‘Smoking is bad for your health‘, and ‘people who smoke are liable to die young’. These statements have been around for as long we can remember.
But despite these warnings, a lot of people, millions to be precise, still love smoking.
Maybe these people do not care about dying young. After all, everyone is going to die someday. But I think it’s better that you don’t contribute to your death.
It may also be that they do not have regards for their health, after all, even the strictest vegetarians get sick. Well, I believe that sickness is bearable when your actions did not put you on that sick bed. The guilt will not be there.
Some others may be smoking because they are yet to really understand why smoking is bad for their health.
In order to ring the alarm again, and help you appreciate the fact that smoking is bad for your health, I will gladly recount the things that smoking destroys in your body.
So, What Are The Things That Smoking Destroys In Your Body?
It destroys almost everything. Multiple research has shown that smoking is dangerous to your body. It affects your brain, bones, eyesight, heart, fertility, kidneys, lungs, mouth, throat, skin, stomach, and even your penis.
It has the potential of messing up your blood circulation, cardiovascular system, digestive system, reproductive system, respiratory system, and immune system which leaves you at the risk of other diseases including cancer.
Every time you smoke, the dried leaves of the tobacco plant vaporizes and delivers active substances into your lungs. These substances are absorbed into your bloodstream and they reach your bodily tissue.
Since these substances are foreign to your bodily tissue, your immune system is put into a lot of work. After a period of time, your immune system gets weakened, your lungs get hit, and subsequently, other parts of your body are likely to follow suit.
It sounds simple, right. You engage in occasional smoking and the rest of your body pays long term for it.
In case the alarm is not ringing in your head yet, I’ll love to get deeper so that I can thoroughly achieve my goal.
I’ll simply but thoroughly look at some organs of your body and what happens to them when you smoke.
- Lungs: When you smoke, the smoke affects your alveoli (i.e. your airways and air sacs in your lungs). The effect becomes evidenced in the coughs, cold, and constant wheezing that you experience.
Your risks of asthma, pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or lung cancer, increases. This is why persistent smokers cough should be your first warning sign of greater things to come.
- Heart: The poison from the tar in cigarette infiltrates your precious blood. Due to the constant infiltration, your blood becomes thicker and subsequently begins to clot.
The blood clot leads to an increase in blood pressure and heart rate. This results in the constriction of your arteries, cutting short the amount of oxygen circulating to your organs.
The result – damaged blood vessels which cause vascular disease, damaged arteries that supply blood to your brain.
The aftermath – heart attack, chest pain, coronary heart disease, and other cardiovascular diseases.
- Brain: Brain aneurysm, caused by a weak blood vessel wall, leads to a type of stroke called subarachnoid hemorrhage. In very severe cases, this type of stroke extensively damages your brain and ultimately results in death.
- Stomach: The tobacco smoke affects your esophagus or gullet. This causes the acid from your stomach to go back up your esophagus, thereby damaging the lining of the esophagus. This is called reflux and it increases your risk of kidney cancer.
- Skin: Because your arteries are constricted, and the oxygen circulating to your organs are cut short, the amount of oxygen flowing to your skin gets reduced.
This accelerates your aging process and causes facial wrinkling, hollow cheeks, and a gaunt look – so much for wanting to maintain young skin.
- Reproductive Organ: Damaged blood vessels have a great effect on the penis, as it causes impotence in the male organ. It also increases the risk of damage to your sperm and affects your sperm count.
For women who smoke, the poisonous tar and the carbon monoxide from your cigarette are really harmful during pregnancy. This is why it is strongly advised that pregnant women should not smoke as this is unhealthy for the baby.
Because these organs are susceptible to these damages, a quick run-down of the list of possible things that prolonged smoking destroys in your body are as follows:
- Impairment of your respiratory system
- Narrowing of your lung airways
- Excess mucus in your lung passage
- Irritation in your windpipe
- Risk of lung infection leading to cough and constant cold
- Lung irritation and damage
- Short intakes of breath
- Asthma
- Lung diseases
- Impairment of your cardiovascular system
- Blood clot
- Constriction of arteries and damage to the lining of the arteries
- Reduction of oxygen flow
- Heart attack
- Impairment of your Brain
- Destruction of blood vessels in the brain
- Stroke
- Extensive brain damage
- Death
- Impairment of your sleeping pattern
- Impairment of your reproductive system
- Impotence in male genital
- Higher risks of low sperm count
- Risk of infertility and early menopause in women
- Acceleration of your aging process
- Facial wrinkles
- Hollow cheeks
- Pale or yellow skin
- Mouth and Teeth Problems
- Yellowing teeth
- Bad breath
- Risk of throat cancer
- Damage of sense of taste in the tongue
- Gum disease
- Stomach Problems
- Stomach ulcers
- Inflammation of the stomach and intestines
- Stomach cancer
- Bowel cancer
- Increased risk of blindness
- Increased risk of cancer in different regions of your body.
The above list is not exhaustive. You can imagine other types of intense health problems that can arise as a result of the poisoning of your blood by carbon monoxide and tar.
Carbon monoxide and Tar, which are the poisonous chemicals in cigarettes, are elements which you should not purposely put into your bloodstream.
Are These Effects Quickly Shown?
You know how a snake sneaks into your home and you aren’t even aware that it’s there until it attacks? That’s the same way the effects of smoking manifest.
They do not show up immediately. While you’re enjoying your smoking, the damage takes root, builds up, and finally rears its ugly head at the time you least expect it.
However, persistent smoker’s cough could be your first sign of an impending health issue.
On a final note, the temporary addictive pleasure from smoking is not worth it, compared to the long-term damaging effects it causes to your body.
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