The Most Common Disease Caused by Smoking

5 Common Diseases cause by smoking 5 Common Diseases Caused by Smoking

The most common disease that smoking causes is cancer. Many people mistakenly think that only lung cancer is caused by smoking, but this is not correct. Many different types of cancer can be brought on by smoking tobacco, or from inhaling second hand smoke.
Fatal Diseases Caused by Smoking

Naturally, cancer can be fatal – and often is, but there are other conditions that smoking causes which are also fatal. One such disease is Asthma. Most people don’t realize that Asthma can indeed be fatal – rescue inhalers don’t always do the trick.

Another fatal disease that is caused by this bad habit is stroke. A stroke may not initially kill you – or it may – but if it doesn’t, it definitely shortens your life, and of course changes the quality of your life as well.

Additional respiratory problems that are caused by smoking include Chronic Bronchitis, Emphysema, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD. You may continue smoking because you enjoy it. Inhaling that smoke and exhaling it relaxes you. You might ask yourself how relaxing or enjoyable it is going to be when you can’t pull in a good breath of air at all, including cigarette smoke.
Non-Fatal Diseases Caused by Smoking

Surprisingly, there is a non-fatal problem that is caused by smoking, although few people realize it. Smoking can contribute to impotence issues in men. This is because nicotine narrows the arteries significantly, and in order to get an erection, blood must be able to flow through the arteries efficiently. In terms of smoking blocking arteries, too many people think this only pertains to the arteries that lead to the heart, and never consider the other important arteries in the body.

In the end, you have to ask yourself, honestly, if the potential health issues related to smoking are worth it. If you believe that they are, you might want to take time out to visit someone who is currently suffering from one of these diseases caused by smoking, to get a better sense of the consequences, and just how those consequences affect your life – or your ability to stay alive.
Most of the people who decide to quit smoking do so because they realize how much damage it brings to their health. This is a reasonable concern, because half of smokers die from a smoking-related disease.

Here are the types of health problems which devoted smokers can expect:

• Lung problems

It is obvious that an individual’s lungs suffer severely from smoking. Almost all smokers cough a lot; the reason is that smoke blocks air in small air cells. This disease is called emphysema. It shortens one’s breath and limits their physical activity. Another serious lung problem is chronic bronchitis. When these two diseases occur together, they are called “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” or COPD for short. As a rule, it develops in a smoker’s body by the age of 40, and worsens with time, sometimes becoming fatal.

In 2004 it was discovered that even pneumonia can be a result of smoking. Pneumonia is an inflammation of the lungs which can be mild, but often develops into a serious life-threatening condition.

The primary reason for the development of lung cancer is smoking. Ninety percent of people that die from lung cancer originally contracted it from smoking.

• Cancer

Even though lung cancer is often caused by smoking, it is not the only kind you can acquire by smoking. Cancers of the mouth, throat (pharynx), voice-box (larynx), esophagus, kidney, pancreas, bladder, cervix, or stomach can also be a possible result of long-term smoking. In fact, 30% of all cancer deaths are caused by smoking.

An interesting study has been published by The Lancet science journal. It says if a girl starts smoking in her teens she has a higher chance of developing breast cancer before she reaches menopause. Her risk even doubles when she initiates smoking within 5 years of her first menstrual cycle.

• Heart attacks and blood-connected diseases

The greatest damage to smokers’ bodies is done to their blood vessels, not to their lungs as many people believe. Carbon monoxide that people inhale while smoking takes the place of pure oxygen in the blood, damaging cells and helping fat and plaque to stick to the vessel’s walls, clogging them.

The human brain considers nicotine as a poison, therefore when it enters the body, the brain gives a command to release stored fat into the blood, in order to release more energy for fighting the poison. Since regular smokers breathe in nicotine constantly, blood vessels get filled with fat, becoming unable to carry blood efficiently.

Smoking also hardens the arteries: new vessels grow inside of the existing ones which makes the process of clogging and narrowing even easier. This is called vascularization.

The most common result of the processes mentioned above is either a heart attack or stroke. Smoking is in fact a dangerous habit!

• Risks for women and babies

Smoking brings even more damage to women’s bodies than it does to men’s. Breast cancer is not their only risk. Studies show that smoking shortens women’s lives by 14.5 years (men’s are shortened by 13). As a rule, female smokers have a higher risk of heart attack, strokes and blood clots in their legs than do men.

Smoking also affects pregnancy and childbirth functions. The percentage of miscarriage or low birth-weight is substantially higher.