Effects of Smoking


The effects of smoking can be very crucial for young adults, teens and some instances children (second hand smoke). If you've been to a health class, you may remember seeing the black lung in a jar or at least a picture of a black lung in a jar. There are some awful effects that smoking has on your body. For one, after years and years of smoking, your lungs endure lots of nicotine and tobacco. The smoke then begins to clog up your lungs with tar like substances. If you notice, older people who have been smoking for a long time, they wheeze and cough a lot and may cough up lots of mucus. Or worse, some people who have been smoking for a long time have their voice box removed due to cancer growths in the throat. You may have seen people with a hole in their throat (either in pictures, television or in real life). They are only able to speak by placing an artificial voice box to their throat.

Having your voice box removed doesn't mean you will have a hole in your throat, but when it's too late, a hole may form due to extended smoking. Fifty percent of people who smoke die from their habit. They can either die from lung or other respiratory cancers as well as heart disease. A lot of these deaths occur during their middle-aged years.

Death by Cigarettes

Each year, there are hundreds of thousands of people that die from health risks caused by smoking. Some may endure asthma attacks, stroke and lack of blood flow. When blood flow restrictions are developed, which usually occurs in the feet or hands, the smokers limbs have to be amputated.

The tar substances that are developed in your lungs can not be avoided by smoking low-tar cigarettes. If you are a 20-a-day smoker, you are breathing in up to a full cup of tar each year. In just a decade, you could be dead or dying. Lung cancer is caused by this tar build up caused by smoking cigarettes. Men are ten times more likely to die from lung cancer than a non-smoker.

Weight Gain - Another Side Effect

Another smoking effect is fat deposits. This slowly but surely occurs over time, blocking blood vessels, which can lead to a heart attack. Cigarettes are the cause of one in five deaths from heart disease. Three out of four deaths in younger people are caused by heart disease from cigarette tobacco.

Active smokers aren't the only people suffering from the harmful effects of tobacco and nicotine. Second hand smoke also harms non-smokers who are around smokers of cigarettes. It can be equally as deadly. Children especially should be kept far away from smokers. Children eighteen months and younger can die or develop bronchitis and asthma. The innocence of our world are constantly suffering due to parent smokers and carelessness in our society. Keep it at your best interest to not smoke around children or any non-smokers for that matter; and try to keep you and your children away from smokers if you are a non-smoker.