You have heard the reasons why smoking is bad for your health. However, have you really seen the reasons why? Smoking goes beyond the lungs, affecting all organs, and can even affect your sex life. Here, we will be taking a look at the journey of cigarette takes from when you light it up, to the moment you put it out.
Everyone smokes for different reasons, but whatever the reasons, know this; before you start smoking, your lungs looks nice and healthy, and after years of damage from smoking, it can turn black. This is what happens you start to smoke;
Upon taking a drag, the smoke enters the mouth, surrounding the teeth, gums and tongue until it enters the throat. Eventually causing an abnormal thickening in the lining of the mouth and airways. This is link to throat cancer. However, not all the smoke goes to the lungs, some goes into the nose and sinuses, and overtime smoking will decrease the sense of smell and taste too.
When the smoke gets into the lungs, the body's natural defenses will immediately weaken, and more mucus is produce to protect the lungs from the toxins of the smoke. It becomes more and more difficult to fight colds and other respiratory illnesses. The breathing rate increases forcing the lungs to work harder while doing less.
The smoke will damage some of the air sacs where the oxygen breath transferred to the bloodstream. Know this little known fact, a packet-a-day smoker is pouring 1-cup or 8 ounces of tar in their lungs each year. The result, 87 percent of death caused by lung cancer. That is equivalent to over a 137,000 people every year died because of cigarette smoking. That is enough people to fill 3 baseball stadium to its full capacity.
Smoking Affects The Heart
The heart is the busiest working organ in the body. Smoking makes it work even harder. The heart is forced to beat as much as 36,000 times more in one day compare to a non-smoker. So, where is the blood going when the heart is working so hard to pump. First, it is being pushed through to the blood vessels that have narrowed from the smoke that drive the blood pressure to rise by 10 to 15 percent. As one keeps on smoking, the risk of stroke and heart disease doubles.
Smoking can also lead to a buildup of plaque and deposits in the blood vessels, and can cause circulations in the arms and legs. Severe circulation problems can lead to an increased risk of amputation. Smoking can make the bones brittle, increases the risk of fractures or breaks, this is called osteoporosis.
Smoking Affects Sex Life
For men who smoked have problems of getting and keeping an erection, and can decrease sperm count. For women, decreases the ability to conceived and to stay pregnant. Smoking during pregnancy increased the chances of the baby to be born prematurely, sick or even die.
Smoking Affects The Outer Parts Of The Body
We have covered how smoking affects the internal organs of the body, but the little known fact is that, smoking also affects exterior parts of the body. Smoking constricts the blood vessels of the skin and reduces the oxygen it gets. This means that, the skin is more vulnerable to wrinkling. It also causes the hands and feet become chronically cold.
Smokers teeth are yellow. This is visible when one smiles. Smoking also hinders saliva functions and can lead to tooth decay. Moreover, smoking is among the major causes of cancer of the mouth. Along with the teeth, the fingernails can turn have a yellow-stained color and is prune to excessive and rapid hair loss.
Quitting is hard, but once quit of smoking completely, whether you feel it or not, the body starts to heal itself right after the last cigarette. It's not too late, start your quit smoking timeline and work towards achieving the goal of quitting.
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