Posts Tagged emphysema
Diseases Caused by Smoking – How They Will Affect Your Health
Diseases caused by smoking are many. Studies have been conducted to establish why smoking causes diseases. These studies were able to prove that the ingredients in cigarettes and tobacco products are the culprits. The ingredients can cause cancer and diseases. Some of these ingredients are nicotine, acrolein, tar, nitrosamine, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, radioactive carcinogens, and many more. Below are some diseases caused by smoking.
People who smoke develop lung cancer. And people who don’t smoke can also develop lung cancer. In the United States, 87% of lung cancer cases have been attributed to smoking. People who smoked at some point in their lives have a 1 in 10 chance of developing lung cancer. And it increases to 1 in 6 if they continue smoking. Secondhand smoke increases lung cancer risk by 20 to 30%.
Tar lungs and smoker’s cough are two diseases caused by smoking. Both are attributed to tar in cigarettes and tobacco products. Tar accumulates in the lungs. When accumulation becomes too much for the lungs to remove, tar lungs develops. On the other hand, smoker’s cough develops because coughing is another way for the lungs to remove the tar deposits.
Other diseases caused by smoking include heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, stroke, and atherosclerosis. These are caused by nicotine which leads to constriction of blood vessels. Smokers are 5 times more likely to suffer a heart attack. Secondhand smoking increases heart disease risk by 25 to 30%.
Long term exposure to cyanide and carbon monoxide, which are found in smoke, lead to diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema. Smokers who consume at least 20 cigarettes a day increase their tuberculosis risk by 2 to 4 times.
Infections are also diseases caused by smoking. Some of these are invasive pneumococcal disease, chronic bronchitis, common colds, and other pulmonary and respiratory infections. Other diseases caused by smoking are periodontitis, halitosis or bad breath, leukoplakia, asthma, allergies, chronic bronchitis, and many others.
A fetus exposed to secondhand smoke is likely to be born with low birth weight or small for gestational age. These two smoking diseases predispose the infant to other diseases like jaundice and breathing difficulty. Sudden infant death syndrome is also caused by secondhand smoke. 430 infant deaths in the United States every year has been attributed to this smoking disease. Other diseases caused by smoking in infants are impaired motor skills, cognitive deficits, attention deficit hyperactivity disease, developmental delays, and many others.
These are just some diseases caused by smoking. And all these could lead to death. 2.5 to 10 years is reduced from a smoker’s life expectancy. And each consumed cigarette is equal to losing 11 minutes of your life. Quit smoking now! Choose life!
Tags: asthma, bronchitis, cancer, cough, coughing, emphysema, health, heart, heart disease, infant, weightRelated posts
Time to Quit Smoking
Can there possibly be anyone left in the modern world that doesn’t know about the risks of smoking? People are finding more and more about the disadvantages of smoking and that there are fewer places for them to smoke at least in public. The general consensus seems to be that there should be more places banned from what non-smokers see as the curse of smoking.
Smoking causes cancer and it may also accelerate the growth of existing cancers, so now is the time to quit smoking before it is too late to undo the smoking damage being done to your system. Nicotine in cigarette smoke could stimulate the production of a molecule which can make lung cancer cells more aggressive and encourages them to divide and multiply. Smoking may also boost the growth of existing tumors as well as triggering cancer.
Now that smoking has been banned from all workplaces, it won’t be long before the government outlaws smoking in your own car, which amounts to saying they already have if you drive a company car.
In many ways it would be a good thing if smoking is banned in more places because more people every year are looking for easier ways to quit smoking and the fewer places to smoke will help because anyone who has ever tried to quit, knows how hard it really is…
Smoking causes cancer. We’ve all heard that. Everyone knows that developing lung cancer is one of the most devastating side effects of smoking. However, what is less known is that it puts smokers at risk of many other types of cancers as well, for example, mouth cancer, cancer of the larynx (voice box), bladder (to which I can personally testify), pancreas and cervix among several others.
My time to quit smoking came when my Consultant Surgeon told me I had a tumor in my bladder and that smoking was the cause of the cancer. I did quit then and there and I’m glad I did because I’m still here to tell the tale.
Smoking dramatically raises the risk of lung disease such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis which are progressive in nature and can eventually be life threatening. When you understand what smoking does to you and that the likelihood of you dying from a heart attack is twice that of non-smokers, it makes you realize that the effect of smoking is to gradually kill you. And all the while, cost you your deteriorating health and lots of money!
When you accept that it is time to quit smoking, the first few weeks can seem interminable but it is important not to let this overshadow the greater purpose and really keep going with a positive attitude. Knowing that the damaging effects are diminishing every day will help you to resist the craving to light a cigarette. Because nicotine is such a powerful stimulant, your body needs time and a great deal of effort to learn to live without it. It is natural to feel tired, drained out and fatigued during the first few days after you quit smoking.
Try to set a new routine, such as working out or going to the gym to raise your energy levels. If that isn’t possible, you should try waking up earlier and going for a short walk. If you can turn that walk into a run or a jog, it is going to be very stimulating and the best way that you can start your day after you quit smoking.
Tags: aging, bronchitis, cancer, emphysema, health, heart, level, levels, lung diseaseRelated posts









