The health risks of smoking are well known, yet many Americans continue to smoke. Cigarettes are responsible for approximately 443,000 deaths per year in the United States. Economically, $193 billion is spent in health care costs and productivity loss due to chronic diseases, death and disability caused by smoking, according to the Surgeon General website. Physical conditioning is impacted by cigarette use, and in some cases, the damage is irreversible.
Smoking's Effects on Fitness
In general, smokers have a lower fitness level than non-smokers. By inhaling cigarette smoke, you bring carbon monoxide, one of the 3,000-plus chemicals residing in cigarette smoke, into your body. When it mixes with hemoglobin, which helps the body carry oxygen throughout the body, it reduces your ability to transport oxygen. Less oxygen is carried to your cells, heart and lungs. Additionally, smokers get exhausted faster than non-smokers and are unable to run as fast or as far, according to the Cleveland Clinic. They also get less benefit from physical training, have less muscular strength and flexibility, have disturbed sleep patterns and experience shortness of breath three times as often as non-smokers.
Increased Risks
According to the Cleveland Clinic, smoking affects your bones and joints and increases your risk of developing the following conditions: osteoporosis, hip fractures, rheumatoid arthritis, low back pain, and exercise-related injuries, such as tendonitis, sprains, fractures and bursitis. If you develop some of these conditions, it will permanently damage your fitness level. Smoking among pre-teens and teens while they are still developing can slow their lung growth and impair lung function and speed up their heartbeat. These adolescents also increase their risk of severe respiratory illnesses and coughing.
COPD
Long-time smokers are at increased risk for developing COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Even after stopping smoking, the lungs never totally heal. When inflammation leads to scarring of the walls of the airway in chronic bronchitis, some of that damage can not be reserved. Likewise, in emphysema, the lungs cannot grow new walls for damaged air sacs. The risk of having a smoking-related disease is directly proportionate to the total number of cigarettes smoked in a lifetime. The average number of packs per day multiplied by the number of years a person has smoked is called "pack-years." The greater the number of pack-years, the more the risk. Fifty pack-years is considered a lot and, in some cases, the risk of smoking-related diseases will never return to normal after smoking that long.
Research
A study by C.A. Macera et al., published in May 2011 in "Nicotine & Tobacco Research" followed a large number of enlisted men in the Navy who were deployed to Iraq or Kuwait in 2005 or 2008. Of the 18,537 men, 20 percent of them were smokers and were more likely than non-smokers to be enlisted, younger and have lower BMI measurements at baseline. The smokers had slower 1.5-mile run/walk times and could accomplish fewer curl-ups and push-ups than the non-smokers in the beginning. After four years the smokers had a significantly greater rate of decrease in cardiorespiratory fitness even after controlling changes in BMI. The researchers felt that the study called for continued attention to cigarette use among young healthy men to avoid more lasting health and fitness problems later.
References
- Surgeongeneral.gov: How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease
- Cleveland Clinic: Smoking and Physical Activity
- "Time Magazine"; Is the Damage from Smoking Permanent?; Laura Blue; July 2008
- "Nicotine and Tobacco Research"; Cigarette Smoking, Body Mass Index, and Physical Fitness Change Among Male Navy Personnel; C.A. Macera et al.; May 2011
