You can eat
five portions of fruit and veg a day and
exercise regularly, but healthy
behaviour means little if you continue
to smoke.
The message that 'smoking is bad for
you' is an old one, so not everyone
gives it their full attention. Below we
list the health risks of smoking.
Why
quit smoking?
Most
people know that smoking can cause lung
cancer, but it can also cause many other
cancers and illnesses.
Smoking kills around 114,000 people in
the UK each year.
Of these deaths, about 42,800 are from
smoking-related cancers, 30,600 from
cardiovascular disease and 29,100 die
slowly from emphysema and other chronic
lung diseases.
How
do cigarettes damage health?
Cigarettes contain more than 4000
chemical compounds and at least 400
toxic substances.
When you inhale, a cigarette burns at
700°C at the tip and around 60°C in the
core. This heat breaks down the tobacco
to produce various toxins.
As a cigarette burns, the residues are
concentrated towards the butt.
The products that are most damaging are:
-
tar, a
carcinogen (substance that causes
cancer)
-
nicotine is
addictive and increases cholesterol
levels in your body
-
carbon monoxide
reduces oxygen in the body
-
components of the gas and
particulate phases cause chronic
obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD).
The damage
caused by smoking is influenced by:
- the
number of cigarettes smoked
-
whether the cigarette has a filter
- how
the tobacco has been prepared.
Smoking
affects how long you live
Research has shown that smoking reduces
life expectancy by seven to eight years.
Of the 300 people who die every day in
the UK as a result of smoking, many are
comparatively young smokers.
The number of people under the age of 70
who die from smoking-related diseases
exceeds the total figure for deaths
caused by breast cancer, AIDS, traffic
accidents and drug addiction.
Non-smokers and ex-smokers can also look
forward to a healthier old age than
smokers.
Major diseases caused by smoking
Cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular disease is the main
cause of death due to smoking.
Hardening of the arteries is a
process that develops over years,
when cholesterol and other fats
deposit in the arteries, leaving
them narrow, blocked or rigid. When
the arteries narrow
(atherosclerosis), blood clots are
likely to form.
Smoking accelerates the hardening
and narrowing process in your
arteries: it starts earlier and
blood clots are two to four times
more likely.
Cardiovasular disease can take many
forms depending on which blood
vessels are involved, and all of
them are more common in people who
smoke.
-
Coronary thrombosis: a blood
clot in the arteries supplying
the heart, which can lead to a
heart attack.
Around 30 per cent are caused by
smoking.
-
Cerebral thrombosis: the vessels
to the brain can become blocked,
which can lead to
collapse,
stroke and
paralysis.
- If
the kidney arteries are
affected, then high
blood pressure or
kidney failure results.
-
Blockage to the vascular supply
to the legs may lead to
gangrene and
amputation.
Smokers
tend to develop coronary thrombosis
10 years earlier than non-smokers,
and make up 9 out of 10 heart bypass
patients.
Cancer
Smokers are more likely to get
cancer than non-smokers. This is
particularly true of lung cancer,
throat cancer and mouth cancer,
which hardly ever affect
non-smokers.
The link between smoking and lung
cancer is clear.
-
Ninety percent of lung cancer
cases are due to smoking.
- If
no-one smoked, lung cancer would
be a rare diagnosis - only 0.5
per cent of people who've never
touched a cigarette develop lung
cancer.
-
One in ten moderate smokers and
almost one in five heavy smokers
(more than 15 cigarettes a day)
will die of lung cancer.
The more
cigarettes you smoke in a day, and
the longer you've smoked, the higher
your risk of lung cancer. Similarly,
the risk rises the deeper you inhale
and the earlier in life you started
smoking.
For ex-smokers, it takes
approximately 15 years before the
risk of lung cancer drops to the
same as that of a non-smoker.
If you smoke, the risk of
contracting mouth cancer is four
times higher than for a non-smoker.
Cancer can start in many areas of
the mouth, with the most common
being on or underneath the tongue,
or on the lips.
Other types of cancer that are more
common in smokers are:
-
bladder cancer
-
cancer of the oesophagus
-
cancer of the kidneys
-
cancer of the pancreas
-
cervical cancer
COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease (COPD) is a collective term
for a group of conditions that block
airflow and make breathing more
difficult, such as:
-
emphysema - breathlessness
caused by damage to the air sacs
(alveoli)
-
chronic bronchitis - coughing
with a lot of mucus that
continues for at least three
months.
Smoking is
the most common cause of COPD and is
responsible for 80 per cent of
cases.
It's estimated that 94 per cent of
20-a-day smokers have some emphysema
when the lungs are examined after
death, while more than 90 per cent
of non-smokers have little or none.
COPD typically starts between the
ages of 35 and 45 when lung function
starts to decline anyway.
In smokers, the rate of decline in
lung function can be three times the
usual rate. As lung function
declines, breathlessness begins.
As the condition progresses, severe
breathing problems can require
hospital care. The final stage is
death from slow and progressive
breathlessness.
Other
risks caused by smoking
-
Smoking raises blood pressure, which
can cause hypertension (high blood
pressure) - a risk factor for heart
attacks and stroke.
-
Couples who smoke are more likely to
have fertility problems than couples
who are non-smokers.
-
Smoking worsens asthma and
counteracts asthma medication by
worsening the inflammation of the
airways that the medicine tries to
ease.
- The
blood vessels in the eye are
sensitive and can be easily damaged
by smoke, causing a bloodshot
appearance and itchiness.
- Heavy
smokers are twice as likely to get
macular degeneration, resulting in
the gradual loss of eyesight.
-
Smokers run an increased risk of
cataracts.
-
Smokers take 25 per cent more sick
days year than non-smokers.
-
Smoking stains your teeth and gums.
-
Smoking increases your risk of
periodontal disease, which causes
swollen gums, bad breath and teeth
to fall out.
-
Smoking causes an acid taste in the
mouth and contributes to the
development of ulcers.
-
Smoking also affects your looks:
smokers have paler skin and more
wrinkles. This is because smoking
reduces the blood supply to the skin
and lowers levels of vitamin A.
Smoking
and impotence
For men
in their 30s and 40s, smoking increases
the risk of erectile dysfunction (ED) by
about 50 per cent.
Erection can't occur unless blood can
flow freely into the penis, so these
blood vessels have to be in good
condition.
Smoking can damage the blood vessels and
cause them to degenerate: nicotine
narrows the arteries that lead to the
penis, reducing blood flow and the
pressure of blood in the penis.
This narrowing effect increases over
time, so if you haven't got problems
now, things could change later.
Erection problems in smokers may be an
early warning signal that cigarettes are
already damaging other areas of the body
- such as the blood vessels that supply
the heart.
Smoking and others
There
are many health-related reasons to give
up cigarettes - not just for smokers,
but to protect those around you.
Babies born to mothers who smoke during
pregnancy are twice as likely to be born
prematurely and with a low birth weight.
Passive smoking
The
'side-stream' smoke that comes off a
cigarette between puffs carries a
higher risk than directly inhaled
smoke.
Children who grow up in a home where
one or both of their parents smoke
have twice the risk of getting
asthma and asthmatic bronchitis.
They also have a higher risk of
developing allergies.
Infants under two years old are more
prone to severe respiratory
infections and cot death.
For adults, passive smoking seems to
increase the risk of lung cancer,
but the evidence for an increased
risk of heart disease is not yet
conclusive.
Thinking
about quitting?
As well
as reducing your risk of getting a
smoking-related illness, there are other
benefits to quitting smoking.
-
General health improves - tiredness
and headaches can be linked to
smoking.
- Your
sense of taste and smell improve.
- Your
heart will be less strained and work
more efficiently.
Stopping
smoking is the single biggest thing you
can do to improve your health, but it's
a difficult task.
Smokers who are trying to kick their
habit may be disappointed to find
there's no single quit method that
guarantees success.
The weight of evidence suggests that
smokers should set a date to stop, and
do their best to quit completely from
this point.
On average it takes four to five
attempts to give up, and there are a
number of things that can help
willpower:
-
nicotine replacement treatment (NRT)
in the form of gum, skin patches or
nasal spray
- Zyban
(bupropion) is a medicine that's
licensed to help smoking cessation
-
behaviour modification programmes
-
alternative therapies such as
acupuncture and hypnosis.
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