600 ingredients, 7000 chemicals and an unlimited amount of diseases are what one small cigarette contains. Amazing how a little thing is capable of causing so much destruction. Maybe the tiniest weapon of mass destruction to exist maybe? Many people agree that smoking habit is dangerous for health. However, they still don’t refrain from it. It is a slow poison that consumes your good health slowly eating it up gradually only for you to realize at a later stage the harm that it has caused. At times the damage is irreversible and it’s often too late to treat it. You might not realize but you need to understand why smoking is bad for your health.
Todays’ blog is all about throwing light on all the side effects of smoking. You might claim to know them but there are many that you wouldn’t have heard about.
Why Smoking is Bad for Health?
Apart from the disastrous effects that smoking can have on your health, it affects your physical appearance as well. Among the many chemicals that are responsible for, this includes Nicotine, Carbon monoxide, and tar. Although people choose to ignore the rather bad effects that smoking cigarettes has on them, it is what it is. You cannot deny the fact that it takes a toll on your physical and many times mental health as well. If this does not scare you much, let’s dig a bit deeper into all the many problems that you can face as a result of smoking.
How Smoking Affects Your Health – a Journal of Diseases
1. Skin Cancer
Smoking remains one of the leading causes of cancer. This includes lung, mouth, throat and esophageal cancer. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise to you that smoking can cause skin cancer as well. In fact, according to researches, smokers are at a higher risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma (the second most common form of skin cancer) than non-smokers.
2. Cataracts
Smoking puts oxidative stress on the lens of the eyes. Hence increasing the chances of smokers to develop cataracts. However, this depends on the number of cigarettes you smoke rather than the duration that you have been smoking for. But that does not imply that you can continue smoking while limiting the number of cigarettes per day.
3. Infertility
Smoking is one of the causes of male infertility among couples. In fact, smoking and infertility go hand-in-hand. It creates a lot of problems for women including:
- Causing ovulation problems.
- Damaging cervix and fallopian tubes.
- Increasing the risk of miscarriage.
Therefore, couples who are hoping to become parents should limit or eliminate cigarettes from their lives.
4. Performance in Bed
Nothing embarrasses a person more than a bad performance in bed. Well if you want to give your best, quit smoking. According to studies, Nicotine affects the blood flow to the genitals in men and women both. For men, this means that their sexual performance gets affected. While the women find it hard to reach orgasm. Hence, remaining sexually dissatisfied.
5. Digestive System
Apart from affecting your skin and reproductive systems, the effects of tobacco on your body are numerous in number. Like your digestive system can be damaged as well. In fact, smoking increases the risk of pancreatic cancer. It also affects your insulin production leading your body to become insulin resistant.
6. Integumentary System
The chemicals in cigarettes tend to change the texture of your skin. Besides that, they affect other apparent body parts as well. This includes your fingernails and toenails. Smokers are more likely to develop fungal infections in their nails than non-smokers are.
7. Hair
Your hair is also affected as a result of smoking. Thinning of hair leading to balding and grey hair are both rather noticeable effects of smoking in many.
8. Stroke
Smokers are more likely to have a stroke. Stroke can cause brain damage and in severe cases can lead to death. In fact, in most of the cases, it does. One way in which the chances of having a stroke increase is the increased chance of developing a brain aneurysm. It is a bulge in the blood vessel that happens to develop due to a weakness in its walls.
9. Lungs
Lungs would have been first on the list. But, oh well. Smoking affects the lungs. Remember the images that you were shown in the science class as a kid? The lungs of a smoker vs. the lungs of a non-smoker? The red vs. the black lungs. That is exactly what smoking does to your lungs. It can begin with problems like asthma, wheezing, and colds. And it can lead to bigger problems like pneumonia and even lung cancer.
10. Stretch Marks
Another reason why smoking is bad for you is the ability of that cigarette to give you stretch marks. Them ugly stretch marks. Blame it on the Nicotine that damages the fibers and connective tissues in your skin causing it to lose all the elasticity.
11. Warts
Smokers are more susceptible to infection with human papillomavirus. This large family of viruses is capable of causing warts. This includes genital warts.
12. Wound Healing
Smokers do not heal as well after surgeries including face-lifts, and tooth extractions like the non-smokers do. This is among the many ways of how smoking affects your health.
Apart from this, there are many more reasons why the habit of smoking is dangerous for your health. This includes the way it affects your appearance.
Effects of Tobacco on Your Body
1. Under Eye Bags
According to studies, smokers are more likely to complain about feelings of restlessness than non-smokers are. Even if they get to sleep, they feel tired. However, most of the times, the nicotine does not let the smokers have a good night’s sleep. Hence, the under eye bags.
2. Psoriasis
Although psoriasis is an autoimmune related skin condition that can attack you even if you do not smoke but the chances go up if you are a smoker.
3. Icky Teeth
You can let the Hollywood kinda white teeth remain a dream for you if you smoke. Because of the many parts of the body that it will affect, teeth are one of them. Get ready to have not-so-flaunty yellow teeth.
4. Wrinkles
Although you all will develop wrinkles (in case you live that long), with smoking, you do not have to wait for an extended period of time. You will start developing wrinkles at a younger than usual age at which they start appearing.
5. Yellow is a Dirty Fellow
Not only will cigarettes turn have your teeth yellowed, but your fingers too. The Nicotine is capable of staining your fingers and nails alike.
6. Scarring
The culprit Nicotine is capable of causing more damage than you can imagine. It can also cause vasoconstriction. This means that the blood vessels become narrow. This deprives them of the oxygen-rich blood.
7. No Glow
Smoking gives a grey look to your skin, snatching the glow away from it. The Carbon monoxide present in cigarettes displaces the oxygen in your skin. Moreover, the Nicotine reduces the blood flow, which makes the skin dry and discolored.
8. Flabby Tummy
Cigarettes suppress your appetite. The smokers usually have a lower weight than the non-smokers do. However, smokers have more visceral fat than non-smokers do. This can give you a flabby tummy and increase your risk of diabetes.
These are all the many reasons why smoking is bad for you and your organs. It is a proven fact that smoking habit is dangerous for your health. And there are many ways by which you can quit smoking. You can take the assistant from a therapist if you are a chain smoker. Or try reducing the number of cigarettes gradually, in case you are not a chain smoker. And you will see the positive effects on your body and health yourself.
Say No to Cigarettes
It can be very difficult to get rid of a habit that is a better part of your life. However, you need to realize that some habits cause more harm than good. Smoking is one of them. It will be difficult at first. You will experience withdrawal symptoms like anger and severe headaches. But that is just the part of quitting smoking. The effects on your body after quitting smoking will be worth the struggle. Among the many positive changes you will note the following:
- Broken addiction cycle
- Better circulation
- Improved smell and taste
- More energy
- Improved sex life
- Lower risk of cancer
Wish you all the best through this not so easy journey.
