Smoking Related Diseases




Most of the people who decide to quit smoking do so because they realize how much damage it brings to their health. This is a reasonable concern, because half of smokers die from a smoking-related disease.

Here are the types of health problems which devoted smokers can expect:

• Lung problems

It is obvious that an individual’s lungs suffer severely from smoking. Almost all smokers cough a lot; the reason is that smoke blocks air in small air cells. This disease is called emphysema. It shortens one’s breath and limits their physical activity. Another serious lung problem is chronic bronchitis. When these two diseases occur together, they are called “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” or COPD for short. As a rule, it develops in a smoker’s body by the age of 40, and worsens with time, sometimes becoming fatal.

In 2004 it was discovered that even pneumonia can be a result of smoking. Pneumonia is an inflammation of the lungs which can be mild, but often develops into a serious life-threatening condition.

The primary reason for the development of lung cancer is smoking. Ninety percent of people that die from lung cancer originally contracted it from smoking.

• Cancer

Even though lung cancer is often caused by smoking, it is not the only kind you can acquire by smoking. Cancers of the mouth, throat (pharynx), voice-box (larynx), esophagus, kidney, pancreas, bladder, cervix, or stomach can also be a possible result of long-term smoking. In fact, 30% of all cancer deaths are caused by smoking.

An interesting study has been published by The Lancet science journal. It says if a girl starts smoking in her teens she has a higher chance of developing breast cancer before she reaches menopause. Her risk even doubles when she initiates smoking within 5 years of her first menstrual cycle.

• Heart attacks and blood-connected diseases

The greatest damage to smokers’ bodies is done to their blood vessels, not to their lungs as many people believe. Carbon monoxide that people inhale while smoking takes the place of pure oxygen in the blood, damaging cells and helping fat and plaque to stick to the vessel’s walls, clogging them.

The human brain considers nicotine as a poison, therefore when it enters the body, the brain gives a command to release stored fat into the blood, in order to release more energy for fighting the poison. Since regular smokers breathe in nicotine constantly, blood vessels get filled with fat, becoming unable to carry blood efficiently.

Smoking also hardens the arteries: new vessels grow inside of the existing ones which makes the process of clogging and narrowing even easier. This is called vascularization.

The most common result of the processes mentioned above is either a heart attack or stroke. Smoking is in fact a dangerous habit!

• Risks for women and babies

Smoking brings even more damage to women’s bodies than it does to men’s. Breast cancer is not their only risk. Studies show that smoking shortens women’s lives by 14.5 years (men’s are shortened by 13). As a rule, female smokers have a higher risk of heart attack, strokes and blood clots in their legs than do men.

Smoking also affects pregnancy and childbirth functions. The percentage of miscarriage or low birth-weight is substantially higher.

If a woman smokes while carrying her baby, she is not only hurting her own blood vessels, but the baby’s as well. Research made by the University Medical Center at Utrecht in the Netherlands shows that smoking causes permanent blood vessel damage in children, which became obvious in early adulthood. The walls of the carotid arteries (the vessels which carry blood to the brain) were thicker, which can provoke heart attack or stroke at any time.

Tom Graham

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Canada Drug Pharmacy is Canada’s most trusted and fastest growing online Canadian pharmacy service providing discount drugs to people worldwide at savings of up to 90%.

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Posted on February 11, 2009 
Filed Under Facts on Smoking, Smoking and Health, Smoking and Women, Stop Smoking, Stop Smoking News

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