Cigarette smoking damages nearly every organ of the body, causes many diseases, and reduces the well-being of smokers’ over-all.

There’s no way round it; smoking is bad for your health. Cigarette smoking causes nearly one in five deaths in the United States of America. It can also cause many other cancers and health issues.

What are the health risks of second-hand smoke?

If somebody is smoking nearby, it is also bad for other people – they breathe in the smoke second-hand and can get effected almost the way as smokers do. This includes heart ailments and lung cancer. Children exposed to second-hand smoke have a higher peril of ear infections, colds, pneumonia, bronchitis, and more severe asthma. Mothers who breathe second-hand smoke while pregnant are more possibly prone to suffer from preterm labour and babies with low birth weight.

Are other forms of tobacco also dangerous?

Besides cigarettes, there are several other types of tobacco. Some people smoke tobacco in cigars and hookahs. These forms of tobacco also comprise harmful chemicals and nicotine. Some cigars hold as much tobacco as an entire pack of cigarettes and is therefore much harmful for health.

E-cigarettes generally look like cigarettes, but they work contrarily. They are battery-operated smoking apparatus. Using an e-cigarette is called vaping. Not much is known about the health hazards of using them. We do know they contain nicotine, the same addictive constituent in tobacco cigarettes. E-cigarettes also expose non-smokers to second-hand aerosols (rather than second-hand smoke), which have harmful chemicals.

Smokeless tobacco, such as chewing tobacco and snuff, is also bad for your wellbeing. Smokeless tobacco can cause different cancers, including oral cancer. It also escalates your risk of getting heart disease, gum disease, and oral lacerations.

 Smoking and Death 

  • Smoking is one of the prime causes of avoidable death worldwide and is the reason of 15% of all deaths. In the United States of America about 500,000 deaths per year are accredited to smoking-related diseases and a latest study projected that as much as 1/3 of China’s male population will have significantly reduced life-spans due to smoking. Male and female smokers lose an average of 13.2 and 14.5 years of life, respectively. At least half of all constant smokers die earlier as a result of smoking. The risk of dying from lung cancer before age 85 is 22.1% for a male smoker and 11.9% for a female current smoker, in the absenteeism of contending causes of death. The reliable guesstimates for constant non-smokers are a 1.1% likelihood of dying from lung cancer before age 85 for a man of European descent, and a 0.8% prospect for a woman. Smoking just one cigarette a day results in a jeopardy of coronary heart disease that is midway between that of a heavy smoker and a non-smoker. The non-linear dose–reaction association may be described by smoking’s effect on platelet accumulation.
  • Smoking causes more deaths each year than the following causes pooled:
    • Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
    • Illicit drug use
    • Alcohol
    • Motor vehicle injuries
    • Firearm-related incidents

Smoking and Increased Health Risks

Smokers are more probable than non-smokers to contract heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer.

  • Calculations show smoking increases the risk:
    • For coronary heart disease by two to four times
    • For stroke by two to four times
    • Of men developing lung cancer by 25 times
    • Of women developing lung cancer by 25.7 times
  • Smoking causes weakened overall health, increased absenteeism from work, and increased health care consumption and price.

Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease

Smokers are at a superior risk for diseases that affect the heart and blood vessels (cardiovascular disease).

  • Smoking causes stroke and coronary heart disease, which are among the chief causes of death in the United States.
  • Even people who smoke less than five cigarettes a day can have early symptoms of cardiovascular disease.
  • Smoking damages blood vessels and can make them stiffen and grow narrower. This makes your heart beat faster and your blood pressure increase. Clots can also formulate.
  • A stroke occurs when:
    • A clot obstructs the blood flow to part of your brain;
    • A blood vessel in or nearby your brain bursts.
  • Obstructions caused by smoking can also reduce blood flow to your legs and skin.

Smoking and Respiratory Disease

Smoking can cause lung disease by injuring your airways and the small air sacs (alveoli) found in your lungs.

  • Lung diseases caused by smoking include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
  • Cigarette smoking causes most cases of lung cancer.
  • If you have asthma, tobacco smoke can generate an attack or make an attack worse.
  • Smokers are 12 to 13 times more prospective to die from COPD than non-smokers.

Smoking and Cancer

Smoking can be the source of cancer for almost anywhere in your body:

  • Urinary Bladder
  • Blood (acute myeloid leukemia)
  • Cervix
  • Colon and rectum (colorectal)
  • Oesophagus
  • Kidney and ureter
  • Larynx
  • Liver
  • Oropharynx (includes the tonsils, tongue base, soft palate, and pharyngeal walls)
  • Pancreas
  • Stomach
  • Trachea, bronchus, and lung

Smoking also causes an upsurge in the risk of dying from cancer and other ailments in cancer patients and survivors.

If nobody smoked, one of every three cancer deaths in the United States of America would not happen.

Smoking and Other Health Risks

Smoking damages nearly every organ of the body and upsets a person’s general health.

  • Smoking can make it harder for a woman to attain pregnancy. It can also affect her baby’s wellbeing previously and after birth. Smoking increases risks for:
    • Premature (early) delivery
    • Stillbirth (demise of the baby before delivery)
    • Low birth weight (LBW)
    • Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden and inexplicable death of a baby younger than 1 year old.
    • Ectopic pregnancy
    • Orofacial clefts in infants
  • Smoking can also affect men’s sperm, which can reduce fertility and also rise in risks for birth defects and miscarriage.
  • Smoking can affect bone health.
    • Women past childbearing years who smoke have frailer bones than women who never smoked. They are also at a higher risk for broken bones.
  • Smoking damages the health of your teeth and gums and can cause tooth loss.
  • Smoking can increase the risk for cataracts. It can also cause age-linked macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is injury to a small spot near the centre of the retina, the part of the eye required for central vision.
  • Smoking is a cause of type 2 diabetes mellitus and can make it harder to regulate. The risk of developing diabetes is 30–40% higher for active smokers than non-smokers.
  • Smoking causes over-all hostile effects on the body, including inflammation and diminished immune function.

Why should I quit? 

There is no nontoxic level of tobacco use. Smoking even just one cigarette per day over a lifetime can be the source of smoking-related diseases and premature death. Quitting smoking can decrease your risk of health problems. The quicker you quit, the larger the advantage. Some immediate benefits of quitting include

  • Lesser heart rate and blood pressure
  • A reduced amount of carbon monoxide in the blood (carbon monoxide reduces the blood’s ability to carry oxygen)
  • Healthier circulation
  • Less coughing and wheezing

Quitting smoking lessens your peril for smoking-related diseases and can add years to your life.

Quitting and Reduced Risks

  • Quitting smoking reduces cardiovascular risks. Just 1 year after quitting smoking, your possibility for a heart attack drops sharply.
  • Within 2 to 5 years after quitting smoking, your risk for stroke may diminish to about that of a non-smoker’s.
  • If you quit smoking, your risks for cancers of the mouth, throat, oesophagus, and bladder drop by half within 5 years.
  • Ten years after you leave smoking, your risk for dying from lung cancer drops by half.