This post is another on the requested topic of consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle and how you can adapt it to help you get back on the right track. It will high light the effects that smoking has on the body.
Why do people smoke?
Most commonly people start to smoke when they are finishing high school or in their teens and therefore, are addicted by when they reach adulthood. The majority start at this age due to the fact, it is seen as either "cool"or "gangster" to do so increases social status and providing people with a group, making it fashionable or a trend to smoke and be included.
However once people have finished with school, university etc., they start to assess their lives and find faults; they think about how they could correct them. They then realise that smoking is doing them all kinds of damage and decide they want to stop. But nicotine is highly addictive and after the many years of smoking it has become hard stop. It is a habit that is very difficult to break. There are many different reasons why people smoke.
The main reasons behind smoking are:
- To appear as if they are more mature as it is illegal to smoke under 16-18 in most places
- Fit in with friends or with a group such as with their family or for obliged to by peer pressure in order to be accepted
- To experiment, to try out different things just to say they have done it have gained the experience
- Because they have been told they should not- to rebel or be seen as intimating or bad. This is for the excitement or thrill that comes with the prospect of being caught.
- To relieve stress or pressure, the chemicals inside tobacco help you relax and wind down; release tension
- To control their weight, it puts you off eating but also decreases you enthusiasm/ability to exercise, so you can loose or put on weight.
Brain
By smoking, you are more likely to have a stroke. Furthermore, smoking increases the risk of having strokes by more than 50%, which is likely to cause brain damage or worse still death- the risk of dying from a stroke is doubled for a smoker.
Smoking can increase your risk of a stroke due to the fact that it increases your chances of developing a brain aneurysm. These are bulges in the blood vessel cause by a rupture in the blood vessel walls. If the aneurysm then bursts it can cause a life threatening condition known as a subarachnoid haemorrhage, which is essential a stroke, that can cause extreme brain damage or death.
Circulation
When smoking, the toxins released from the Tabaco smoke enter your blood. Once they are in your blood they then:
- Increase the thickness of the blood; making chances of a clot a lot higher
- Increase your blood pressure and heart rate, making your heart work harder than it has to/ does normally
- Thins down your arteries, reducing the amount of oxygen that can be carried in the blood then to the muscles.
Heart
By smoking you are damaging your heart and effecting your blood circulation, which rapidly increases the risk of conditions like coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, peripheral vascular disease -ruptured blood vessels- as well as cerebrovascular disease (which is damage to the arteries/veins that pump blood to the brain).
The Carbon monoxide from the burnt Tabaco and nicotine both force the heart to work harder. They also increase your chances of developing blood clots. Some of the other chemicals in Tabaco smoke damage arteries, which can lead to furring of the arteries.
Lungs
Lungs are one of the organs that are affected the worst by smoking, due to the tar content. If you smoke you are very likely to notice a considerable increase in coughs, colds, wheezing and asthma. In addition it can cause fatal diseases like pneumonia, emphysema and lung cancer. Smoking is the cause of 84% of deaths due to lung cancer and 83% of the deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease, including bronchitis.
Mouth and Throat
Smoking causes issues that are seen to be unattractive such as bad breath, yellow teeth, and can it can also cause gum disease and damage your sense of taste.
Smoking is known to cause cancer in your:
- lips,
- tongue,
- throat,
- voice box
- gullet (oesophagus) Around 93% of oropharangeal cancers (cancer in part of the throat) are due to smoking.
By smoking you have an increased chance of developing stomach cancer or ulcers. It can also can weaken the muscle that controls the lower end of your gullet (oesophagus) allowing acid from the stomach to travel back up your gullet, this is known as reflux. Smoking is a way that you can significantly increase your chances of getting kidney cancer, and the more you smoke the greater the risk.
Skin
Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen that is absorbed into your skin. Consequently, your skin ages quicker and makes your complexion look grey and dull. The toxins in your body also cause cellulite.
Smoking prematurely ages your skin by around 10 and 20 years, and increases facial wrinkling, particularly around the eyes and mouth. Smoking even gives you a morose, yellow-grey tone in the face and hollow cheeks, which can cause you to look gaunt.
Production and Fertility
Males
- Damaged blood supply to penis
- Damaged sperm
- Reduced sperm count
- Sterility
Females
- Reduce fertility
- Affects babies health whilst inside the lady
- HPV
- Miscarriages
- Premature birth
- Stillbirth
Smoking causes your bones to become weaker and more brittle. Women in particular as are more likely to suffer from brittle bones (osteoporosis) than non-smokers.
Hope this helps, more posts coming soon, thanks for reading, please follow the blog and me ect, do all the usual stuff- work hard and peace!
Jason
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