Smoking cigarettes is one the most dangerous things you can do to your body. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, smoking is responsible for nearly 443,000 deaths every year in the United States. Smoking can damage nearly every organ in your body. Smoking is also responsible for causing countless diseases, and it adversely affects the smoker's overall health.
Short Term Effects
Smoking will almost instantly increase your blood pressure and heart rate. Your blood vessels will start to sink in your body, forcing your heart to pump harder and faster to keep your body at its normal resting state. Smoking causes a build of fat and cholesterol in the blood vessels, making you more susceptible to a heart attack. Physical endurance is greatly reduced after smoking cigarettes. The effects of smoking make it difficult for oxygen to reach your muscles because your blood vessels are constricted, which leads to coughing and heavy breathing.
Long Term Effects
The Department of Health and Human Services states that smoking causes 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80 percent of all lung caner deaths in women. Smoking causes many diseases, including emphysema, bronchitis and chronic airway obstruction. A smoker has a higher chance of developing both cancer in the mouth and stomach ulcers because of the increase of acid in the stomach. Smokers' appearances also suffer as their teeth and nails become yellow. Smoker's skin wrinkles faster than nonsmokers.
Other Health Effects
Smoking can produce health risks in early childhood for newly born children. Women who smoke can experience infertility, preterm delivery, stillbirth, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome. Smoking increases the risks of having a stroke by two to four times and also increases the risk of risk of coronary heart disease by two to four times, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Chemicals
The National Cancer Institute says there are over 4,000 chemicals in cigarettes and 250 of them have been identified as harmful. Some of the harmful chemicals identified include carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia and toluene. All of these chemicals are extremely harmful to the body and are usually only found in car exhausts, chemical weapons and cleaning implements. Over 50 other chemicals in cigarettes have been found to cause cancer.
Prevention/Solution
Not smoking or quitting smoking is the only way not experience the health hazards of smoking. Soon after quitting smoking your heart rate and blood pressure will return to normal. Within several months of quitting your lungs will start to function at a much better rate. You stop coughing and wheezing as much as your lung capacity increases. In the long term quitting reduces the chances of contracting serious diseases such as heart and lung disease.
