Now I know that all of you smokers out there know darned well that smoking isn’t good for you, so I’m not going to go on and on about the main problems that smoking can cause you, these things are already well documented, but I will say this; you can eat five portions of fruit and veg a day and exercise regularly, but healthy behaviour means little if you continue to smoke.
Whilst all the messages of smoking causing ill-health are pretty much ignored nowadays, due mainly to overkill I think, I have included in this article a few of the lesser known problems that are caused by smoking:
Cigarettes contain more than 4000 chemical compounds of which at least 400 are toxic substances, how can you knowingly suck that into your face?? When you inhale, a cigarette burns at 700 degrees C at the tip and around 60 degrees C in the core. This heat breaks down the tobacco to produce various toxins. As a cigarette burns, the residues are concentrated towards the butt, so you get the full dose of toxins as you finish your cigarette.
The products that are most damaging are:
1) Tar, a carcinogen (substance that causes cancer)
2) nicotine is addictive and increases cholesterol levels in your body
3) The oxygen in your body is reduced by carbon monoxide
The problems caused by smoking can be influenced by:
1) How many cigarettes you smoke
2) If the cigarette has a filter or not
3) How has the tobacco been prepared
It has been shown that life expectancy can be improved by as much as seven or eight years if you do not smoke, but not only that, recent research has shown that if you continue smoking from a young age, people are dying of smoking related illnesses at much younger ages.
It’s almost unbelievable to say, but there are more people under the age of 70 who die from illnesses related to smoking, than of breast cancer, traffic accidents, drug addiction and AIDS combined.
I did promise not to preach, but I’m going to take a liberty here anyway (because it’s my article!). The longer you have smoked, the more cigarettes in a day that you smoke and the more deeply you inhale, the more you will increase the likelihood of you developing lung cancer. When you do stop smoking, it can take as much as 15 years to get back to the risk level that a non smoker has.
Oral cancers (cancers of the mouth) are four times more common in smokers than non smokers, a fact that many smokers are unaware of. A disease called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is also affected very badly by smoking, which is responsible for 80 percent of cases.
Emphysema is also a disease caused by long-term smoking, and here are a couple of scary numbers for you. If you smoke 20 a day, when you die and your lungs are examined, you will have a 94 percent chance of there being emphysema present. As a non smoker, however, that percentage drops to 90 who have little or no emphysema at all.
Lung fuction declines naturally with age, but when combined with smoking it drops about three times faster, and then breathlessness begins. Severe cases can end up on permanent oxygen before dying a slow and painful death from being unable to breathe.
Nicotine itself is known to cause narrowing of the arteries all over the body, but there is one particular problem that affects you guys out there. Men in their 30s and 40s, who smoke, are much more likely to have erectile dysfunction…now you’re listening aren’t you?! Erection cannot happen if the arteries that lead to the penis are not functioning properly, as the blood flow would be reduced, so stopping your performance before it even gets started.
I can’t stress this enough, but this a serious problem for you guys out there, not only for the obvious reason (as I’m sure you are with me there…). If you are a smoker and begin to have problems achieving or maintaining an erection you should go and see your doctor. A problem with the blood vessels in the penis could also mean that damage has been done to vessels in other parts of the body too.
The smoke that you do not inhale and is released from your cigarette between puffs actually carries a higher risk than inhaled smoke. Maybe it’s time for a little thought for your non smoking partner, kids, friends, etc., (yeah, I’m trying the guilt trip tactic now).
Children who grow up in a home where one or both of their parents smoke have twice the risk of getting asthma and asthmatic bronchitis. They also have a higher risk of developing allergies. Infants under two years old are more prone to severe respiratory infections and cot death.
It has been proven that the risk of lung cancer is increased amongst people who smoke ‘passively’ but as yet there is no proof of whether the risk of heart disease is also increased. You can be sure though, that you can look forward to a much healthier old age if you can stop smoking.
Please do yourself and all those who love you (actually those who don’t but have to be near you when you are polluting the air as well) a huge favour. There are 100’s of stop smoking programmes out there to help you, so quit smoking NOW!