We have known about the dangers of smoking for decades, but how exactly do cigarettes harm us?
Let’s look at what happens as their ingredients make their way through our bodies and how we benefit physically from finally giving up smoking.
The damage caused by smoking
With each inhalation smoke, it brings in more than 5000 chemical substances into contact with the body’s tissues. From the start, a black resinous material begins to coat the teeth and gums staining tooth enamel and eventually causing gum disease.
Over time, smoke also damages nerve endings in the nose causing loss of smell.
Inside the airways and lungs, smoke increases the likelihood of infections as well as chronic diseases like bronchitis and emphysema. It does this by damaging the cilia which are tiny hair-like structures whose job it is to keep the Airways clean. It then fills the alveoli air sacs that enable the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the lungs and blood with a toxic gas called carbon monoxide. This displaces the oxygen normally binding to haemoglobin that is transported around the body and is one of the reasons smoking causes oxygen deprivation and shortness of breath.
Within about 10 seconds the bloodstream carries a stimulant called nicotine to the brain. This triggers the release of dopamine and other neurotransmitters including endorphins that creates the pleasurable sensations which makes smoking highly addictive. Nicotine and other chemicals from the cigarette simultaneously cause constriction of blood vessels and damage their delicate endothelial lining restricting blood flow.
The effects of thickened blood vessel walls and increased blood platelet stickiness result in a higher likelihood of heart attacks and strokes.
Many of the chemicals inside cigarettes result in dangerous mutations in the body’s DNA that create cancers due to additional ingredients like arsenic and nickel. These may disrupt the process of DNA repair compromising the body’s ability to fight many cancers.
In fact, smoking is the biggest preventable cause of cancer in the United Kingdom and worldwide and it’s not just lung cancer.
Smoking can cause cancer in Multiple tissues and organs as well as damage eyesight and weaken bones. It makes it harder for women to get pregnant and can cause erectile dysfunction in men.
Benefits of quitting
For those who quit smoking, there’s a huge positive outlook with almost immediate and long-lasting physical benefits:
Just 20 minutes after a smoker’s final cigarette their heart rate and blood pressure begin to return to normal.
After 12 hours carbon monoxide levels stabilise, increasing the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity.
A day after ceasing, heart attack risk begins to decrease as blood pressure and heart rates normalise.
Within 2 days, nerve endings begin to recover resulting in improved smell and taste.
After one month, there’s less coughing and shortness of breath in the airways and lungs. After 9 months improved resistance to infection.
By the one-year anniversary of quitting, heart disease risk plummets to half as blood vessel function improves.
5-years in, the chance of a clot forming dramatically declines and the risk of stroke continues to reduce.
10 years, the chances of developing fatal lung cancer go down by 50% probably because the body’s ability to repair DNA is once again restored
15-years in the likelihood of developing coronary heart disease is essentially the same as that of a non-smoker.
Smoking is understandably a challenge to quit with anxiety and depression resulting from nicotine withdrawal.
Fortunately such effects are usually temporary and quitting is getting easier thanks to a growing arsenal of tools
Nicotine replacement therapy
Effective at reducing the side effects of nicotine withdrawal, a variety of easy to use and medically approved products in the form of sprays, patches and gum are available to purchase.
These products work by stimulating nicotine receptors in the brain and prevent withdrawal symptoms without the addition of other harmful chemicals.
Counselling and support groups, cognitive behavioural therapy and moderate intensity exercise also help smokers stay cigarette free.
That’s good news since quitting puts you and your body on the path back to health. Our stock of nicotine replacement therapy can be viewed HERE.