DANGERS
OF SMOKING
One of the ingredients
in tobacco is a mood-altering drug called nicotine. Nicotine reaches your brain
in mere seconds. It’s a central nervous system stimulant, so it makes you feel
more energized for a little while. As that effect subsides, you feel tired and
crave more.
DANGERS
OF SMOKING
Tobacco smoke is
enormously harmful to your health. There’s no safe way to smoke. Replacing your
cigarette with a cigar, or pipe won’t help you avoid the it risks.
Smoking increases risk
of macular degeneration, cataracts, and poor eyesight. It can also weaken your
sense of taste and sense of smell, so food may become less enjoyable.
Your body has a stress
hormone called corticosterone, which lowers the effects of nicotine. If you’re
under a lot of stress, you’ll need more nicotine to get the same effect.
Physical withdrawal
from smoking can impair your cognitive functioning and make you feel anxious,
irritated, and depressed. Withdrawal can also cause headaches and sleep
problems.
When you inhale smoke,
you’re taking in substances that can damage your lungs. Over time, your lungs
lose their ability to filter harmful chemicals. Coughing can’t clear out the
toxins sufficiently, so these toxins get trapped in the lungs. smokers have a
higher risk of respiratory infections, colds, and flu.
In a condition called
emphysema, the air sacs in your lungs are destroyed. In chronic bronchitis, the
lining of the tubes of the lungs becomes inflamed. Over time, smokers are at
increased risk of developing these forms of chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease . Long-term smokers are also at increased risk of lung cancer.
Some of the more
obvious signs of smoking involve the skin. The substances in tobacco smoke
actually change the structure of your skin. Smoking causes skin discoloration,
wrinkles, and premature aging. Your fingernails and the skin on your fingers
may have yellow staining from holding cigarettes. Smokers usually develop
yellow or brown stains on their teeth. Hair holds on to the smell of tobacco
long after you put your cigarette out. It even clings to nonsmokers.
Restricted blood flow
can affect a man’s ability to get an erection. Both men and women who smoke may
have difficulty achieving orgasm and are at higher risk of infertility. Women
who smoke may experience menopause at an earlier age than nonsmoking women.
Smoking increases a woman’s risk of cervical cancer.
Smokers experience more
complications of pregnancy, including miscarriage, problems with the placenta,
and premature delivery.
Pregnant mother who
are exposed to secondhand smoke are also more likely to have a baby with low
birth weight. Babies born to mothers who smoke while pregnant are at greater
risk of low birth weight, birth defects, and sudden infant death syndrome. Newborns
who breathe secondhand smoke suffer more ear infections and asthma attacks.
Source :
http://www.healthline.com/health/smoking/effects-on-body.