Tobacco will cause an increase in blood pressure. As you should know, smoking is bad for health. So if you are a smoker, you are making a big mistake. If you have high blood pressure AND you smoke, you are “squaring” the mistake even further.

Smoking, by itself, is already a major risk factor for every type of cardiovascular disease (CVD). On the other hand, high blood pressure can lead to heart attack and stroke. So, if you are a smoker and you have high blood pressure, the combined risks for heart attack, stroke and CVD jump up by a huge factor and increases much more than by simply adding the both risks together.

The risk is a multiple of 10. So, by saying the risk is “squared” is an understatement and a conservative figure.