Medical Site

‘Smoking is injurious to health’. You must have heard that phrase innumerable times. You must have also read the same on cigarette packs! But have you really wondered as to why and how smoking can kill you? How the smoke affects the different organs of the body? What is the actual pathology and how one can eventually die due to smoking?

Tobacco consumption in various forms is quite common all over the world. The smokers not only harm themselves (active smoking) but also the people who stand close to them while they smoke. The bystanders inhale the smoke and this is known as passive smoking, which is as dangerous as active smoking.

Smoke has a huge number of constituents, around 4000! That’s a huge number indeed. And that’s not where it stops; it actually has 40 known carcinogens (like nitrosamines, tar) substances which have been known to cause cancer. Scary isn’t it? There is carbon monoxide which reduces the oxygen carrying capacity of your blood. Thus all your tissues will eventually get a decreased amount of oxygen. Smoke also contains ‘Formaldehyde’ which irritates your respiratory system.

These substances present in the smoke can lead to a number of diseases. Basically all the systems of the body can are affected. The lungs are affected the most. Tobacco smoking irritates the respiratory mucosa and leads to what is known as ‘chronic bronchitis’. It can also cause other lung diseases like Asthma, Emphysema (I will talk about these diseases in detail later on). Smoking is one of the major risk factors for developing atherosclerosis which is thickening of the arteries due to lipid deposition. Atherosclerosis can ultimately lead to heart failure. If the arteries of the brain are involved, stroke can occur.

Pregnant women should never smoke because it increases the risk of having stillbirths and spontaneous abortions. Babies born to such mothers are more likely to have growth retardation.

The biggest risk associated with smoking is of course – Cancer. It has been associated with a number of cancers especially lung cancer. Smoking can also lead to cancer of esophagus, stomach, oral cavity, larynx, pharynx, pancreas, kidney, bladder and cervix. That is a long list indeed! So think twice before you smoke again!

The harmful effects of smoking depend on a number of factors like for how long one has been smoking and also how many cigarette one smokes every day. Obviously more the cigarettes more are the chances of having one of these diseases. The good news however is that it is never too late to quit smoking. It has been proved that smoking cessation for 15-20 years reduces the risk of having these diseases so much, that you actually come on the same level as a non-smoker! So quit smoking today, if you don’t want to land up with one of these life threatening diseases. It is not too late yet!