The chemicals found in cigarette smoke can have harmful effects on the lungs, heart and other areas of the body. According to the Office of the Surgeon General, cigarette smoke contains 250 chemicals that are known to be toxic or cause cancer. Some harmful effects caused by smoke include heart disease, COPD and various types of cancer.
Heart Disease
Smoke can have a detrimental effect on the health of your cardiovascular system. According to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, smoke can harm the walls in your blood vessels causing them to lose their elasticity and become stiff. The smoke also causes your blood vessels to become narrower making it more difficult for blood to travel through the circulatory system. Smoke can also make your blood thicker and more viscous making it harder for it to carry oxygen. When blood gets caught in extremely narrow arteries or is prevented from moving further due to blockage, organs such as the brain, heart or kidneys can lose vital supplies of oxygen causing them to fail and die. This often leads to strokes, heart attacks and aneurysms.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is another harmful effect that smoke can cause. According to an article on COPD by the Mayo Clinic, COPD refers to an assemblage of lung diseases that restrict the flow of air and make breathing increasingly more difficult. Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are the two main illnesses that typically form COPD, but COPD may also be attributed to the damage caused by chronic asthmatic bronchitis. In each of these circumstances, considerable damage to the air passages in your respiratory system eventually inhibits the delivery of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Cancer
According to information by the Office of the Surgeon General, eleven compounds in tobacco smoke have been recognized by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as carcinogenic--cancer causing. When you inhale smoke, these carcinogens can cause cellular mutations in the lining and tissue of the lungs. These mutations are often signs of damage and the cells begin to multiply uncontrollably becoming tumors that eventually spread to other parts of the organ and surrounding tissues. According to an article on lung cancer by the Mayo Clinic, when these cancerous tumors spread, they damage organs and interrupt other vital bodily functions which most often always lead to fatal consequences. Although the damage done by smoke and cancer cannot be reversed, it can be treated and prevented from spreading if symptoms are caught soon enough.
