counseling so you're trying to battle an addiction break an addiction and also be free of nicotine which is a chemical that can alter your body so we offer counseling and also prescription medications that are either generic or covered by most insurances it's really tough to quit smoking i did it and i you know i just want everyone to know at home it is possible and there have been times that it's been hard you know you go to reach for it but you've got to think of your health nowadays as well i do want to ask you these treatments for pad are they covered by your insurance and how do we find out if our health cover does actually cover them so congratulations on that it just makes me well i put on a little bit of weight It happens we can help with that too so we do go through insurances almost all insurances and the medications for quitting smoking are covered like the chantix and then there's generics bupropion also the treatments for the peripheral artery disease are covered by insurance as well all right dr phillips thank you so much we appreciate it thank you very much if you want to find out more information there it all is up on the screen for you vascular institute of chattanooga you know guys if you're wanting a better life give them a buzz [Music]