CDC | Health Effects Of Smoking Cigarettes :
![]() |
CDC | Health Effects Of Smoking Cigarettes |
What is in a cigarette:
A cigarette is made using the tobacco leaf, which contains nicotine and a variety of other compounds.
As tobacco and compounds burn, they release thousands of dangerous chemicals,
including over forty known to cause cancer. Cigarette smoke contains poisonous gases
carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide, as well as trace amounts of cancer-causing radioactive particles.
All forms of tobacco are dangerous, including cigars, pipes, and smokeless tobacco, such as
chewing tobacco and snuff.
Nicotine is an addictive chemical in tobacco. After you inhale tobacco smoke, nicotine flows through
the bloodstream to your brain, where it induces a pleasurable feeling. When you repeatedly expose
your brain to nicotine, it becomes desensitized, making you crave more and more nicotine just to feel
normal.
![]() |
CDC | Health Effects Of Smoking Cigarettes |
Major Health Effects of Smoking:
Smoking causes death.
People who smoke typically die at an earlier age than non-smokers. In fact, 1 in every 5 deaths in the United States is linked to cigarette smoking.
Smoking increases your risk for;
If you smoke, your risk for major health problems increases dramatically,
Includes:
- Heart disease,
- Heart attack,
- Stroke, (2-4x)
- Lung cancer in men(23x)
- Lung cancer in women(13x)
- and death from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(12-13x).
Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease:
Nicotine:
Smoking causes cardiovascular disease. When nicotine flows through your adrenal glands,
it stimulates the release of epinephrine, a hormone that raises your blood pressure. In addition,
Nicotine and carbon monoxide can damage the lining of the inner walls of your arteries. Fatty deposits,
called plaques, can build up at these injury sites and become large enough to narrow the arteries and
severely reduce blood flow, resulting in a condition called atherosclerosis.
Smoking causes coronary artery disease:
In coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis narrows the arteries that supply the heart, which reduces
the supply of oxygen to your heart muscle, increasing your risk for a heart attack.
Smoking increases the risk of blood clots: Smoking also raises your risk for blood clots because it causes platelets in your blood to clump together.
Smoking increases the risk of peripheral vascular disease:
Smoking increases your risk for peripheral vascular disease, in which atherosclerotic plaques block
large arteries in your arms and legs Smoking can also cause an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which
is swelling or weakening of your aorta where it runs through your abdomen.
![]() |
CDC | Health Effects Of Smoking Cigarettes |
Smoking and Lung Disease:
Smoking damages two main parts of your lungs:
your airways are also called bronchial tubes, and small air sacs are called alveoli. With each breath, air travels down your windpipe, called the trachea, and enters your lungs through your bronchial tubes. The air then moves into thousands of tiny alveoli, where oxygen from the air moves into your bloodstream and the waste product carbon dioxide moves out of your bloodstream.
Tiny hair-like projections, called cilia, line your bronchial tables and sweep harmful substances out of your lungs. Cigarette smoke irritates the lining of your bronchial tubes, causing them to swell and make mucus. Cigarette smoke also slows the movement of your cilia, causing some of the smoke and mucus to stay in your lungs. While you are sleeping, some of the cilia recover and start pushing more pollutants and mucus out of your lungs.
Smoker’s cough:
When you wake up, your body attempts to expel this material by coughing repeatedly, a conditionknown as smoker's cough.
Chronic bronchitis:
Over time, chronic bronchitis develops as your cilia stops working, your airways become clogged with
scars and mucus, and breathing becomes difficult Your lungs are now more vulnerable to further
disease. Cigarette smoke also damages your alveoli, making it harder for oxygen and carbon dioxide
to exchange with your blood.
Emphysema:
Over time, so little oxygen can reach your blood that you may develop emphysema, a condition in which
you must gasp for every breath and wear an oxygen tube under your nose in order to breathe.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD):
Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.
COPD is a gradual loss of the ability to breathe for which there is no cure.
Smoking and Cancer:
Cigarette smoke contains at least 40 cancer-causing substances, called carcinogens,
![]() |
CDC | Health Effects Of Smoking Cigarettes |
Examples of carcinogens in cigarettes:
Including
- Cyanide
- Formaldehyde
- Benzene, and
- Ammonia
In your body, healthy cells grow, make new cells, then die. Genetic material inside each cell, called DNA, directs this process. If you smoke, toxic chemicals can damage the DNA in your healthy cells. As a result, your damaged cells create new unhealthy cells, which grow out of control and may spread to other parts of your body.
Lung cancer:
Over a million new cases each year. The most common cancer in the world is lung cancer, with over a million new cases diagnosed every year.
Smoking causes cancer:
- Mouth
- Larynx
- Throat
- Esophagus
- Stomach
- Pancreas
- Kidney
- Bladder
- Uterus
- And cervix
Cancer in other parts of your body, such as:
Other Health Concerns About Smoking:
Smoking can cause infertility in both men and women.
Cigarettes can cause cancer in other parts of your body, such as: in the blood and bone marrow,
mouth, larynx, throat, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, uterus, and cervix.
Risks of smoking while pregnant:
Smoking can cause infertility in both men and women. If a woman is pregnant and smokes during
pregnancy, she exposes her baby to the cigarette's poisonous chemicals, causing a greater risk of:
- Low birth weight
- Miscarriage
- Preterm delivery
- Stillbirth
- Infant death, and
- (SIDS)sudden infant death syndrome
Smoking is also dangerous if a mother is breastfeeding. Nicotine passes to the baby through breast milk,
and can cause :
- Restlessness
- Rapid heartbeat
- Vomiting
- Interrupted sleep, or
- Diarrhea
Other health effects of smoking include:
low bone density in women,
increased risk for hip fracture in women;
gum disease,
Often leading to tooth loss and surgery;
Immune system dysfunction
Delayed wound healing;
sexual impotence in men.
Thank you so much for taking your valuable time to read our blog. Stay tuned to our healthcaire.blogspot.com site for more beautiful blogs on health, liking, commenting, and sharing. with your friends.
Author: Mamunur Rosid.