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Smoking is Bad for Your Health
Smoking is Bad for Your Health
Almost everybody knows that smoking is bad for the health. Images of blackened lungs line school hallways and hospital waiting rooms, but despite these very negative images which we are all exposed to, people continue to take up smoking. This may have to do with the pervasive romantic image of smoking - an image that has nothing in common with reality. To teenagers, and many adults, smoking simply looks "cool".
Reformed smokers will see many smokers as performing a filthy, money wasting exercise of smoking. But even many reformed smokers will see a smoker occasionally, and have difficulty getting away from that notion that the person really does look "cool".
There are many ways to consume tobacco, although obviously the smoking of cigarettes is the one with which we are all very familiar. You can chew it, inhale it through the nose, or you can of course smoke it in the form of cigars or cigarettes. No matter how tobacco is consumed it is dangerous, but because smoking is the most popular way to consume tobacco it has also received the greatest attention from the medical field and the media.
When a smoker inhales a puff of cigarette smoke the large surface area of the lungs allows nicotine to pass into the blood stream almost immediately. It is this nicotine "hit" that smokers crave, but there is a lot more to smoke than just nicotine. In fact, there are more than 4000 chemical substances that make up cigarette smoke and many of them are toxic.
Cigarette smoke is composed of 43 carcinogenic (cancer causing) substances and more than 400 other toxins that can also be found in wood varnish, nail polish remover, and rat poison. All of these substances accumulate in the body and can cause serious problems to the heart and lungs.
Not surprisingly, then, cancer is the most common disease associated with smoking. And lung cancer of course is the leading cancer associated with smoking. Smoking is the cause of 90% of lung cancer cases and is related to 30% of all cancer fatalities. Other smoking-related cancers include cancers of the mouth, pancreas, urinary bladder, kidney, stomach, esophagus, and larynx.
Besides cancer, smoking is also related to several other diseases of the lungs. Emphysema and bronchitis can be fatal and 75% of all deaths from these diseases are linked to smoking.
Smokers have shorter lives than non-smokers. On average, smoking takes 15 years off your life span. This can be explained by the high rate of exposure to toxic substances which are found in cigarette smoke.
Smokers also put others at risk. The dangers of breathing in second-hand smoke are well known. Smokers harm their loved ones by exposing them to the smoke they exhale. All sorts of health problems are related to breathing in second-hand smoke. Children are especially susceptible to the dangers of second-hand smoke because their internal organs are still developing. Children exposed to second-hand smoke are more vulnerable to asthma, sudden infant death syndrome, bronchitis, pneumonia, and ear infections.
Smoking can also be dangerous for unborn children. Mothers who smoke are more likely to suffer from miscarriages, bleeding and nausea, and babies of smoking mothers have reduced birth weights or may be premature. These babies are more susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome and may also have lifelong health complications due to chest infections and asthma.
It is never too late to give up smoking, even those who have smoked for 20, 30 or 40 years or more can realize tremendous health benefits from giving up the habit. Naturally, the smaller the length of time that you have smoked, the better the potential health benefits which will accrue.
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