How harmful is smoking?
Smoking is very harmful to your heart. It
seriously increases your risk of developing heart and circulatory
diseases and even affects your digestive system.
To keep your heart healthy, you
can make some lifestyle changes to help
you quit smoking.
What does smoking do to my heart and circulatory system?
The chemicals in cigarettes make the walls of
your arteries sticky. This causes fatty material to stick to the walls. The
fatty material can begin to clog your arteries and reduce the space for blood to flow properly.
- If the arteries that carry blood to your
heart get clogged, it can lead to a heart attack .
- If the arteries that carry blood to your
brain get clogged, it can lead to a stroke.
Smoking can also affect your heart and blood
vessels by:
- increasing your risk of blood clots
- causing an instant rise to your heart rate
- causing an instant rise to your blood pressure .
- reducing the amount of oxygen delivered to
the rest of your body.
What are the benefits of quitting smoking?
You might notice benefits sooner than you
think:
- your heart rate and blood pressure will begin to return to normal after 20
minutes
- your sense of smell and taste will begin
to improve after 2-3 days
- your risk of a heart attack is half that
of a smoker after 1 year.
Quitting smoking also has other benefits like:
- you will have fresher breath and whiter
teeth
- your skin will look younger and age less
quickly
- you might have more energy, feel less tired and get less headaches
- your immune system will find it easier to fight off colds
and flu
- your sex drive may increase, and it can improve
your fertility
- you will protect the health of your children,
family and friends.
It’s never too late to benefit from stopping
smoking. On average, smokers who quit in their 30s will add 10 years to their
life. Even quitting at 60 will add 3 years. Being a non-smoker can also improve
your chances of being more physically active and healthier as you get older.
What is in a cigarette?
Cigarettes contain many toxic chemicals that
harm your body even after you’ve finished your cigarette. Some of the harmful
chemicals used in cigarettes are:
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas. It prevents
your blood from carrying oxygen around your body properly. This forces your
heart to work harder than it should. It also stops your lungs working as well
as they should.
Tar
Tar stains smokers’ teeth and fingers a
yellow-brown colour. It is very harmful to your health, it can cause:
- cancer
- lung disease
- heart and circulatory diseases
- your lungs to be more vulnerable to
infections
Nicotine
Nicotine is the addictive chemical found in
regular cigarettes, most e-cigarettes and shisha. It increases your heart rate
and blood pressure. Untreated high blood pressure can increase the risk of:
Stroke
Heart Attack
kidney failure
Vascular Dementia problems with your sight.
Are smoking alternatives less harmful than cigarettes?
No smoking alternatives are risk-free but some
are less harmful than cigarettes.
E-cigarettes
E-cigarettes, or vapes, are less harmful than
regular cigarettes and they can be used to help you quit smoking. An
e-cigarette is a device that you breath in vapour (steam) from rather than
smoke.
The vapour contains nicotine, the addictive
chemical used in cigarettes. E-cigarettes don’t burn tobacco and they don’t
produce tar or carbon monoxide.
E-cigarettes can help you quit smoking by
managing your cravings for nicotine. But because they use nicotine,
e-cigarettes can be addictive. You should only use your e-cigarette when you
really need it. If you have used e-cigarettes to successfully quit smoking
normal cigarettes, you should consider quitting these as well.
E-cigarettes should not be used by non-smokers
or young people.
Shisha
Shisha is not safer than smoking cigarettes. A
specially prepared tobacco is heated to produce smoke. The smoke bubbles
through a bowl of water and into a long hose-like pipe to be breathed in.
Despite what some believe, shisha isn’t an
alternative to cigarettes. Like cigarettes, shisha tobacco can contain:
- nicotine
- tar
- carbon monoxide
- heavy metals such as arsenic and lead.
Even if you use tobacco-free shisha, the smoke
still produces harmful levels of toxins. This can be either just as bad for you
or even more harmful than smoke from tobacco-based shisha.
In a shisha session
(which usually lasts 20-80 minutes), a shisha smoker can inhale the same amount
of smoke as a cigarette smoker consuming over 100 cigarettes.
Smokeless tobacco
Smokeless tobacco is not safer than smoking
cigarettes. It’s a type of tobacco that can either be chewed, sucked, or
inhaled without producing smoke.
Most smokeless tobaccos have the same amount of
nicotine as cigarettes. They can also have more than 25 chemicals that are
known to cause cancer. Using smokeless tobacco can also increase your risk of
having:
- complicated pregnancies
- mouth and tooth problems
- heart and circulatory diseases.
You might see smokeless tobacco being called
snuff, snus or spit tobacco.
Low tar cigarettes
Smoking ‘low tar’ cigarettes is not safer than
smoking regular cigarettes. Some cigarette packages describe the product as
‘low tar’, but this is misleading. Most ‘low tar’ cigarettes have the same
amount of harmful chemicals as regular cigarettes.
‘Low tar’ cigarettes are often found in
countries where the process of making cigarettes is not well regulated.
Around half of all long-term smokers die early
from smoking-related conditions, like heart and circulatory diseases. Even if
you’ve smoked for years, it’s never too late to stop. If you quit today, you
might feel more energised to play with your children or grandchildren in just a
couple of weeks.
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