Heart Health

Current smoker

Smoking? Current

Recommendationsmoking-currentNo one has reached this rule yet

Stopping is the highest-impact single change on the page

Clinical review

All reviewers

No clinician has signed off this rule yet. It reflects our reading of the guidelines cited below, which has not been independently checked.

What someone who reaches this rule is told

Word for word, as generated for the example person below. Figures in the text are theirs.

  • Highest-impact change you can make

    Quitting smoking will do more for your heart than any medication on this page. Ask specifically about varenicline, or a nicotine patch combined with a lozenge.

    Willpower alone succeeds perhaps 5% of the time; medication plus counselling multiplies that severalfold. Varenicline is the most effective single drug; combination nicotine replacement (a patch for the baseline plus a lozenge or gum for cravings) is close behind and available without a prescription. Free coaching is available at 1-800-QUIT-NOW. Excess risk of a heart attack starts falling within weeks and drops substantially over the first year.

    Outcome-provenTested in randomised trials measuring heart attacks, strokes, or death, not a stand-in for them.· Class I· Level A· checked 2026-09-12

    US Preventive Services Task Force — tobacco cessation interventions · Class I — highest-impact single change

An example person who reaches it

High calculated risk” — an illustrative profile, not a real user.

66-year-old manBP 148/88 on medicationLDL 150smokes10-yr PREVENT-ASCVD 14.8%

Their path through prevention essentials

  1. Known cardiovascular disease?No
  2. On a statin, or is one indicated?Yes
  3. Has Lp(a) ever been measured?No
  4. Urine albumin (UACR)?Not measured, with diabetes, prediabetes, eGFR below 60, BP medication, or BP 130/80 or above
  5. Smoking?Current ← this rule

Sources

Cited by the recommendations above.

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Runs in lib/engine/preventionEssentials.ts as smoking-current.