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by: ClareInnes
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I don't want to bang on about what harm smoking can do to your body, because you are well aware of that already, I'm sure. The threats of the health hazards are so 'old hat' now that no-one even takes any notice anymore. Just one question from me though...in these days of health and fitness, why bother with your five portions of fruit and veggies, and going down the gym three times a week, if you're not going to give up the ciggies?

People have been very well aware for many years now of the main health problems brought on by smoking. But that said, here are a number of other health issues and facts that many people are simply not aware of:

Cigarettes contain more than 4000 chemical compounds of which at least 400 are toxic substances, how can you knowingly suck that into your face?? When you inhale, a cigarette burns at 700 degrees C at the tip and around 60 degrees C in the core. This heat breaks down the tobacco to produce various toxins. As a cigarette burns, the residues are concentrated towards the butt, so you get the full dose of toxins as you finish your cigarette.

These are the worst of the products:

1) Tar, a carcinogen (substance that causes cancer)

2) nicotine is addictive and increases cholesterol levels in your body

3) carbon monoxide lowers the oxygen in your body

Smoking causes differing levels of damage depending on:

1) How many cigarettes you smoke

2) Whether the cigarette has a filter or not

3) In what way has the tobacco has been prepared

Although it is well known that smoking kills, what many smokers do not realise is that of the 300 people who die daily in the UK due to smoking, research has now shown that many of them are rather much younger than ever before.

The number of people under the age of 70 who die from smoking-related diseases exceeds the total figure for deaths caused by breast cancer, AIDS, traffic accidents and drug addiction.

I know you're all going to shout, ah c'mon at this one, but the ugly truth is this...if you started smoking at an early age, smoke more than 20 a day and inhale deeply, the greater your chances of getting lung cancer. It then takes roughly 15 years for your risk of getting lung cancer to drop to that of a non smoker.

Other cancers that are not so publicised are cancers of the mouth. If you smoke the risk is four times that of a non smoker to get cancer on or under the tongue, or on the lips. Another illness that smokers do not tend to be as aware of as lung cancer is COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), for which smoking is responsible for 80 percent of cases.

It's estimated that 94 per cent of 20-a-day smokers have some emphysema when the lungs are examined after death, while more than 90 per cent of non-smokers have little or none. COPD typically starts between the ages of 35 and 45 when lung function starts to decline anyway.

Lung fuction declines naturally with age, but when combined with smoking it drops about three times faster, and then breathlessness begins. Severe cases can end up on permanent oxygen before dying a slow and painful death from being unable to breathe.

Here's one that I bet you guys didn't know about (at least, not until it was too late!). For men in their 30s and 40s, smoking increases the risk of erectile dysfunction (ED) by about 50 per cent. Erection can't occur unless blood can flow freely into the penis, so these blood vessels have to be in good condition. Smoking can damage the blood vessels and cause them to degenerate; nicotine narrows the arteries that lead to the penis, reducing blood flow and the pressure of blood in the penis.

This narrowing effect increases over time, so if you haven't got problems now, things could change later (and I'm not apologising for scaring you on that one)...in actual fact, erection problems in smokers may be an early warning signal that cigarettes are already damaging other areas of the body - such as the blood vessels that supply the heart.

If all this isn't enough for you, then I'm going to get down and dirty...it's guilt trip time. Did you know that the smoke that you do not inhale, the stuff that is released by your cigarette between puffs, carries an even higher risk than the smoke that you inhale. Think about what that means for your partner, kids, non smoking friends, etc,...

When a child is brought up in a home where one or both parents smoke, the instances of asthma and bronchitis are twice that of non smoking households. The prevalance of allergies is also much higher. There is a much greater risk of cot death and chest infections amongst the very young.

Passive smoking has also been widely documented and the link between that and lung cancer is pretty well established, although the link between passive smoking and heart disease is not conclusive. What you can be sure of though, is that as a non smoker or an ex smoker, you can look forward towards a happier and healthier old age.

So after all this, what is my message? Well I hope to have given you one or two things that you had never thought of before to think about. There are folks out there who love you, and there are 100's of stop smoking programmes to help you too. Go on, give it a go...and stop smoking now!

About the Author

About the Writer: Clare Innes has a number of lifestyle and fitness websites, including one devoted to how to stop smoking. Watch out for more of her lifestyle websites in the 'First For...' series that is presently being created. Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory

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