Tobacco is terrible for your health, no matter how much you smoke. No part of a cigarette is safe, from the acetone and tar to the nicotine and carbon monoxide. The things you breathe in affect more than just your lungs. They can make your whole body feel bad.
Smoking can cause a number of ongoing health problems and long-term changes to your body’s systems. Even though smoking can make you more likely to have health problems, in the long run, some effects are felt immediately.
Cigarette smoke is very bad for your health. No way to smoke is safe. Switching to a cigar, pipe, or hookah instead of cigarettes won’t help you avoid the health risks.
There are about 600 different things in a cigarette, and many of them are also in cigars and hookahs. The American Lung Association says that when these things burn, they make more than 7,000 chemicals. Many of these chemicals are poisonous, and at least 69 of them are linked to cancer.
People who have never smoked are three times more likely to die in the United States than people who have smoked. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that smoking is the most common “preventable cause of death” in the United States. Even though smoking may not have immediate effects, it can cause problems and damage that can last for years. The good news is that if you stop smoking, many of these effects can go away.
Central nervous system
Nicotine, a drug that changes your mood, is one of the things in tobacco. Nicotine goes straight to your brain and makes you feel more alert for a short time. But once that effect wears off, you feel tired and want more. Nicotine makes it hard to break habits, which is why it’s so hard for people to stop smoking.
Nicotine withdrawal can make it hard for you to think clearly and make you feel anxious, irritable, and sad. Also, withdrawal can cause headaches and make it hard to sleep.
Respiratory system
Smoking damages the lungs. Damage causes several issues over time. Smokers are at risk for chronic, nonreversible lung diseases like:
emphysema, lung air sac destruction
persistent bronchitis and lung tube inflammation that lasts.
COPD and lung cancer
Tobacco withdrawal can cause congestion and respiratory pain as your lungs and airways repair. Quitting smoking increases mucus production, indicating respiratory system recovery.
Coughing, wheezing, and asthma attacks are more common in smokers’ children. They also have more pneumonia and bronchitis.
Cardiovascular system
Smoking harms your cardiovascular system. Nicotine constricts blood vessels, reducing blood flow. Peripheral artery disease can develop from blood vessel injury and narrowing.
Smoking increases blood pressure, clotting, and vessel wall weakness. These factors increase stroke risk.
Having heart bypass surgery, a heart attack or a blood vessel stent increases your chance of developing deteriorating heart disease.
Smoking affects your cardiovascular health and that of those around you who don’t smoke. Nonsmokers are at risk from secondhand smoke. Stroke and heart disease are risks.
Integumentary system (skin, hair, and nails)
Changes in the skin are some of the most obvious signs of smoking. The chemicals in tobacco smoke change the way your skin is made. A recent study found that smoking raises the risk of squamous cell carcinoma by a huge amount (skin cancer).
Even your fingernails and toenails can be hurt by smoking. Fungal nail infections are more likely to happen if you smoke.
Nicotine can also damage hair. An older study found that it causes hair to fall out, go gray, and go bald.
Digestive system
Cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, and esophagus are more likely to happen if you smoke. Pancreatic cancer is also more common in people who smoke. People who “smoke but don’t inhale” still have a higher chance of getting mouth cancer.
Insulin is also affected by smoking, which makes it more likely that you’ll develop insulin resistance. That makes you more likely to get type 2 diabetes and its complications, which tend to happen more quickly in smokers than in nonsmokers.
Reasons to Quit Smoking
You know that smoking cigarettes can cause cancer of the lungs and heart disease. You know it makes your teeth look yellow. You know it makes your skin wrinkle, stains your fingers, and makes it hard to smell and taste.
But you still haven’t been able to stop. Well, here are seven more not-so-fun things that could happen to you if you keep smoking that you might not have known about.
Psoriasis
This autoimmune disorder that makes the skin itch and form bumps is not directly caused by smoking. But there are two things about psoriasis that researchers know for sure: First, it has to do with genes. The National Psoriasis Foundation says that people who carry the gene are more than twice as likely to get psoriasis if they smoke tobacco.
Blindness
If you continue to smoke cigarettes, macular degeneration could set in, preventing blood from reaching your retina and rendering your eyesight useless. and it might cause you to go blind for life.
cancers
organs of the digestive system; the larynx; the oesophagus; the larynx; the lips; the kidneys; the mouth; the throat; the bladder
gastrointestinal, pancreatic, or cervical disorders
