You can eat five portions of fruit and veg a day and exercise regularly, but healthy behaviour means little if you continue to smoke. Most people know that smoking can cause lung cancer, but it can also cause many other cancers and illnesses.
As a cigarette burns, the residues are concentrated towards the butt. The products that are most damaging are:
- tar, a carcinogen (substance that causes cancer)
- nicotine is addictive and increases cholesterol levels in your body
- carbon monoxide reduces oxygen in the body
- components of the gas and particulate phases cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD).
The damage caused by smoking is influenced by:
- the number of cigarettes smoked
- whether the cigarette has a filter
- how the tobacco has been prepared.
- Coronary thrombosis: a blood clot in the arteries supplying the heart, which can lead to a heart attack. Around 30 per cent are caused by smoking.
- Cerebral thrombosis: the vessels to the brain can become blocked, which can lead to collapse, stroke and paralysis.
- If the kidney arteries are affected, then high blood pressure or kidney failure results.
- Blockage to the vascular supply to the legs may lead to gangrene and amputation.
Smokers tend to develop coronary thrombosis 10 years earlier than non-smokers, and make up 9 out of 10 heart bypass patients.
Cancer
Smokers are more likely to get cancer than non-smokers. This is particularly true of lung cancer, throat cancer and mouth cancer, which hardly ever affect non-smokers.The link between smoking and lung cancer is clear.
- Ninety percent of lung cancer cases are due to smoking.
- If no-one smoked, lung cancer would be a rare diagnosis - only 0.5 per cent of people who've never touched a cigarette develop lung cancer.
- One in ten moderate smokers and almost one in five heavy smokers (more than 15 cigarettes a day) will die of lung cancer.
The more cigarettes you smoke in a day, and the longer you've smoked, the higher your risk of lung cancer. Similarly, the risk rises the deeper you inhale and the earlier in life you started smoking.
For ex-smokers, it takes approximately 15 years before the risk of lung cancer drops to the same as that of a non-smoker.If you smoke, the risk of contracting mouth cancer is four times higher than for a non-smoker. Cancer can start in many areas of the mouth, with the most common being on or underneath the tongue, or on the lips.
Other types of cancer that are more common in smokers are:
COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a collective term for a group of conditions that block airflow and make breathing more difficult, such as:
- emphysema - breathlessness caused by damage to the air sacs (alveoli)
- chronic bronchitis - coughing with a lot of mucus that continues for at least three months.
Smoking is the most common cause of COPD and is responsible for 80 per cent of cases.It's estimated that 94 per cent of 20-a-day smokers have some emphysema when the lungs are examined after death, while more than 90 per cent of non-smokers have little or none.COPD typically starts between the ages of 35 and 45 when lung function starts to decline anyway.
In smokers, the rate of decline in lung function can be three times the usual rate. As lung function declines, breathlessness begins. As the condition progresses, severe breathing problems can require hospital care. The final stage is death from slow and progressive breathlessness.
- Smoking raises blood pressure, which can cause hypertension (high blood pressure) - a risk factor for heart attacks and stroke.
- Couples who smoke are more likely to have fertility problems than couples who are non-smokers.
- Smoking worsens asthma and counteracts asthma medication by worsening the inflammation of the airways that the medicine tries to ease.
- The blood vessels in the eye are sensitive and can be easily damaged by smoke, causing a bloodshot appearance and itchiness.
- Heavy smokers are twice as likely to get macular degeneration, resulting in the gradual loss of eyesight.
- Smokers run an increased risk of cataracts.
- Smokers take 25 per cent more sick days year than non-smokers.
- Smoking stains your teeth and gums.
- Smoking increases your risk of periodontal disease, which causes swollen gums, bad breath and teeth to fall out.
- Smoking causes an acid taste in the mouth and contributes to the development of ulcers.
- Smoking also affects your looks: smokers have paler skin and more wrinkles. This is because smoking reduces the blood supply to the skin and lowers levels of vitamin A.
Passive smoking
- The 'side-stream' smoke that comes off a cigarette between puffs carries a higher risk than directly inhaled smoke.
- Children who grow up in a home where one or both of their parents smoke have twice the risk of getting asthma and asthmatic bronchitis. They also have a higher risk of developing allergies.
- Infants under two years old are more prone to severe respiratory infections and cot death.
- For adults, passive smoking seems to increase the risk of lung cancer, but the evidence for an increased risk of heart disease is not yet conclusive.
- General health improves - tiredness and headaches can be linked to smoking.
- Your sense of taste and smell improve.
- Your heart will be less strained and work more efficiently.
Stopping smoking is the single biggest thing you can do to improve your health, but it's a difficult task.Smokers who are trying to kick their habit may be disappointed to find there's no single quit method that guarantees success.The weight of evidence suggests that smokers should set a date to stop, and do their best to quit completely from this point.
On average it takes four to five attempts to give up, and there are a number of things that can help willpower:
- nicotine replacement treatment (NRT) in the form of gum, skin patches or nasal spray
- Zyban (bupropion) is a medicine that's licensed to help smoking cessation
- behaviour modification programmes
- alternative therapies such as acupuncture and hypnosis.
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