Cigarette smoking causes more deaths each year than suicides, murders, HIV, alcohol use, motor vehicle accidents, and illegal drug use combined. Many diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory diseases are caused by cigarette smoking, which harms almost every organ in the body. If this is not convincing evidence that health effects of smoking is generally harmful to one’s self, then I don’t know what is.
Of course we cannot discuss all of the health effects of cigarette smoking in this article since they are too much to mention, we will try to discuss, or at least list some of the most harmful and common ones.
To begin with, smokers generally have a difficult time when healing from surgeries and illnesses than do non-smokers. Because of the damage to the body’s host defenses, smoking is responsible for a lower survival rate after surgery compared to non-smokers, a delayed tissue healing and a slower immune response.
Cancer is said to be the second leading cause of death by smoking and among the first diseases casually linked to smoking. In the tobacco smoke, the tar present causes lung cancer to develop due to the damaging of a gene called p53.
A few of the major organs which cancers are often formed due to smoking are the larynx, pharynx, bladder, lung, cervix, esophagus, kidney stomach and pancreas. Although the risks of cancers vary widely among members of different ethnic groups, the risk of dying among men who smoke is twenty three times more likely, and thirteen times more likely among women who smoke. Secondhand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is the smoke given off by the smoker’s exhalations and the burning of the cigarette; and is responsible for about 3000 lung cancer deaths of non-smokers in the USA.
Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the USA, and is one of the many health effects of smoking. After smoking, the blood cells and blood vessel walls become sticky and allows dangerous fatty deposits to build up. Cigarette smoking causes the narrowing of the arteries, and hence reduced blood circulation. This is the main reason for the stress free feeling experienced by the smoker. However, this forcing of the blood vessels to constrict is one of the causes for heart complications experienced by the smoker such as cardiovascular disease.
Some other effects of cigarette smoking include chronic obstructive lung disease, infertility, low birth weight, low bone density, preterm delivery, periodontitis, peptic ulcers, stroke, bronchitis, pneumonia, osteoporosis, depression, and emphysema to name a few. Apart from the thousands of complications which smokers place themselves in, smoking cigarettes is known to relief stress, be encouraged in young social groups, and a past time activity.
The problem with cigarette smoking is that most people never like to admit that they are addicted. Many try to justify smoking by thinking of it as a stress reliever. However, the same process that leads to the “stress free feeling” a smoker experiences after firing up a smoke, is one of the most dangerous health effects of smoking in the first place.
Hopefully everyone reading this article will think about that the next time they feel the need to relieve some stress by smoking what many dub “a cancer stick.”
Related posts:
- Facts about lung cancer They are some key facts about lung cancer that the...
- How can smoking destroy your lungs? These little cigarettes can be real harmful, if not managed...
- Smoking and Lung cancer Lung cancer has developed over the years to be the...
- Effects of lung cancer Over the years lung cancer has developed into the number...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
