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Smoking Damages Organs in the Body

by | Jul 24, 2023 | Info | 0 comments

Smoking-Health Risks

Smoking damages nearly every organ in the body and is bad for a person’s overall health. People can significantly reduce their chance of smoking-related disease by giving it up.

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of early disease and death in the United States. Giving up smoking is difficult for many people, but the number of former smokers is increasing all the time.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), current smoking in the U.S. has declined from 20.9% in 2005 to 13.7% in 2018. The number of smokers who have quit is also rising.

Key Facts About Smoking

  • Among adults who have ever smoked daily, 78% had smoked their first cigarette by the time they were 18 years of age, and 94% had by age 21.
  • Cigarette smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, at least 69 of which are known to cause cancer. Smoking is directly responsible for approximately 90 percent of lung cancer deaths and approximately 80 percent of deaths caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
  • Among current smokers, 73% of their diagnosed smoking-related conditions are chronic lung diseases. Even among smokers who have quit, chronic lung disease still accounts for 50% of smoking-related conditions.
  • Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body, and is a main cause of lung cancer and COPD. It also is a cause of coronary heart disease, stroke and a host of other cancers and diseases.


How Does Smoking Affects Health?

Every year, more than 480,000 people die in the U.S. due to tobacco-related diseases, around 1 in 5 of all deaths, according to the American Cancer Society.

They also state that around half of people in the U.S. who keep smoking will die from smoking-related causes.

Life expectancy is at least 10 years less for smokers compared with nonsmokers. The American Cancer Society state that smoking shortens lifespan by about 12 years in males and 11 years in females.

The CDC comment that smoking causes more deaths in the U.S. each year than the following combined:

  • Alcohol or illicit drug use
  • Firearm-related incidents
  • Motor vehicle injuries

Tobacco contains poisonous substances that affect people’s health. Two of these poisons are:

  • Carbon monoxide. Car exhaust fumes also produce this substance, and it is fatal in large doses. It replaces oxygen in the blood and starves the organs of oxygen, stopping them from functioning correctly.
  • Tar. This is a sticky, brown substance that coats the lungs and affects breathing.

While the statistics are alarming, it is important to bear in mind that giving up smoking reduces the risk of disease dramatically.

Brain

Smoking can increase the likelihood of having a stroke by 2–4 times. Strokes can cause brain damage and death.

One way that stroke can cause brain injury is through a brain aneurysm, which occurs when the wall of a blood vessel weakens and creates a bulge. This bulge can burst and cause a subarachnoid  hemorrhage, which can lead to a stroke.

Bones

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), smoking reduces bone density, making the bones weaker and more brittle. Smoking can also impair bone healing after a fracture.

Researchers find it difficult to say whether this is a direct effect of smoking, or due to other risk factors prevalent in people who smoke. These include lower body weight and doing less physical exercise.

This may affect females more than males. Females are more prone to osteoporosis and broken bones.

Quitting smoking, even later in life, can help limit bone loss linked with smoking.


Central Nervous System

One of the ingredients in tobacco is the mood-altering drug nicotine, which is habit-forming and highly addictive substance. It is one reason why people find it so difficult to quit smoking.

Nicotine reaches your brain in seconds and can energize you for a while. But as the effect wears off, you may feel tired and crave more. Physical withdrawal from nicotine can impair your ability to think and make you feel negative emotions. These may include:

Withdrawal can also cause headaches and trouble sleeping.

Chronic Lung Conditions

People who smoke are at higher risk for chronic nonreversible lung conditions such as:

Withdrawal from tobacco products can cause temporary congestion and respiratory discomfort as your lungs and airways begin to heal. Increased mucus production right after quitting smoking may be a positive sign that your respiratory system is recovering.


Heart

Chemicals in tobacco smoke increase the chance of heart problems and cardiovascular diseases.

Smoking causes atherosclerosis, which is when plaque builds up in the blood and sticks to the artery walls. This makes them narrower, reducing blood flow and increasing the risk of blood clots.

Smoking also damages the blood vessels, making them thicker and narrower. This makes it harder for blood to flow, and also increases blood pressure and heart rate.

Smoking has links with the following cardiovascular conditions:

  • A heart attack, as smoking doubles the risk of heart attack
  • Blockages that reduce blood flow to the skin and legs 
  • Coronary heart disease, one of the leading causes of death in the U.S
  • Stroke due to blood clots or burst blood vessels in the brain

Even smokers who smoke 5 or fewer cigarettes a day may develop early signs of cardiovascular disease.

Carbon monoxide and nicotine make the heart work harder and faster. This means that smoking makes it more challenging to exercise. A lack of exercise further increases the risk of health problems.

Immune System

The immune system protects the body against infection and disease.

According to one 2017 study, smoking reduces immune function and causes inflammation in the body. This can lead to autoimmune conditions, including:

Smoking also has links with type-2 diabetes.


Lungs

The lungs are perhaps the most obvious organ that smoking affects.

It often takes many years before a person notices any symptoms of smoking-related lung disease. This means that people may not receive a diagnosis until the disease is quite advanced.

Smoking can impact the lungs in several ways. The primary reason is that smoking damages the airways and air sacs, known as alveoli, in the lungs.

Three of the most common smoking-related lung conditions in the U.S. are:

  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). is a long-term disease. It causes wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. COPD is the third leading cause of death in the U.S.
  • Emphysema: Emphysema is a type of COPD that reduces the number of alveoli and breaks down the walls between them. This makes it difficult to breathe, even at rest, and over time, a person may need an oxygen mask.
  • Chronic bronchitis. Chronic bronchitis occurs when the airways produce too much mucus. This leads to a long-lasting cough and inflamed airways. Over time, scar tissue and mucus can completely block the airways and cause infection.

Other lung diseases caused by smoking include asthma, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.

Mouth

Smoking can have several effects on oral health and may cause:

  • Dry mouth
  • Halitosis, or bad breath
  • Reduced sense of taste
  • Stained teeth

Smoking irritates the gum tissues. According to the American Dental Association (ADA) smoking increases the risk of gum disease, which can add to halitosis.

Reproduction

Smoking can also affect the reproductive system and fertility.

Females who smoke can have more difficulty becoming pregnant. In males, smoking can cause impotence by damaging blood vessels in the penis. It can also damage sperm and affect sperm count.

According to some studies, males who smoke have a lower sperm coun than those who do not.

Smoking while pregnant increases a number of risks for the baby, including:

  • Infant illnesses
  • Low birth weight
  • Premature birth
  • Pregnancy loss
  • Low birth weight
  • Sudden infant death syndrome

Skin

Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen that can reach the skin. This speeds up the aging process and can make skin appear dull or gray.

Smoking can also cause the following conditions:

  • Baggy eyelids
  • Dry, coarse skin
  • Facial wrinkles, especially around the lips
  • Temporary yellowing of the fingers and fingernails
  • Uneven skin coloring, such as a yellow or gray tone

Smoking reduces how quickly skin wounds heal, increases the risk of skin infections, and increases the severity of skin conditions, including psoriasis.

Vision

Long-term smoking can affect your vision and optic nerve. It may lead you to develop certain conditions that affect the eyes. These can include:

  • Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which causes damage to a spot in the center of your retina and causes loss of your central vision

  • Cataracts, which cause cloudy vision

  • Glaucoma, in which the pressure in the eye increases, which puts pressure on the optic nerve causing damage and loss of sight


Overall Health and Risk of Developing Cancer

Smoking can harm the organs in your body and negatively impact your overall health.It can increase inflammation throughout your body and negatively affect your immune system. This may make you more susceptible to infection.

A well-studied link also exists between smoking and many types of cancer. Smoking can increase your risk of developing cancer almost anywhere in your body. This includes the following cancer types:

If you quit smoking, the risk of developing most of these types of cancers decreases in about 10 to 20 years, depending on the type of cancer. However, your risk will still be higher than that of people who have never smoked.

The Benefits of Quitting

While the statistics are alarming, the good news is that quitting smoking reduces the risk of disease and death significantly. The risks drop further, the longer a person refrains from smoking.

In fact, some research says that quitting before the age of 40 reduces the risk of dying from smoking-related disease by about 90%.

These statistics illustrate the health benefits of quitting smoking:

  • Cardiovascular risks: After 1 year of quitting, the risk of having a heart attack drops sharply.
  • Stroke: Within 2–5 years, the risk of a stroke reduces to half that of a non-smoker.
  • Cancers: The risks for mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder cancer drop by half within 5 years of quitting, and 10 years for lung cancer.

Soon after quitting, people experience the following health benefits that can significantly improve their quality of life and serve as reminders of the health benefits that quitting can have:

  • Breathing becomes easier
  • Circulation to the hands and feet improves
  • Daily coughing and wheezing reduces then disappears
  • Exercise and activities become easier
  • Sense of taste and smell get better

Though quitting can be stressful, people often start to notice their daily stress levels are much lower than when they were smoking within 6 months or so.

Quitting smoking is a different journey for everyone, and what works for one person will not always work for the next. Try out a few different ways to see which ones work best.

When trying to quit smoking, these tips may help:

  • Make lists of reasons why it is a good idea to quit. Read over these when the temptation to smoke strikes.
  • Try nicotine replacement products. Nicotine patches, gums, and lozenges can help reduce cravings, making it easier to resist at any particular moment. 
  • Use an app to track your progress. Reaching milestones, such as a day without smoking, can help motivate a person to continue. There are many free and paid apps on the market.

Many people find that reaching out to a healthcare provider for support can help them quit for good. A doctor can prescribe medication, such as varenicline (Chantix). Experts currently recommend this as a first-line therapy for people who want to quit smoking.

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