Health risks of smoking & tobacco
In adults secondhand smoke causes stroke, lung cancer, and coronary heart disease. Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are at higher risk for sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, middle ear disease, more severe asthma, respiratory symptoms, and slowed lung growth, etc.
Cancer
Smoking mainly causes lungs cancer and can pass cancerous cells to other part of the body, that may include:
Blood
Bladder
Trachea
Bronchus
Colon and rectum
Esophagus
Stomach
Kidney
Renal pelvis
Mouth & throat
Lungs
Cervix
Smokeless tobacco, such as chewing tobacco, also causes cancer, including cancers of the
Esophagus
Mouth and throat
Pancreas
Heart diseases & stroke
Smoking causes CVD - cardio-vascular diseases that are heart diseases & stroke, in which narrowing of blood vessels that carry blood to heart is observed. There is reduced supply of blood to the heart muscles that causes:
Chest pain
Heart attack
Heart failure
Arrhythmia
Smoking can cause CVD - cardio-vascular diseases, one in four people die with CVD. smoking may:
Raise triglycerides (a type of fat in your blood)
Lower “good” cholesterol (HDL)
Make blood sticky and more likely to clot, which may block blood flow to the heart and brain.
Damage cells that line the blood vessels
Increase the buildup of plaque (fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances) in blood vessels
Cause thickening and narrowing of blood vessels
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is related to a group of diseases that cause airflow blockage and breathing-related problems. COPD includes emphysema; chronic bronchitis; and in some cases, asthma.
Early stages of COPD do not show any symptoms:
A nagging cough (often called “smoker’s cough”)
Shortness of breath
Wheezing
Tightness in the chest
Advance stages of COPD symptoms include:
Having trouble catching your breath or talking
Blue or gray lips and/or fingernails (a sign of low oxygen levels in your blood)
Trouble with mental alertness
Very fast heartbeat
Swelling in the feet and ankles
Weight loss
Treatment:
Quitting smoking is the most important first step to be taken to treat COPD. Avoiding secondhand smoke is also critical sometimes, other lifestyle changes and treatments include:
To improve the well-being of people who have chronic (ongoing) breathing problems and includes:
Exercise training
Nutritional counseling
Education about lung disease or condition and how to manage them.
Energy-conserving techniques
Breathing strategies
Psychological counseling and/or group support
Medication include:
Antibiotics to treat respiratory infections, if required.
Vaccination for flu.
Steroid drug you inhale to reduce swelling in the airways.
Bronchodilator to relax the muscles around the airways.
Oxygen therapy, which can help people who have severe COPD and low levels of oxygen in their blood to breathe better.
Surgery for people who have severe symptoms of the disease that have not improved with treatment:
Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS): Surgery to remove diseased parts of the lung so healthier lung tissue can work better for life, but it's not a cure.
Lung transplant: Surgery in which one or two healthy lungs from a donor are put in the diseased body to replace diseased lungs.
Smoking in pregnant women:
Women who smoke have more difficulty becoming pregnant and have a higher risk of never becoming pregnant in their life.
Studies also suggest the actual relationship between tobacco and miscarriage. Carbon monoxide produced in tobacco smoke can keep the developing baby from not getting enough oxygen.
Mothers who smoke are more likely to deliver their babies. Preterm delivery is a leading cause of death, disability, and disease among newborns.
Smoking during pregnancy can cause tissue damage in the unborn baby in the womb, particularly in the lung and brain, and some studies suggest a link between maternal smoking and cleft lip.
Babies who have mothers smoke while pregnant or who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth have weaker lungs than other babies, which increases the risk for many other health problems.
Nobody wins when smoking and disease are in equality:
In the last 50 years it is noticed that a woman’s risk of dying from smoking has more than tripled and is now equal to a man’s risk.
More than 200,000 women die every year from smoking-related disease as compared with 270,000 men who die from smoking-related disease every year.
Women who smoke are more likely to die from COPD than men who smoke.
