Smoking Cigarettes and Health -

The Health Effects of Smoking Cigarettes

The effects of tobacco on health are very significant, largely depending on the way that tobacco is used (smoked, snuffed or chewed) and the amount used. Major health effects of smoking cigarettes, which is the most common use of tobacco, include an increased risk of lung cancer and heart or cardiovascular disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated in 2002 that in developed countries, 26% of the male deaths and 9% of the female deaths were attributable to smoking cigarettes. And the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes tobacco use as "the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries and an important cause of premature death worldwide."

Primary Risks Of Smoking Cigarettes

Regular smokers are estimated to live to 2.5 to 10 years less than nonsmokers are. About one-half of male smokers will die of illness due to smoking cigarettes.

Tobacco related illnesses kill about 440,000 US citizens a year, or about 1,300 a day, making it the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. The WHO has stated that tobacco is set to kill a billion people this century.

The main health risks of tobacco use relate to diseases of the cardiovascular system, in particular smoking being a major risk factor for myocardial infarction (the medical term for a heart attack), diseases of the respiratory tract such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and emphysema, cancer, mostly lung cancer and cancers of the mouth and larynx. Before World War I, lung cancer was considered to be a rare disease. With the postwar rise in popularity of cigarette smoking came an epidemic of lung cancer.

Today, among people who have smoked any kind of tobacco, almost one in ten will develop lung cancer. And one in six men who continue to smoke tobacco will develop lung cancer. This compares to one case or so of lung cancer in seventy-five lifelong non-smokers.

The incidence of impotence is approximately 83 percent higher in male smokers compared to non-smokers, and it's a key cause of erectile dysfunction (ED). Smoking causes this impotence because it promotes the narrowing of arteries.

A person's with an increased risk of contracting disease is directly proportional to the length of time that a person continues to smoke as well as the amount they have smoked. But if someone stops smoking, then these chances gradually decrease over time as the damage to their body is repaired.

Diseases Linked To Smoking Tobacco Or Cigarettes

Diseases linked to smoking tobacco or cigarettes include: many forms of cancer, especially lung cancer, kidney cancer, cancer of the larynx and head and neck, breast cancer, bladder cancer, esophageal cancer, cancer of the pancreas, and stomach cancer. There is some evidence to suggest an increased risk of myeloid leukemia, squamous cell sinonasal cancer, liver cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer after latency, childhood cancers and cancers of the gall bladder, adrenal gland and small intestine as well.

Other diseases:
Cardiovascular disease
Stroke
Peripheral vascular disease
Respiratory ailments
Common cold and bronchitis
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema and chronic bronchitis in particular
Birth defects of pregnant smokers' offspring
Buerger's disease (thromboangiitis obliterans)
Cataracts that may cause blindness[citation needed]
Cognitive dysfunction
Increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and decline in cognitive abilities 
Reduced memory and cognitive abilities in adolescent smokers
Impotence 
 
The incidence of lung cancer is very highly connected to smoking. Cigar and pipe smokers usually inhale less smoke than cigarette smokers, so their risk of lung cancer is a little lower but is still higher than the risk for nonsmokers. Pipe and cigar smokers are also at risk for cancers of the oral cavity including larynx (voice box), or esophagus, a risk which was widely speculated on before any link between smoking and cancer was scientifically proved. This was seen in the news media reports of the tobacco-related cancers of two American presidents; Ulysses S. Grant who died in 1885 at age sixty-three after a long and very painful public battle with throat cancer.  This which was widely assumed then to be the result of a lifelong cigar habit. And president Grover Cleveland was diagnosed in 1893 with cancer of the left jaw, which was frequently remarked upon by the press and public as the side where he usually had a cigar clamped to his teeth. Cancer of the mouth and jaw is also a big risk for user of chewing tobacco. When people quit smoking the benefits of smoking cessation are immediate: blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature return immediately to a normal range; the risk of heart attack decreases; the ability to smell and taste is greatly enhanced and circulation improves.

It's generally assumed and postulated that the major motivational factor behind the desire to smoke is the nicotine that is contained. But the practice of ingesting the smoke from a smoldering leaf does generate an huge number of active chemical compounds that are loosely lumped together as 'tar', many of which are biologically reactive and real potential health dangers. Chewing tobacco too is carcinogenic and is likely because similar compounds are generated in the curing process. The Nordic snus, which is steam cured and therefore does not generate these compounds, is much less carcinogenic- and the number of oral The long term exposure to other chemical compounds in smoke, such as carbon monoxide, cyanide, and other compounds that damage lung and arteries are believed to be responsible for cardiovascular damage and for the loss of elasticity in the alveoli, leading to emphysema and COPD - which is a combination of lung diseases.