- Reading - Fleming Intermediate School
- Negative Effects of Tobacco
Quattrochi, Megan
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Negative Effects Of Smoking
Smoking commonly begins with teens who start smoking because they believe it makes them seem more mature, cool, rebellious or because they believe that it helps them relax. Unfortunately these teens don't realise that smoking is addictive, or they don't think that they will get addicted so rather than relaxing they become stuck to their cigarettes. Beginning smoking as a teen will lead to a long life of bad problems and if you don't smoke, and don't start you will save yourself from:
Bad skin
Because smoking restricts blood vessels, it can prevent oxygen and nutrients from getting to the skin. This is why smokers often appear pale and unhealthy looking. An Italian study also linked smoking to an increased risk of getting a skin rash called psoriasis.
Bad breath
All those cigarettes leave smokers with a condition called halitosis, which is persistent bad breath. Cigarettes leave a smokers with terrible smell and bad taste in their mouths. Tar and nicotine build up on mouth surfaces such as the teeth, tongue and sides of checks. Smoking dries the mouth out by inhibiting saliva flow, which in turn leads to the growth of bacteria that causes bad breath.
Leaves Bad smell on Cloths, Hair, and Others Around
The smell of a smoker tends to linger not just on people's clothing, but on their hair, furniture, cars and to others around. It is often hard to get the smell of smoke out, and it is annoying to others around who do not smoke. Smoking does not only make you smell bad but it leaves the lingering smoke smells on others around also.
Reduced athletic performance
People who smoke usually can't compete with nonsmokers because of the physical effects from smoking . Smoking effects peoples athletic abilities by causing rapid heartbeat, decreased circulation, and shortness of breath which all lead to impaired sports performance.
Greater risk of injury and slower healing time
Smoking affects the body's ability to produce collagen, which is crucial to repairing a bodies injuries. It is common for sports injuries, such as damage to tendons and ligaments, to heal more slowly in smokers than it would in nonsmokers.
Yellow Fingers
Smoking causes fingers to become yellow. This happens on the sides at first so it easy to hide with make up if the smoking sufferer is so inclined, but soon the yellow stains will begin to seep onto the tops of the fingers, and the issue now becomes a public one. The fingers resemble a rotten squash and are quite unattractive to the naked eye not to mention to the smoker themselves.
Yellow Teeth
When you smoke tobacco the first puff you take covers your teeth with the most pungent and potent first pass of smoke from nicotine. It then covers the porous tongue and gums before entering the sponge like lungs which are expecting oxygen not smoke. When you exhale the teeth are once again hit with the yellowish grey smoke to add an additional layer of stain to those pearly white teeth. Their is no sense of wasting the time, effort or hard earned money on these remedies if you are going to continue to re coat your teeth again and again with more smoke from your habit.
Loss Of Taste
Smoking causes a loss of feeling and sensation in lips, fingers, toes and other appendages. Smoking also creates a loss of taste, which causes people to lose the great tastes they used to be able to experience from wide varieties of food.
Facial Wrinkling
Studies have shown that smokers are more susceptible to facial wrinkles than nonsmokers. Scientists used photographs to assess people according to years of smoking. After taking sun exposure, age, and sex into account the scientists found that premature wrinkling was greatly increased with the use of cigarettes.
Serious Negative Effects
A smoker is at risk for cancer of the mouth, as tobacco can cause gum disease, tooth decay and bad breath. Smoking can cause teeth to become very unattractive and yellow. Frequent headaches and the lack of oxygen to the brain can lead to strokes from smoking.
Moving down to the chest, when smoking you inhale through the bronchi, or breathing tubes. Hydrogen cyanide and many other harmful chemicals in the smoke attack the lining of the bronchi, causing them to be inflamed and a smokers cough. With weakened bronchi, your are highly at risk to get bronchial infections. Chronic coughing is caused from mucus secretion in your lungs being impaired. Lung cancer and emphysema is ten times more likely to occur in smokers than non smokers.
The effects of smoking on a heart are devastating. Nicotine causes a raised blood pressure and makes the blood clot much more easily. Cholesterol deposits develop on the artery walls because carbon monoxide robs the blood of oxygen. Poor circulation from cholesterol deposits can cause strokes, loss of circulation in fingers and toes and impotence. Smoking also lowers HDL cholesterol which is good cholesterol. The elastic properties of the aorta (largest blood vessel in the body become deteriorated from smoking, which greatly increases the risk for developing a clot. Smoking also increases the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, which puts additional stress of the system which regulates the heart and blood vessels. Increased risk of cardiovascular disease is more common in women because it effects hormones that cause estrogen deficiency. For people who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, they have almost two and a half times the risk for having a stroke as a non smoker. All of these effects can add up to an increased risk of heart attacks.
Smoking is the cause of nearly 85% of all cases of lung cancer in the United States, and it also accounts for other types of cancer as well. Cigarettes contain so many chemicals, that cancer may develop from an accumulative effects of more than one of these carcinogens. Cigarette tar causes specific DNA damage to lungs, which makes it particularly difficult for cells to repair. Smoking and chewing tobacco account for over 60% of cancers of the throat, mouth and the esophagus. Smokers also have a much higher rate of developing Leukemia, and cancers of the stomach, bladder, kidneys and pancreas. It has been proven that about 30% of all cervical cancers have been attributed to from smoking.
While not only does smoking effect the mouth, lungs, and heart but it also affects the bodies organs and digestive system. The tars in smoke can trigger cancer of the esophagus and throat. Smoking causes and increased stomach acid secretion, leading to heartburn and ulcers. Heavy smokers have higher rates of deadly pancreatic cancer. The carcinogens from cigarettes are excreted in the urine where they can cause bladder cancer which is often fatal. Kidneys can also be damaged through high blood pressure from smoking.
Smoking does not only effect vital parts of the body, but it also effects bones and joints also. Many negative effects on bones and joints occure since it impairs the formation of new bone. For woman who smoke, they are at an exceptionally high risk for developing osteoporosis and they have a increased change for developing rhuematoid arthritis. Smoking also causes people to be more disposed to developing degenerative disorders and injuries in the spine.