Seven Illnesses Attributed to Smoking

Health reasons are often the number one reason people give for wanting to quit smoking – and it is certainly the best reason.  In fact, smoking causes a wide variety of illnesses to basically every part of the body.  In addition, there are nearly 440,000 cigarette related deaths in the United States every year – more than car accidents, alcohol, AIDS, suicide, illegal drugs, and homicide combined.

Respiratory Diseases

Smoking actually causes many different types of lung diseases, such as lung cancer, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.  Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are often also experienced together and thus grouped under the term chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.  This disease is often diagnosed in both current and former smokers in their 60’s or 70’s.  COPD, which is a chronic illness, eventually results in death for anyone who suffers from it.

Separately, chronic bronchitis and emphysema are serious diseases, as well.  Chronic bronchitis is a disease that causes the airways to produce excess mucus.  This is what forces a smoker to cough more often.  Emphysema, on the other hand, slowly makes it impossible for the smoker to breath.  This is because oxygen must move across the lungs in order to reach the blood.  Tiny sacs within the lungs are responsible for making this happen.  With emphysema, these sacs break down and make it more difficult for oxygen to reach the blood.  Ultimately, the person with emphysema is unable to breathe and needs to breath with the assistance of oxygen.

More than 7 million smokers and former smokers have been diagnosed with COPD.  Those suffering from the disease have a miserable deterioration.  In the final stages, patients feel as if they are continuously gasping for breath, as if they were drowning.

Circulatory Diseases

Smoking takes its toll on the heart.  In facts, smokers are two times as likely to die from a heart attack as nonsmokers.  Frighteningly, smokers are also more likely to die within an hour after having a heart attack than a person who does not smoke.  In addition, smoking leads to peripheral vascular disease, which is the narrowing of the blood vessels responsible for carrying blood to the leg and arm muscles.  Smoking is also a risk factor for heart disease, which is the number one cause of death in both men and women in the United States.

Women who use oral contraceptives are at particular risk for circulatory diseases.  In fact, those who use oral contraceptives that are over 35 are in the high risk group for heart attack and blood clots in the legs.

Cancer

Smoking is accountable for at least 30% of deaths related to cancer.  The most common forms of cancer associated with smoking are cancers of the larynx (voice box), lungs, pharynx (throat), oral cavity, and esophagus.  In addition, smoking has been linked to the development of cancer in the pancreas, bladder, uterine cervix, liver, stomach, kidney, rectum, and colon.  It has also been connected to some forms of leukemia.  Cancer is responsible for about half of cigarette related deaths.

Stroke

Smoking is a risk factor for stroke, which often results in mild or severe disabilities, or even death.  In fact, 11% of deaths caused by stroke are from smoking cigarettes.  Those who quit smoking reduce their risk of strength significantly.  After 5 years of smoking cessation, the risks are the same as those of a nonsmoker.  Women who take oral contraceptives and smoke are at a particular high risk of having a stroke.  A study at Bringham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston also found that male smokers who smoke less than 20 cigarettes per day are 1.7 times more likely to have a stroke than a nonsmoker.  Those who have more than 20 cigarettes a day are 2.4 times more likely.

Skin Damage

Smoking also causes damage to the skin, which is more serious than just the way it looks.  In fact, smoking constricts blood vessels, which cuts off the blood supply to the top layer of the skim.  Researchers believe smoking also damages genetic material in skin cells and accelerates the aging process.  In addition, it causes skin to thin – perhaps by as much as 40% - and to become less porous.

Miscarriage and Pregnancy Complications

Research has shown that women who smoke are more likely to have a low birth weight baby and to have a miscarriage than women who don’t smoke.  Women who smoke are also more likely to have a premature delivery, or to have a stillbirth baby.

Sexual Function

Because cigarette smoking results in a decrease in blood flow, another side effect of smoking is impotence in men.  With the blood unable to properly flow to the penis, it is difficult to get it erect and to maintain an erection.

All in all, people who smoke cut years from their lifespan because of the resulting diseases.  In fact, the US Centers for Disease Control has stated male smokers lose an average of 13.2 years and female smokers lose an average of 14.5.

How Smoking Damages Skin And Makes People Old Before Their Time

There are several reasons to quit smoking, most importantly for your health.  But, if the damage you are doing to the inside or your body isn’t enough of a deterrent, perhaps you should consider what you are doing to the outside.  In addition to the bad breath, yellow teeth, and yellow fingers, smoking is slowly but surely destroying your skin and making your skin age much faster than nonsmokers.

The Effects of Smoking on the Appearance of Skin

Smoking causes the skin to wrinkle, appear gaunt, and develop an odd colored complexion.  Basically, the skin is much weaker and, therefore, less resilient.  When this is seen in the face, it is often referred to as “smoker’s face.”  In fact, smokers in their 40’s and 50’s often have wrinkles in their faces equivalent to those found in nonsmokers 20 years older.

These effects are sometimes reversible if the smoker quits early enough, but decades of smoking will mean it’s too late to reverse the effects.  The effects do not, however, always reverse themselves.  In fact, some studies have shown 40 and 50 year olds who only smoked in their teenage years and while in their 20’s had excessive wrinkling for their age.  Many of them regained the pink hue to their skin, but never lost the wrinkles.

How Smoking Causes Wrinkles

There are many ways smoking causes wrinkles.  One study found that smoking actually switches on a gene that destroys collagen, which is the protein that provides skin with its elasticity.  Without elasticity, skin is unable to “bounce back” to its original shape when it is stretched, ultimately leading to wrinkles.

Smoking has also been found the lack of oxygen to cause damage to skin cells and to disturb the flow of blood to the skin.  In fact, just smoking for 10 minutes decreases the oxygen supply to the skin for almost an hour.  The nicotine within the cigarette narrows blood vessels and prevents the blood from properly circulating to the capillaries, which are tiny blood vessels, as well as to the upper layers of the skin.  The capillaries are responsible for nourishing the skin.  When they are not capable of properly performing their job, more wrinkles, as well as deeper wrinkles result.

Smoking and Skin Color

People who smoke also lose the “healthy glow” found on the skin of those who don’t smoke.  They lose the pink color to their cheeks and, instead, take on a grayish hue.  Nutritional depletion combined with lack of oxygen flow may attribute to this phenomenon.

Smoking and Skin Healing

Because smoking restricts the flow of blood and oxygen to the skin, it also interferes with the healing process.  Wounds to the skin take longer to heal and often produce more scarring.  In addition, patients who smoke who are recovering from surgery often take longer to heal.

Smoking and Thinning Skin

There is also increasing evidence that smoking causes the skin to thin excessively.  In fact, researchers at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London performed an interesting study in which they compared 25 sets of identical twins.  In each of these sets, one twin was a smoker and the other was not.  With one particular set of twins in their 50’s, an ultrasound revealed that the smoking twin’s skin was 40% thinner than the other twins’ skin.  In addition, she had much deeper wrinkles and fewer pores.  In the remaining 24 sets of twins, similar results were found, though none had quite as significant of a difference.

Skin Cancer

Of course, skin cancer is also attributed to smoking.  In fact, research has shown that smokers are three times as likely to develop a specific type of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma, than those who don’t smoke.  In addition, current smokers are more likely to develop the cancer than former smokers.  Skin cancer which leaves unattractive marks and results in ugly scarring is found to be responsible for 9,800 deaths in the United States every year, with 2,000 of those being from squamous cell carcinoma.

Reversing the Effects

Unfortunately for smokers, the only way to reverse the aging effects smoking has on skin is to stop smoking – the earlier the better.  No anti-aging creams or other medications will help.  Eating a health diet won’t even alter the effects smoking has on the skin.  Sadly, quitting may not even be enough, particularly after the damage has already occurred.  For those who started smoking when they were teenagers in order to look more “mature,” they will certainly get their wish when they are 40 years old and look 60!

Ready to Quit Smoking Yet? Lung Cancer Risk

Although smoking can cause many different physical ailments, one of the most serious diseases associated with tobacco use is lung cancer. Smoking causes 87 percent of all cases of lung cancer. The leading cause of cancer deaths in America, lung cancer costs more people their lives than prostate, colon, lymph, and breast cancer combined.

The risk of lung cancer increases the longer you smoke, and the more cigarettes you smoke regularly. However, if you quit smoking—even after many years—you can still greatly reduce your risk of lung cancer. Prevention of the disease is very important because lung cancer typically is not found until it has reached an advanced stage. The survival rate for lung cancer victims, although improving, is still below that of many other cancers.

The most common symptom of lung cancer is usually a cough. This cough is caused by a tumor blocking passage of air or irritating the airway lining. Other symptoms include coughing up blood, chest pain, a “smoker’s cough” that grows worse, repeated bouts of pneumonia or bronchitis, shortness of breath, fatigue, appetite and subsequent weight loss, or hoarseness lasting over two weeks. Sometimes, lung cancer spreads to other parts of the body (also called metastasizing), and may cause headaches or bone pain.

Background

Human lungs are paired organs that occupy the majority of the chest cavity, located on either side of the heart. The left lung has two lobes and the right lung has three. The pleura, a thin membrane, cover the lungs. Likewise, airway and windpipe linings have surface cells (columnar epithelium) and glands that produce mucus and other fluids.

Air travels from the nose or mouth through the trachea, which separates into two bronchi that enter either lung. Within the lungs, the bronchi continue dividing into smaller tubules, the smallest of which is called the alveoli. Alveoli are grouped in clusters, or lobules, which are then grouped into lobes. An alveolus is surrounded by capillaries. Capillaries are part of the pulmonary blood vessels that connect the lungs to the heart. Blood flows through the capillaries, carbon dioxide is delivered into the alveoli, and oxygen is diffused in the bloodstream.

The columnar epithelium (airways and windpipe lining) in healthy lungs divide in an orderly, controlled manner. When a person has lung cancer, these cells continue to reproduce past the point when new cells are needed. Lung cancer may take years to develop, but lung tissue may start to change immediately after being exposed to carcinogens in cigarette smoke. Continued smoking means more exposure to carcinogens; normal cells become more damaged and may become cancerous. Because of the great reach of the lung’s cells throughout the body, cancerous cells may spread throughout the body (metastasize) more easily.

Lung Cancer Causes and Types

As previously mentioned, cigarette smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer. Exposure to secondhand smoke, asbestos and other industrial carcinogens, and high concentrations of radon are other potential causes of lung cancer. In particular, smokers who experience exposure to asbestos or radon are even more at risk for cancer than nonsmokers.

A cancer is named by the body part in which it originated. So even if a nonsmoker has cancer in the kidney that spreads (metastasizes) to the lungs, it is considered metastatic kidney cancer. Nonsmokers rarely get lung cancer, and smoking does not affect the spread of cancer from other body parts to the lungs.

Of cancers originating in the lungs, there are two main types: small cell and non-small cell. Small cell cancer afflicts smokers almost exclusively, and spreads early on during the course of the disease. This type of cancer is typically treated with chemotherapy and radiation, as surgery is generally not an option. However, the five-year survival rate is very low.

More than 75 percent of lung cancers are non-small cell. The four main types of non-small cell cancer are squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, large cell carcinoma, and bronchoaveolar carcinoma. If caught early in the course of the disease, non-small cell cancer can often be surgically removed. Adenocarcinoma is common for nonsmokers and people exposed to secondhand smoke. On the other hand, bronchoaveolar carcinoma tends to occur more often in smokers and in more than one location simultaneously.

Conclusion

Causing nearly 90 percent of lung cancer cases, smoking is by far the greatest risk factor for this disease. However a decade after quitting, your risk of lung cancer is reduced by one-third. Reducing the number of cigarettes smoked can also reduce the risk, although it is not nearly as effective as quitting entirely.

I Can Think Clearly Now - the Smoke is Gone

After one decides to quit smoking, there are several changes that will occur. One of the most obvious changes is that in your health. Beyond this, you will find that psychological and material changes that become a part of the switch after the smoking habit, disappears from your life. The benefits that occur after one decides to quit smoking occur on a physical and emotional level.

One of the ways in which things will begin to change with your body after you quit smoking is through the levels of chemicals that stop taking over your body. After only twenty minutes after your last cigarette, your blood pressure decreases, the pulse rate drops, and the body temperature of your hands and feet will increase. At first, this feeling will cause you to want to continue smoking, but if you allow the change to occur in your body, it will eventually relax you as your body is able to normalize in its functioning.

The next thing that happens after you quit smoking is that the carbon monoxide level in your blood and the oxygen level in your blood will return to normal. This begins after about forty-eight hours from your last cigarette. Part of the addiction of smoking is that these two types of chemicals stay on a high through smoking cigarettes. Your body creates a need for these levels to stay higher. By stopping your addiction to cigarettes, it will allow your body to be more relaxed by allowing the extra chemicals to be removed from your blood stream.

One of the effects that smoking has on your body is that it allows nerve endings to break off because of the chemicals that are in the cigarettes. By quitting, the nerve endings will begin to re-grow. At first, it may seem that you have nicotine withdrawal symptoms, but it is allowing the nerves to build back in your system. As a result, your senses will improve in their sensitivity. You will find that your taste and smell will become stronger.

Over a longer period of time, you may begin to notice that not only does the state of your body begin to normalize, but the health risk factors will begin to decrease. Strokes, lung cancer, ulcer diseases, coronary heart disease, and a more substantial life are all diseases and health problems that will disappear after the chemicals from the smoke disappear from your body. By quitting smoking, it will allow a healing and clearing process to begin which will clear out your system from the diseases that you were more susceptible to when you were smoking.

Along with the health benefits that take place in your body, there are also several psychological benefits that occur from you quitting the habit of smoking. At first, several experience withdrawal symptoms, causing a craving for nicotine. However, if you can move past this, then there are benefits that will occur for you mentally. Feelings of freedom are one of the psychological benefits to stop smoking. A lowering of anxiety will also begin to occur. Many say that changes in their environment will occur, as well as a boost in self-esteem. Because of the addicting nature of cigarettes, it often causes one to feel powerless, lowering the self-esteem. When one quits smoking, there is a boost in power and control over their lives.

One of the things that are part of smoking is the environment, financial sacrifices, and time. By stopping smoking, all of these aspects will turn into beneficial changes and move into part of the feeling of freedom that happens by taking away the addiction. Changes in the environment such as smell will cause a change in your health as well as confidence. Being able to save money also allows a new psychological freedom. You will also not be subject to time, as you will not need to stop what you are doing for a cigarette break. This will help with your production time, and will allow you to think more clearly.

The changes in health and mental states are benefits to you for allowing yourself to quit smoking. While the beginning may cause some anxiety for the addiction, getting past this and allowing you to step into a new found freedom with many benefits that will surround you.

Banish Bad Breath By Quitting Smoking!

One of the effects that smoking has on you is that it causes bad breath as well as other dental problems. There are several reasons why smoking causes problems with your breath and oral hygiene. While there may be some temporary fixes to banish bad breath, the easiest way to get rid of the bad oral hygiene is to quit smoking.

The main reason for bad breath when smoking is found to be caused by the chemicals found in cigarettes. These are then moved into your mouth, where they can build up. Tar and nicotine easily begin to build up on the mouth surfaces. They can stick to places like the teeth, gums, tongue and side of the cheeks. This causes smoker’s breath to form.

One of the major results of the chemicals in the cigarettes is that it allows bacteria to form in your mouth. The first way in which bacteria is able to stay in your mouth is from these chemicals. When they stay on your mouth’s surface, it allows the bacteria to stick to certain places, giving them a place to thrive.

Another reason why smoking causes bad breath, is because it dries out your mouth. In consequence, this stops the saliva from continuously flowing and cleansing out your mouth. This is what causes the growth of certain types of bacteria in your mouth, which then lead to a continuous odor on your breath. Because the saliva is not able to move as freely, it can’t clean out the bacteria that move through your mouth. These same parts of smoking also cause cavities and yellowing of teeth to form easier.

Another reason why smoking will cause bad breath is because it raises the temperature in your mouth. This causes oral tissue cells to be damaged and killed. These will then not be able to protect the mouth efficiently, causing the bacteria to be able to move into the mouth easier. This may eventually lead to more serious problems with your oral hygiene.

More serious problems with smoking and dental hygiene may include gum disease and oral cancer. This can cause long term effects by someone who smokes. The tobacco that moves into your system causes your immune system to limit how it can fight infection. It also stops the growing of blood vessels. Both of these contribute to one who smokes getting gum disease or oral cancer.

One of the ways that most smokers will get rid of bad breath is by using a certain type of smoke screen gum. This will neutralize the odor causing bacteria on your tongue after you smoke a cigarette. However, this type of gum is usually fairly expensive and does not eliminate the bad breath after you smoke another cigarette. The bacteria is still able to move inside your mouth, and the chemicals that stick to your teeth, gums, tongue and cheeks still remain in place. Most quick remedies that are there for smokers are used for shorter term fixes and are unable to eliminate the complex problems that form in your oral hygiene from smoking.

The easiest way to prevent dental problems and bad breath is by stopping smoking all together. This will begin to change several of the problems that have occurred with bad breath because of smoking. After you quit smoking, the saliva in your mouth is able to move more freely. This will naturally begin to get rid of the extra bacteria that were able to grow in your mouth. The next thing that will happen is the blood vessels and the tissue cells will begin to repair. Nutrients, such as Vitamin C, which were being killed by the bacteria before, will have a chance to repair and build back in your mouth. This is one of the main agents that will fight the bacteria.

Eventually, the chemicals, tar and nicotine that were beginning to stay in your mouth will also be washed away. This will leave no room for the bacteria to stay in your mouth and cause the bad breath. When you quit smoking, your mouth will begin to rebuild the damaged areas. These will not only help to prevent bad breath, but also things such as stained teeth, and more serious problems dealing with gum disease and oral cancer.

Deciding to quit smoking is a choice that will help with your health in many areas, including your oral hygiene. By deciding to quit smoking, your mouth will be able to function better and remain healthy. If you want to eliminate your bad breath or smokers’ breath then deciding to quit smoking is the best way to do it.

Smoking While Pregnant

For so many years now we have know that smoking while pregnant is not healthy, but smoking has been a part of our lives, regardless of whether we smoke or not. And for that it has been a detrimental factor in everybody’s lives; sad to say, that includes the unborn babies.

Surveys show that many mothers are still smoking while pregnant. They contend that it does not affect their baby at all. In most instances, these are the mothers that do not care for their unborn child, because if they did they would know that smoking poses great danger during pregnancy. They would know that it is currently one of the major causes of infant deaths in our society today. If your smoking while pregnant, you are more likely to birth a child who is underweight. Low birth weight babies are at greater risk for childhood and adult illnesses and even death. Babies of smokers have less muscle mass and more fat than babies of non smokers, the child is also more likely to develop respiratory problems later in life.

Basically, cigarette smoke alone is full of chemicals, some studies even state it has more than 2,500 chemicals. Some chemicals like tar, carbon monoxide, and nicotine were considered as the most dangerous substance for the fetus. It has long been proven how these chemicals can greatly affect the development of the fetus inside the mother’s womb.

Mothers who smoke while pregnant run a risk of ectopic pregnancy. This is especially viable when the mother is a heavy smoker during the first trimester of her pregnancy.

Ectopic pregnancy refers to the state wherein the embryo is embedded outside the uterus, which is contrary to what normal pregnancy should be. Usually, it is embedded in the fallopian tube. In this manner, the fetus has to be removed because this kind of pregnancy will never survive. This fetus will never survive outside of the uterus where a fetus gets all the nourishment and protection that it needs. Prolonging this condition will only risk the mother’s life.

Smoking while pregnant will increase the probability that the mother will develop complications in the placenta. Reports show that placental problems are actually happening in about 1% of pregnancies. The most common problem is placenta previa where the placenta is connected very low in the uterus and is almost in the cervix.

Another problem is the deterioration of fetal growth. Smoking during pregnancy results in low infant birth weight. For so many years now, reports show that there had been significant difference between babies with smoking mothers than those who have non-smoking mothers.

Greater risks are imposed on babies who relatively weigh less than the normal babies. They may acquire certain diseases like cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and the worst is death.

There are also reports on how smoking increases the probabilities of birth defects such as cleft lip and cleft palate.

Moreover, babies born with mothers who were smoking while pregnant have higher incidences of sudden infant death syndrome. If ever these infants survive, they may still incur diseases like asthma, behavioral problems, or learning disabilities.

After the child is born, it doesn’t get any better for babies with mothers who were smoking while pregnant, they still face problems after birth within their environment. Infants eighteen months and younger who have second hand smoke surrounding them in their houses are responsible for up to three hundred thousand cases of pneumonia and bronchitis.

Studies have revealed that nicotine can be passed on to the baby through breastfeeding. There had been experiments that proved the presence of nicotine in the babies system through urine testing. It later showed that higher percentage of nicotine was found in babies who were breastfeeding by smoking mothers.

Most experts contend that the problem lies within the mother’s urge to get back to smoking right after they gave birth. They contend that it is safe now because the baby was born already. They still insist that they, in fact, stopped smoking during their pregnancy.

The concluding scenario here is that when the mother continues to smoke during the formative years of her child, chances are she is already shaping a child that will most likely be a smoker themselves. That is, if the child can endure the dangers smoking can do with his or her health.

So, what’s the point here? The fact that the mother does not care for her own health is one thing. But the fact that she puts greater risk on her baby because of her vice is another thing, and that it is the most saddening part.

Babies should be given the right to live a decent, normal, and healthy life. So, for mother’s out there, please bear in mind that aside from the long range dangers associated with smoking your babies should not suffer. Let’s take care of them simply by not smoking.

Eliminates All Cravings For Nicotine.
Free Stop Smoking Subliminal Hypnosis Audio.
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee!
http://www.to-betterhealth.com/nicocure