The American Heart Association warns that cigarette smoking is the most important preventable cause of premature death in the United States. Individuals who smoke cigarettes have a higher risk of developing chronic disorders that include cardiovascular disease, cancers and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Although most people understand why smoking is bad, they underestimate how addictive nicotine is and may struggle for years to quit.
Cause
According to the AHA, cigarette smoking will increase the risk of coronary heart disease either alone or in combination with other factors. Cigarette smoking increases blood pressure within the body, decreases exercise tolerance, and increases the tendency for blood to clot within the arteries and veins. Atherosclerosis, which is the buildup of fatty substances inside the arteries, is the major contributor to the high number of deaths from cardiovascular disease and stroke as a result of smoking. Even after coronary bypass surgery, smoking increases the risk of recurring cardiovascular disease, explains the AHA. Nicotine and the chemicals within a cigarette will decrease the amount of good cholesterol in the bloodstream, one of the protective mechanisms against atherosclerosis.
Symptoms
Damage done by cigarette smoking will be evident through decreased exercise tolerance and increasing blood pressure. According to physicians at Mayo Clinic, smoking will also speed up the normal aging process of the skin. This means that individuals will have wrinkles sooner than their nonsmoking counterparts and will develop more wrinkles. Skin changes occur after 10 years of smoking and the longer an individual smokes, the more damage that occurs. Narrowing of the small blood vessels on the outermost layer of the skin impairs blood flow, including oxygen and important nutrients, leading to premature wrinkles, reports Mayo Clinic.
Risks
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking causes 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80 percent of all lung cancer deaths in women. It is responsible for 90 percent of deaths that are caused by chronic obstructive lung disease and increases the risk of coronary heart disease two to four times over nonsmokers, explains the CDC, adding that individuals who smoke will be at two to four times greater risk of a stroke as nonsmokers. Smoking also increases the risk of developing emphysema, bronchitis and chronic airway obstruction. The CDC reports that smoking has also been linked with a number of different types of cancer, including stomach, uterine, bladder, oral, kidney, pancreas and throat cancers.
Prognosis
According to the American Cancer Society, individuals who quit smoking have major health benefits, including those who already have smoking-related diseases. People who have quit smoking will live longer than those who keep smoking, and quitting lowers the risk of lung cancer, heart attack, stroke and chronic lung diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis, reports ACS. The risk of developing smoking-related illnesses will be reduced when individuals stop smoking.
Treatment
Treatment of the smoking-related illnesses and damage to the body will be dependent upon the specific illness. ACS reports that people who stop smoking while they are young get the greatest health benefits from quitting, but even smokers who quit after the age of 50 will reduce their risk of dying and improve any treatment protocols being initiated to treat underlying medical conditions caused by smoking.
