Articles on Smoking | Topics: smoking, smokers
by Xavier MacIas
Smoking is not only continuously bad for your health, but also lowers your life expectancy. Every time you smoke a cigarette, it changes the way that your body functions. This includes the cardiovascular system, lungs, and other important parts of your body that help you to remain healthy. The outcome of smoking can become fatal because of the chemicals you are putting in your system. By deciding to quit smoking, you will raise your life expectancy from the diseases that the toxins from cigarettes cause.
One of the problems that smoking causes is cancer. It is known that smoking is responsible for 30% of the deaths that are related to cancer in the United States. These cancers include lung, larynx, oral cavity, esophagus, kidney, pancreatic, cervical and bladder cancers. The reason why smoking causes so much cancer is because of the chemicals that are found in smoking. There are over sixty kinds of substances in cigarettes that relate directly to cancer causing problems. Carbon monoxide, tar, arsenic, and lead are some of the main ingredients found in cigarettes that add to the problems with the development of cancer in someone who smokes.
Another one of the major problems that are caused through smoking which become fatal is heart disease. Some of the different types of heart disease include high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure. This occurs because the toxins from cigarettes move through your body, eventually breaking off normal functioning parts of your system. For example, in your arteries, plaques will begin to form from the chemicals taking over your system. These same toxins begin to move from your blood stream which narrows the blood vessels. These blood vessels are the ones that supply blood and oxygen to your heart. If they become to narrow, it causes the supply to cut off completely, which can be fatal. These different kinds of heart diseases are the number one cause of death in the United States, and are often attributed with smoking.
Lung disease is another one of the common problems that can lower your life expectancy that is often attributed to smoking. Two of the largest types of lung diseases caused by smoking are emphysema and bronchitis. Emphysema is caused by the air sacs in the lungs to become damaged. These air sacs are responsible for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. The chemicals that are in cigarettes move into the lungs, damaging the walls of the alveoli. This then causes the sacs to become larger and less effective in exchange the right types of air that the lungs need. They are known to be weaker, collapse, and trap the air that you need, and don't allow the lungs to properly inflate. At first, the symptoms of this lung disease are breathlessness. However, if you continue to smoke, it will continue to break down the air sacs, eventually leaving you unable to breathe. Bronchitis is caused from similar problems, by changing the structure of the lungs which impairs the air flow.
| Quote of the Day |
I was always able to understand my friend who decided to quit smoking and who, through an effort of will, succeeded in doing so. One morning, he opened the newspaper, read that the first H- bomb had exploded, found out about the bomb’s admirable effects and went straight to the tobacconist’s.
| —Albert Camus (1913–1960) |
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Your life expectancy will slowly begin to expand when you quit smoking. This is in relation to how long you have smoked, how much you have smoked, when you began smoking and whether you were sick when you decided to quit smoking. The sooner that you decide to quit smoking, the more likely you will be able to prolong your life expectancy. Eventually, the chemicals that have moved through your body will be removed from your system. This will allow the normal body functions to be able to move properly. It will also allow the chemicals that once prevented growth of tissue and nerves to begin to grow back. Your immune system, in return, will be able to produce more efficiently, allowing you to fight off diseases.
When you decide to quit smoking, the lungs will begin to move air through them easier, and eventually replace the air sacs back to the normal size. It will also cause the blood vessels to stop narrowing, and sometimes expand back to normal. It is known that even twenty-four hours after you decide to quit smoking, your cardiovascular system begins to move at a normal pace, instead of the faster pace it had to move because of the extra chemicals in your system.
By removing the chemicals from your body by deciding to quit smoking, you are allowing yourself to prolong your life as well as be healthier in your activities. Smoking has proven to be fatal for several different reasons. The only way to change your life expectancy is to allow yourself to quit smoking.
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