04/09/2024
The smoke from just one cigarette can contain up to 7,000 chemicals, of which 69 are known to be cancerous. Inhaled smoke circulates everywhere in your body, not just in your lungs, but throughout all of your vital organs. This is why smoking has much more serious consequences on your body that you may think.
Let's take a closer look at the effects of smoking on your body:
1) Other than premature skin aging, the appearance of deep wrinkles and a dull complexion, to***co can have several different impacts on your skin. It slows blood circulation, which prevents your skin from healing well and causes deep wrinkles (often smokers have pronounced wrinkles around their mouths and on their cheeks).
2) Do you sometimes crave richer, stronger tasting food? This could be directly related to smoking, because it causes a distinct loss of taste and smell in smokers, resulting in cravings for fattier foods or lots of salt or sugar. Ci******es alter your senses and reduce the pleasure you experience via your senses of taste and smell.
3) Smokers won’t be surprised to learn that smoking often leads to bad breath that is difficult to deal with. This is normal, since the smoke you inhale is chock-full of chemicals, including tar, which stay on your teeth, lips and tongue, leaving a bad odour. To***co also dries your mouth which helps promote the growth of bacteria which can cause gum disease, cavities and even oral cancer.
4) To***co contains several toxic substances which stick to the walls of your respiratory system when you inhale and prevent it from working properly. Smokers often experience an increase in infectious diseases (ear infections, bronchitis, sinus infections) due to their cells being attacked by these chemical residues. What’s more, the chemicals in cigarette smoke irritate and damage the lungs and bronchi, thus limiting breathing and therefore the oxygenation of your system. This results in shortness of breath and low cardiovascular endurance, which can lead to other health problems.
5) Toxic emissions in cigarette smoke contribute to hardening of the arteries as well as narrowing of blood vessels in the heart. Given this, the heart has to work harder to function normally, which can lead to heart attack. In fact, smokers are up to four times more likely to die of a sudden heart attack than non-smokers.
6) We all know that smokers are much more likely to develop cancer than non-smokers. Around 85% of lung cancers are caused by smoking, and 60% of deaths from throat cancer also result from smoking. To***co is the cause of death for more than 37,000 Canadians and is the source of more than 30% of cancers. Remember, ci******es are full of toxic substances that poison your body each time you smoke. As soon as someone stops smoking, the risk of developing a smoking-related cancer begins to decrease. It is never too late to change your habits!
