How Smoking Affects Health

Smoking causes wide variety of diseases ultimately leading to death. It is a known fact for everybody that smoking is bad for health. There are thousands of articles, advertisements, and rules regarding bad effects of smoking. Even the cigarette itself has a label saying the bad health outcomes of smoking. But, still people remain to smoke.

This must be mainly due to socio-economic and cultural backgrounds of the people. On the other hand it could be due to lack of understanding about bad health outcome of smoking. The main aim of this article is to give a clear understanding about how smoking results in deadly health outcome. 

Can Effects of Smoking be reversed? 

Another important thing about smoking is that the most of the bad health outcomes of smoking can be reversed entirely after just within two years after cessation of smoking.  Out of them some can be reversed within several hours.  Therefore, tobacco smoking accounts for a whole list of preventable diseases in the world. Stop smoking now! Your body will be healthy as ever. 

Some of the toxic substances in tobacco

• Tar
• Nicotine – accounts for the addictive property of cigarette smoke.
• polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons

 There are more tan 40 toxic chemicals in cigarettes

Mechanism of Effects of Tobacco Smoke

There are a lot of substances in cigarette that cause various alterations in the body. Following are the main organ systems of the body that face the greatest bad health outcome o tobacco smoking and ultimately lead to death.

• Cardiovascular system – involves the heart and the blood vessels.
• Respiratory system – Involves the whole respiratory tract starting from the nose to alveoli, the small chambers which make the lungs.
• Reproductive system

Even though many people think that most of the deaths related to smoking results from lung involvement, the truth is that it is due to cardiovascular effects.

Some of the major toxic substances in tobacco 

• Tar
• Nicotine – accounts for the addictive property of cigarette smoke.
• polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons
• Carbon Monoxide

How Smoking Cause Respiratory Tract Diseases

When the cigarette smoke enters the respiratory tract, some of the toxic particles are trapped by lining mucosa of the respiratory tract. Normally such particles are expelled out by the action of cilia present on the luminal surface of lining epithelium of the respiratory tract. This process is called mucociliary escalator. 

But, when a person continues to smoke the action of cilia gradually declines. Finally as a result the particles in the smoke accumulate in the respiratory tract, giving more time for the carcinogenic substances in smoke to enter the cells and cause cancer. Along with these accumulated substances, the pathogenic organisms like bacteria get a chance to remain in the respiratory tract and multiply. This is the main cause for recurrent respiratory tract infections seen in smokers. Pneumonia and Tuberculosis are two of such infection with a significant mortality and morbidity rate. The blockage of respiratory tract leads to asthma and shortness of breath. When the person continues to smoke in long term the damage to bronchial tree and the alveoli gradually increases and finally leads to the development of Chronic obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Emphysema. 

How smoking effects the Cardiovascular System

When someone smokes the toxic substances in it diffuse through alveoli in the lungs in to the blood stream. In the blood stream, these substances, especially carbon monoxide enter the red blood cells. Red blood cells are the major oxygen carries vehicles of the blood stream. In the red blood cells carbon monoxide binds with the hemoglobin. Hemoglobin combined with carbon monoxide is called carboxy hemoglobin. CarboxyHb cannot bind with oxygen. As a result the oxygen carrying capacity of blood reduces. So, tissues suffer from lack of oxygen. 

Nicotine also enters the blood stream and stimulates the sympathoadrenargic system. This system accounts for the increase of heart rate and blood pressure. They also cause vasoconstriction of coronary vessels, which supply blood to the heart muscles leading to ischemia of the heart, which leads to angina and myocardial infarction. 

The substances in smoke also damage the vascular endothelium, which leads to the development of atherosclerosis, clot formation, and trigger vascular spasms. The important thing about these changes is that they are transient. 

Smoke free period o f12-18 hours decrease the CarboxyHb level by a significant proportion. But, the elimination is slower during sleep.

How Cigarette smoking cause cancers

Carcinoma or a cancer simply means a bunch of cells which divide uncontrollably and spread to various organs of the body. Normally the cell division is tightly regulates by the DNA of the cell. But, tobacco has substance that can go and bind to the cell’s DNA and cause uncontrollable cell division.

Following are the carcinogenic substances that are found in cigarettes.

•  Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons - They are tar components with potent carcinogenic properties. They are toxicated to mutagenic epoxides. E. g : tar, Benzopyrene,

• Aacrolein – Also responsible for irritating lachromatory effects of cigarettes. Also cause carcinoma by binding to DNA that leads to the production of mutations. In animals it is so much toxic that animals die even before they develop cancer.

• Lead 210 - A radioactive carcinogen.

• Polonium 210 – Another radioactive carcinogen.

These radioactive carcinogens go and deposit at places where bronchial tree bifurcates. This gives an opportunity for these substances to enter the cells and cause damage to DNA. 

 READ MORE ABOUT HOW CELLS TURN IN TO CARCINOMA CELLS

 Smoking is one of the most dangerous preventable health hazards. 

STOP SMOKING TODAY, YOU WILL BE DISEASE FREE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!