Blog

September 4, 2020

SMOKING ISSUES

Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking also increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis.

Secondhand smoke exposure contributes to approximately 41,000 deaths among nonsmoking adults and 400 deaths in infants each year. Secondhand smoke causes stroke, lung cancer, and coronary heart disease in adults. Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are at increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, middle ear disease, more severe asthma, respiratory symptoms, and slowed lung growth.

What is Cancer?

Cancer refers to diseases in which abnormal cells divide out of control and are able to invade other tissues. Cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems, which help the body get rid of toxins.

There are more than 100 different types of cancer. Most cancers are named for the organ or type of cell in which they start—for example, lung cancer begins in the lung and laryngeal cancer begins in the larynx (voice box).

Symptoms can include:

• A thickening or lump in any part of the body
• Weight loss or gain with no known reason
• A sore that does not heal
• Hoarseness or a cough that does not go away
• A hard time swallowing
• Discomfort after eating
• Changes in bowel or bladder habits
• Unusual bleeding or discharge
• Feeling weak or very tired.

How Is Smoking Related to Cancer?

Smoking can cause cancer and then block your body from fighting it:

• Poisons in cigarette smoke can weaken the body’s immune system, making it harder to kill cancer cells. When this happens, cancer cells keep growing without being stopped.
• Poisons in tobacco smoke can damage or change a cell’s DNA. DNA is the cell’s “instruction manual” that controls a cell’s normal growth and function. When DNA is damaged, a cell can begin growing out of control and create a cancer tumor.

Doctors have known for years that smoking causes most lung cancers. It’s still true today, when nearly 9 out of 10 lung cancers are caused by smoking cigarettes. In fact, smokers have a greater risk for lung cancer today than they did in 1964, even though they smoke fewer cigarettes. One reason may be changes in how cigarettes are made and what chemicals they contain.

Treatments are getting better for lung cancer, but it still kills more men and women than any other type of cancer. In the United States, more than 7,300 nonsmokers die each year from lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is the combination of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke breathed out by smokers.

Smoking can cause cancer almost anywhere in your body, including the:

• Blood (acute myeloid leukemia)
• Bladder
• Cervix
• Colon and rectum
• Esophagus
• Kidney and renal pelvis
• Larynx
• Liver
• Lungs
• Mouth and throat
• Pancreas
• Stomach
• Trachea, lung. and bronchus

Men with prostate cancer who smoke may be more likely to die from these diseases than nonsmokers.

Smokeless tobacco, such as chewing tobacco, also causes cancer, including cancers of the:

• Esophagus
• Mouth and throat
• Pancreas.

How Can Smoking-Related Cancers Be Prevented?

Quitting smoking lowers the risks for cancers of the lung, mouth, throat, esophagus, and larynx.

• Within 5 years of quitting, your chance of getting cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder is cut in half.
• Ten years after you quit smoking, your risk of dying from lung cancer drops by half.

If nobody smoked, one of every three cancer deaths in the World would not happen.

How Is Smoking Related to COPD?

COPD is usually caused by smoking.   Smoking accounts for as many as 8 out of 10 COPD-related deaths. However, as many as 1 out of 4 patients with COPD never smoked cigarettes.

Smoking during childhood and teenage years can slow how lungs grow and develop. This can increase the risk of developing COPD in adulthood.

How Is Smoking Related to Heart Disease and Stroke?

Smoking is a major cause of CVD and causes one of every four deaths from CVD. Smoking can:

• Raise triglycerides (a type of fat in your blood)
• Lower “good” cholesterol (HDL)
• Make blood sticky and more likely to clot, which can block blood flow to the heart and brain
• Damage cells that line the blood vessels
• Increase the buildup of plaque (fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances) in blood vessels
• Cause thickening and narrowing of blood vessels

Health Effects of Smoking and Secondhand Smoke on Pregnancies

• Women who smoke have more difficulty becoming pregnant and have a higher risk of never becoming pregnant.
• Smoking during pregnancy can cause tissue damage in the unborn baby, particularly in the lung and brain, and some studies suggests a link between maternal smoking and cleft lip.
• Studies also suggest a relationship between tobacco and miscarriage. Carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke can keep the developing baby from getting enough oxygen. Tobacco smoke also contains other chemicals that can harm unborn babies.

Health Effects of Smoking and Secondhand Smoke on Babies

• Mothers who smoke are more likely to deliver their babies early. Preterm delivery is a leading cause of death, disability, and disease among newborns.
• One in every five babies born to mothers who smoke during pregnancy has low birth weight. Mothers who are exposed to secondhand smoke while pregnant are more likely to have lower birth weight babies. Babies born too small or too early are not as healthy.
• Both babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant and babies who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth are more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) than babies who are not exposed to cigarette smoke. Babies whose mothers smoke are about three times more likely to die from SIDS.
• Babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant or who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth have weaker lungs than other babies, which increases the risk for many health problems.