Effects of Smoking (or, more reasons to quit):

There are many reasons why smoking is bad. Aside from increasing your risk of lung disease, including cancer, you have increased risk of high blood pressure, vascular disease, stroke, kidney failure, and erectile dysfunction (for men obviously), not to mention the unhealthy exposure to those around you.

Additionally, when you smoke, you don’t heal wounds as well as a non-smoker. This issue is important for low level trauma as well, such as the kind sustained by people who work at physically demanding jobs. When there are microscopic tears in the connective tissues from a hard days work, these subtle injuries don’t heal as well in smokers as in non-smokers.

The oxygen is carried to the tissues by the hemoglobin, and the carbon monoxide in the smoke binds tighter than the oxygen does to this important molecule in our red blood cells. Therefore, at a time when your tissues are needing as much oxygen as they can get, when they are trying to heal, they are a little bit suffocated when you smoke a cigarette…not to mention the other toxic substances you are introducing to your system.

Here are some other reasons to quit (alphabetically):

  • Arteriosclerosis
  • Bad breath
  • Berger’s disease (loss of circulation to fingers/toes)
  • Bladder cancer
  • Burns
  • Cataracts
  • Emphysema
  • Esophageal cancer
  • Gangrene
  • Heart disease
  • Hypertension
  • Infertility/pregnancy risk
  • Kidney cancer
  • Laryngeal cancer
  • Leukoplakia (precancerous mouth lesions)
  • Lung cancer
  • Lymphomas
  • Mouth and throat cancers
  • Osteoporosis
  • Pancreatic cancer
  • Poor prognosis with surgeries
  • Raynaud syndrome (blood vessel contraction with cold exposure)
  • Reduced Immunity
  • Stroke
  • Tooth stains, tooth loss, gum disease
  • Ulcers
  • Upper respiratory tract disease
  • Wound healing problems

Every year, approximately 220,000 patients contract lung cancer, and of those, 87% are smokers.
Smokers are 600% more likely to die of a heart attach than non smokers.

So, what are your options?
Do something about it, or keep smoking.

The choice is yours. Check with your regular doctor to see what kind of help may be available.

Another thought, if the good lord had meant for people to smoke, he would have made our teeth naturally yellow.

Just a thought. ?

image from http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/mar12/cover1.asp