Effects of smoking



joe
Definition:
An irreversible health effect is a permanent change in the structure and/or function of an organ system or a permanently increased risk of suffering from a disease or some other threat to health. Irreversible effects vary in intensity and are related both to the amount and duration of exposure and the age at which the person is initially exposed. A risk or effect may diminish over time, but it may also increase; some risk may remain many years after exposure has ended.

effects_body Cigarette manufacturers spend millions of dollars every year to convince you and your children that smoking will make you exciting, athletic, important, sophisticated, and sexually attractive. They carefully avoid mentioning the intense addictive qualities of nicotine and the well-documented, serious health risks involved. Poisons Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known cancer-causing (carcinogenic) compounds and 400 other toxins. These include nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, as well as formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, and DDT. Nicotine is highly addictive. Smoke containing nicotine is inhaled into the lungs, and the nicotine reaches your brain in just six seconds. Nicotine in small doses acts as a stimulant to the brain. In large doses, it's a depressant, inhibiting the flow of signals between nerve cells. In even larger doses, it's a lethal poison, affecting the heart, blood vessels, and hormones. Nicotine in the bloodstream acts to make the smoker feel calm. As a cigarette is smoked, the amount of tar inhaled into the lungs increases, and the last puff contains more than twice as much tar as the first puff. Carbon monoxide makes it harder for red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. Tar is a mixture of substances that together form a sticky mass in the lungs. Most of the chemicals inhaled in cigarette smoke stay in the lungs. The more you inhale, the better it feels—and the greater the damage to your lungs.(1)


Effects of Smoking:
Body effects:

-Lung: cancer, emphysema, asthma
-Heart: coronary occlusion (heart attack)
-Circulation: vessel damage, gangrene
-Pregnancy: retards growth, increase in malformations
-Others: surgery risk, contraceptive pill risks. eg deep vein thrombosis.

Addiction:

It is important to remember that nicotine is physiologically a highly addictive substance and that smoking is not just a psychologically motivated problem. Nicotine withdrawal manifests as
-irritability, anxiety
-restlessness, difficulty concentrating
-sleep disturbance, fatigue
-headaches, dizziness, tremor, nausea and upset bowels(2)

Diseases:

Lung Disease


Smoking accounts for about 80-90% of all chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (emphysema, chronic mucus secretion, chronic air flow blocks)
Smoking is involved in 85% of all lung cancer deaths!(which is incurable)
An individual with chronic bronchitis (which is caused by smoking) is more likely to get a bacterial infection if he/she is a smoker. A smoker gets more nose and throat inflammations, respiratory infections, and chronic bronchitis.

Heart Disease


Cigarette smoking accounts for 30% of all heart disease deaths.
The carbon monoxide in the cigarette smoke increases the amount of cholesterol clogging the arteries.
Smoking causes a stiffness in the walls of the arteries which is harmful to the artery and increases the risk for the artery to rupture.
The nicotine in cigarettes can raise your blood pressure, heart rate, and the oxygen demand for muscles, especially the heart (the heart is a muscle).
A coronary spasm may occur during smoking, which may lead to chest pain, and a heart attack
Blood clots more readily in smokers than in nonsmokers.

Cancers


Cigarette Smoking is the major cause of cancer of the lips, tongue, salivary glands, mouth, larynx, esophagus, and middle and lower pharynx.
The development of stomach cancer can be directly associated with smoking.
Smoking is known to cause bladder cancer.
Quitting smoking will not result in a significant reduction in the risk of getting bladder cancer.
Cigarette smoking has been linked to cancers of the renal pelvis (part of the kidney), uterine cervix, and pancreas.
A strong association exists between smoking and leukemia.

Hormonal Problems


Women smokers enter menopause an average of 5 years earlier than nonsmokers.
Smoking and nicotine can alter a number of hormones involved in the reproduction function.
Women who smoke are at an increased risk of osteoporosis.
In male smokers, the mobility of their sperm is reduced.

Passive (Second Hand) Smoking


It is estimated that there are about 53,000 deaths per year as a result of passive smoking in the United States alone! 37,000 of these deaths come from cardiovascular disease.
The effects of tobacco smoke are just as bad, if not worse, in nonsmokers as in smokers.
All of the risks for smokers also hold true for exposure to second hand smoke
Tobacco smoke is made up of many hazardous vapors and particles that when inhaled are harmful to both the smoker and to others around him/her.
The smoke at the end of a burning cigarette has more particles that are smaller and more harmful than the smoke directly inhaled by the smoker. These smaller particles go deeper into the lung tissue and do more damage.
Carbon Monoxide from passive smoke causes greater lack of oxygen in nonsmokers than the. With reduced oxygen, the heart, lungs and brain cannot function properly. This leads to permanent brain and vascular (blood vessel) change. These changes are more serious in women who are on the "pill!"
When a nonsmoker marries a smoker, the risk of getting lung cancer and/or heart disease is doubled!
Infants and children have tender tissues and are more susceptible to second hand smoke!
They develop many lung problems (allergies, asthma, chronic bronchitis, heart problems).
Many develop cancers when they get older.
Children of parents who smoke, are hospitalized more frequently for bronchitis and pneumonia during their first year of life
Have more acute respiratory illnesses before the age of two
Have more cough and phlegm
Have more chronic ear infections.

Miscellaneous


The effectiveness of many medications is greatly reduced in smokers.
Nicotine has harmful effects on the stomach, the organ that helps in the digestion of food.
Smoking accelerates the aging process!!
Smoking has been associated to snoring and sleep apnea (you stop breathing when you sleep)
In women, hoarseness is 17 times more frequent in smokers than in nonsmokers.
Excess facial hair is 7 times more frequent in women who smoke compared to those who do not!(3)

Health Effects of Smoking Among Young People
Among young people, the short-term health consequences of smoking include respiratory and nonrespiratory effects, addiction to nicotine, and the associated risk of other drug use. Long-term health consequences of youth smoking are reinforced by the fact that most young people who smoke regularly continue to smoke throughout adulthood.
Cigarette smokers have a lower level of lung function than those persons who have never smoked.
Smoking reduces the rate of lung growth.
In adults, cigarette smoking causes heart disease and stroke. Studies have shown that early signs of these diseases can be found in adolescents who smoke.
Smoking hurts young people's physical fitness in terms of both performance and endurance---even among young people trained in competitive running.
On average, someone who smokes a pack or more of cigarettes each day lives 7 years less than someone who never smoked.
The resting heart rates of young adult smokers are two to three beats per minute faster than nonsmokers.
Smoking at an early age increases the risk of lung cancer. For most smoking-related cancers, the risk rises as the individual continues to smoke.
Teenage smokers suffer from shortness of breath almost three times as often as teens who don't smoke, and produce phlegm more than twice as often as teens who don't smoke.
Teenage smokers are more likely to have seen a doctor or other health professionals for an emotional or psychological complaint.
Teens who smoke are three times more likely than nonsmokers to use alcohol, eight times more likely to use marijuana, and 22 times more likely to use cocaine. Smoking is associated with a host of other risky behaviors, such as fighting and engaging in unprotected sex.(4)

How does smoking affect my health?
Statistics show that more than 80 percent of lung cancer cases are related to smoking. In fact, the risk of developing lung cancer is 15 to 25 times greater for cigarette smokers than for non-smokers. And the American Cancer Society reports that lung cancer is now the leading cause of cancer deaths among both men and women. Cigarette smoking has also been linked to coronary heart disease, stroke, chronic bronchitis, gastric ulcers, and emphysema. While cigar and pipe smokers who do not inhale are less at risk from lung cancer than cigarette smokers, their risk of developing cancer of the mouth and throat is just as great.

What is it about tobacco that makes it so harmful?
There are more than 4,000 chemical compounds in every cigarette that are hazardous to your health. Nicotine, for example, acts as a stimulant which raises blood pressure and heart rate. Nicotine causes irritation to the lining of the blood vessels. This may cause the "bad" LDL cholesterol to adhere to the vessel walls and speed hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis). Hardening of the arteries can eventually lead to heart attack or stroke. At least 40 of these chemicals in cigarettes are known to cause cancer in humans.

Are low tar cigarettes safer?
There is no such thing as a safe cigarette. A study by the American Cancer Society showed that smokers of low tar and nicotine brands inhale more deeply and puff more rapidly, causing the same health risks as people who smoke medium or high tar and nicotine cigarettes. Other research findings indicate that the vast majority of people who smoke would like to quit. The good news is that the combination of support from a physician, a behavior modification cessation program and nicotine replacement therapy like the patch or gum, are most likely to result in successfully quitting.(5)

    Sources for this page:


  1. http://www.heartdrs.com/smoking/Smoking_effects.htm for health risks... click here.

  2. http://www.nevdgp.org.au/smoker/effects.htm for effects of smoking... click here.

  3. http://www.bu.edu/cohis/smoking/upsmoke/harms.htm for diseases... click here.

  4. http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/research_data/youth/stspta5.htm for young people.... click here.

  5. http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/subabuse/tobacc02.htm for affect my health.... click here.

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