The Dangers of Smoking
It’s very difficult for some people to understand, but the health effects of smoking touch more than just your lungs alone. While many still connect lung cancer with smoking, they are often uneducated about the dangers of smoking and how completely destructive smoking can be to your health.
Sure, we all know about lung cancer and bronchitis. But did you know that cigarette smoking is the number one contributor to heart attacks as well? Did you also know that many types of cancers are also thought to be caused by the harmful effects of cigarette smoking, including liver cancer, bladder cancer, cancer of the larynx, cancer of the throat, cancer of the mouth and tongue, esophageal cancer, cancer of the large intestine, and even cancer of the bloodstream?
Cancers of the lips, mouth, throat and larynx are common effects of smoking, as are constant sore throats, a reduced sense of taste, and breath that smells of smoke. That poor blood circulation means cold hands and especially cold fingertips, which are usually stained of tar.
Lung cancer is not the only effect of cigarette smoking that hits the respiratory system. Most smokers are more prone to bronchitis, a constant shortness of breath and persistent cough with sputum, and are more likely to get colds, flu, pneumonia, and asthma. Smoking also complicates tuberculosis and virtually any other respiratory condition one can get.
The effects of cigarette smoking also reach out to those around you as well. Those who are exposed to second-hand smoke inhale about 15% the amount of nicotine as those who are active smokers, so for every ten cigarettes you have around your children, they may as well have smoked one a half cigarettes themselves.
When thinking about the body’s mid-section, cancers of the esophagus, abdomen, pancreas, kidneys, bladder, and colon are all traced to the effects of smoking. The bones are also not immune to smoking’s effects. Osteoporosis, spine and hip fractures, and degenerative disc disease can be traced back to smoking. Infertility is another issue with heavy and chronic smokers, both male and female. Men can have lower sperm counts and decreased sperm motility, and women can have difficulty with ovulation when smoking.
So if you smoke, it’s time to quit smoking for good. It’s time to think about how bad this habit really is, how it really touches your life and the lives of those around you. There are absolutely no health benefits, there is no upside, there is nothing positive about the effects of cigarette smoking.
Real Health Effects of Smoking
There are some real detrimental Health Effects of Smoking
It’s a strange occurrence that in the last few years, some smoker’s rights groups have risen up to claim that there are really not that many damaging health effects of smoking. Many say that lung cancer is just a disease of old age, as are all the other cancers that are associated with smoking.
So what then really is hype and what is truth when it comes to this habit, and specifically, what has been shown to be the real health effects of smoking?
In short, with every new study and every new research paper that comes out, there is just more and more bad news when it comes to the health effects of smoking. As scientists, biologist, and doctors learn more about the human body and are able to trace smoking’s effects more clearly, they learn more about its damage.
While lung cancer is still the prime concern for many when it comes to the health effects of smoking, in truth, many cancers have been traced to this habit, including bladder cancer, throat cancer, cancer of the larynx, liver cancer, cancer of the tongue and other areas of the mouth, cancer of the large intestine, and even blood cancer or leukemia.
Additionally, smoking works to dry up the arteries around the heart, causing this muscle to work all that much harder to do its job. One of the clear health effects of smoking is recurrent heart attacks, heart disease, and other ailments of the vascular system. Many cases of heart disease and heart attacks happen in non-smokers that can be traced back to secondhand smoke or passive smoking, or of living in a very smoky atmosphere.
And of course cancer is not the only disease of the lung that is a resultant health effect of smoking. Bronchitis, asthma, chronic sore throat, chronic cough with sputum, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and virtually any other disease that one can contract in the respiratory system is somehow linked to smoking.
Believe it or not, infertility is also linked to smoking, for both men and women. A man’s sperm count can be affected by his smoking, as can his sperm motility. A woman’s ovulation is also affected by smoking. In either case, conception can be that much more difficult if one or both smoke.
So the bottom line is that there are numerous health effects of smoking, and none of them are good. It’s not hype; it’s fact that smoking does absolutely nothing but ruin your health and the health of those around you.