If you smoke, you will die earlier and you will encounter numerous health problems throughout your life. Every year, smoking kills 450,000 Americans, and 5 million people worldwide. The World Health Organization explains that smoking is the world's second biggest cause of death. The diseases smoking causes include cancer, lung disease, heart disease and stroke. When you smoke you breathe in tar, carbon monoxide and hundreds of other poisonous chemicals that harm your organs.
Cancer
There are more than 4,000 chemical compounds in cigarette smoke. At least 400 of these are toxic, and roughly 80 of them cause cancer because they disrupt your DNA. Pesticide and rat poison are just two. According to Cancer Research UK, smoking is directly responsible for nine in every 10 cases of lung cancer. The likelihood of you contracting it depends on how often you smoke and for how long. As the cancer spreads, your lung tissue dies and you cannot breathe in the oxygen you need to survive. Smoking can also give you cancer of the throat, mouth, nose, esophagus, kidney, pancreas, liver, bladder, ovaries and bowels.
Effects On the Lungs
Tiny pieces of tar enter your lungs when you smoke, and this harms your airways. Carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide also kill cells in your airways, and this damages your lungs beyond repair. Smoking is the leading cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which restricts breathing, the US National Institutes of Health explains. This can kill you through slow and progressive breathlessness. The most common forms of COPD are emphysema and bronchitis. Emphysema ruins your lung tissue. Your airways cave in and carbon monoxide stays in your system. Bronchitis fills your airways with phlegm and mucus. Tuberculosis is another side effect of smoking, and this kills two-thirds of its victims in under five years. You will also notice a cough, wheezing, asthma and chest pains.
Heart Disease
Your arteries fill up with fat when you smoke, meaning blood cannot pass properly to all your vital organs. This makes exercise difficult and raises your cholesterol levels and eventually leads to coronary heart disease or heart attack. The US National Cancer Institute explains that heart attacks are six times more common in smokers than non-smokers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 19 percent of Americans who smoke have suffered a heart attack, equaling 1.6 million people.
Other Harmful Effects
Smoking causes stroke, vascular disease, osteoporosis, aneurysms and the need to undergo an amputation. Erectile dysfunction, infertility, poor eyesight, stomach ulcers, gum disease, psoriasis, flu and fever are also side effects. Nicotine poison can kill. Among pregnant women, smoking causes sudden infant death syndrome. Smoking is also responsible for two in five deaths in house fires.
Quitting
Quitting smoking means you will live a longer and healthier life. Quitting at age 30 makes you 90 percent less likely to die from smoking, at age 50 mortality halves and if you are over 60 and you quit you will add years to your life. After 20 minutes of quitting, your blood pressure and heart rate return to normal. After a day mucus clears. Three days later you will be more energetic. After a year the likelihood of heart disease is halved. Nicotine gums, inhalers and patches are available. Ask your doctor about quitting.
