Smoking Related Illnesses

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Smoking Related Illnesses

Smoking Related Illnesses

Nearly 440,000 cigarette related deaths occur in the United States every year - more than car accidents, alcohol, AIDS, suicide, illegal drugs, and homicide combined.

Health reasons are often cited as the primary reason people give for wanting to stop smoking - and it is certainly the best reason. Smoking causes a wide variety of illnesses to basically every part of the body.

Smoking causes many different types of lung diseases, such as lung cancer, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are often also experienced together and thus grouped under the term chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. COPD is often diagnosed in both current and former smokers in their 60’s or 70’s. COPD eventually results in death for anyone who suffers from it.

Tragically, over 7 million smokers and former smokers have been diagnosed with COPD. Those suffering from this insidious disease have a miserable deterioration. In the final stages, COPD sufferers feel as though they are continuously gasping for air, as if they were drowning.

Separately, chronic bronchitis and emphysema are serious diseases, as well. Chronic bronchitis is a disease that causes the airways to produce excess mucus. This is what forces a smoker to cough more often. Emphysema, on the other hand, slowly makes it impossible for the smoker to breath. This is because oxygen must move across the lungs in order to reach the blood. Tiny sacs within the lungs are responsible for making this happen. With emphysema, these sacs break down and make it more difficult for oxygen to reach the blood. Ultimately, the person with emphysema is unable to breathe and needs to breath with the assistance of oxygen.

Smoking also takes its toll on the heart. Smokers are twice as likely to die from a heart attack as nonsmokers. Frighteningly, smokers are also more likely to die within an hour after having a heart attack than a person who does not smoke.

In addition, smoking leads to peripheral vascular disease, which is the narrowing of the blood vessels responsible for carrying blood to the leg and arm muscles.

Women who use oral contraceptives are at particular risk for circulatory diseases. In fact, those who use oral contraceptives that are over 35 are in the high risk group for heart attack and blood clots in the legs. Oral contraceptives are invariably contraindicated for smokers, for this reason.

Smoking accounts for at least 30% of deaths from cancer. The most common forms of cancer associated with smoking are cancers of the larynx (voice box), lungs, pharynx (throat), oral cavity, and esophagus. In addition, smoking has been linked to the development of cancer in the pancreas, bladder, uterine cervix, liver, stomach, kidney, rectum, and colon. Smoking has also been connected to some forms of leukemia. Cancer is responsible for about half of cigarette related deaths.

Smoking is a significant risk factor for stroke, which often results in mild or severe disabilities, and often in death. More than ten percent of deaths caused by stroke are from smoking causes. Former smokers reduce their risk of stroke significantly. After 5 years of smoking cessation, the risks for stroke are the same as those of a nonsmoker. Women who take oral contraceptives and smoke are at a particular high risk of having a stroke.

Smoking also causes damage to the skin, which is more serious than simply appearance. Smoking constricts blood vessels, which cuts off the blood supply to the top layer of the skim. Researchers believe smoking also damages genetic material in skin cells and accelerates the aging process. In addition, it causes skin to thin - perhaps by as much as 40% - and to become less porous.

Women who smoke are more likely to have a low birth weight baby and to have a miscarriage than women who don’t smoke. Women who smoke are also more likely to have a premature delivery, or to have a stillbirth baby.

Because cigarette smoking results in a decrease in blood flow, another side effect of smoking is impotence in men. With the blood unable to properly flow to the penis, it is difficult to get it erect and to maintain an erection.

Smokers cut years from their lifespan because of the resulting diseases. The US Centers for Disease Control maintains that male smokers lose an average of 13.2 years from their lives and female smokers lose an average of 14.5 from their life span. Serious cause for concern, don't you think?

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