Smoking Health Risks-Your Health Blog

Smoking Health Risks:

In previous posts I have suggested ways of stopping smoking, and rather taken for granted that everyone is familiar with smoking health risks. Of course to some extent we are, but it can never be over emphasized, so I have taken a little time to bring together some of the lists of the diseases and health conditions associated with smoking..

Before getting into the lists, a very visual demonstration of the effects of cigarettes on your lungs. Here is a simple but very compelling video that shows an experiment any smoker can try, and they will quickly see for themselves precisely what they are doing to their lungs. Watch the video and please share this post widely with anyone who is still smoking.

Obviously don’t encourage anyone who doesn’t already smoke to try it – just let them watch the video, or if you are already a smoker do the experiment for yourself and show them what happens.

Smoking Health Risks

Quoting from LiveStrong:

Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing an estimated 438,000 deaths each year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

And LiveStrong lists the following smoking related diseases

• Heart Disease
• Stroke
• COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, mainly emphysema and chronic bronchitis)
• Lung Cancer (leading cause of cancer death in the USA)

A little further research quickly confirmed that it’s not just lung cancer. Quoting from Cancer.org:

Besides lung cancer, tobacco use also increases the risk for cancers of the mouth, lips, nasal cavity (nose) and sinuses, larynx (voice box), pharynx (throat), esophagus (swallowing tube), stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, uterus, cervix, colon/rectum, ovary (mucinous), and acute myeloid leukemia. (Source: Cancer Facts & Figures 2012)

But even those are just the tip of the ice-berg. I didn’t have to dig too hard to uncover these additional health risks linked to tobacco smoking:

• Alzheimer’s / dementia
• Gum disease, bad breath, loose teeth
• Diabetes -<< see my article earlier in the year
• Dupuytren’s disease (an abnormal thickening of the skin on the palm of the hand)
• Infertility and / or reduced sexual performance
• Premature ageing (poor skin condition, wrinkling)
• Macular degeneration (worsening eyesight)
• Exacerbates asthma
• Crohn’s disease (inflammation of the bowels)

And remember that these are not just risks affecting the smoker. Because of passive smoking, anyone who inhales second-hand smoke from someone else’s cigarettes is at an increased risk of these health problems. Your children? Your spouse? Your parents? Your friends?

Smoking in pregnancy

For pregnant Mums or those who may become pregnant there is no doubt as to the risk to the baby, of stillbirth, premature birth and sudden infant death syndrome. The evidence is incontrovertible:

All studies over the past 50 years have established clearly that maternal smoking causes a range of serious birth defects including heart defects, missing/deformed limbs, clubfoot, gastrointestinal disorders, and facial disorders (for example, of the eyes and cleft lip/palate) .

Avoiding the Health Risks of Smoking

I hope the above lists of smoking health risks have reinforced the reasons to quit using tobacco. Below are links to my tips in previous posts that I hope will help you or someone you care about.

• Give up cigarette smoking now
• Strategies to quit smoking