CONSEQUENCES
Smoking is one among many factors
that cause death but probably the biggest one that is preventable.
On average few thousand people die every day because of tobacco and
its bad consequences. Actually, smoking kills more people than the
worst epidemic diseases. It doesn't cause only bad smell on
clothes, yellow teeth and unpleasant smell in your mouth but also
many serious diseases.
Smoking might influence 17 different sorts of cancer of which lung
cancer is the most obvious and often. Besides this cancer in
throat, gullet, mouth cavity, oesophagus, pancreas, stomach, kidney
and bladder are also smoking diseases. Smoking also causes
chronicle cough, bronchitis and other diseases on lungs. It
influences other specific diseases like asthma, angina, fever,
shiver, … Inhaling of tobacco smoke is harmful also for the
heart and veins, because nicotine is one of the leading causes of
heart attack and tobacco smoke itself narrows coronaries. Besides,
smoking does harm also to other veins and accelerates sclerosis of
arteries, which causes bad circulation in legs. This is why some
smokers after the age of 40 feel pain in the calf. They have to
stop often, while walking, until the pain similar to a spasm is
over. The disease progress is very obvious if the smoker doesn't
give up his bad habit. Lately, there are more and more people,
whose legs have to be cut because of the total artery
obstruction.
Nicotine does harm also to digestive organs because it demolishes
the balance of acids in stomach. Its consequence is abscess on
stomach. This disease can be cured in case that person stops
smoking. Long-lasting smoking can also cause impotence by older
smokers and is also the cause that the skin gets older and wrinkled
earlier.
Lately, the cause of smoking on health of new-borns is more and
more pointed out. Actually, children whose mothers have been
smoking during their pregnancy weigh less when born and they also
can be born less developed. Nicotine influences woman's fertility,
which is often lowered, but there are also more abortions within
mothers - smokers than within non-smokers.
It is well known that a smoker who smokes 10-20 cigarettes a day
lives on average 5 years less than a non-smoker does. Some smokers
even like this statistic, because they do not want to live in this
world very long. But they are not aware of dying, which is often
very slow and even painful. One of the most important bad
consequences is passive smoking. Smoker's organism is usually used
to poisonous substances whereas the non-smoker's organism is not.
This is why smoking does harm also to non-smokers. It has been
found out that a non-smoker living with a smoker who smokes about 2
boxes cigarettes per day inhales the same quantity of tobacco smoke
as he smoke 3 cigarettes per day. It's also dangerous when a
non-smoker drives car when others in the car smoke. This can really
weaken driver's physical ability, he can also get pains in eyes and
headache. Passive smokers are especially endangered people with
asthma, hearth diseases and other sensible people.
Smoking has lots of harmful consequences but they are not all so
bad. It has been proved that the organism after giving up smoking
starts repairing the damage. Real recovery is seen within about 5
years after giving up smoking. And about 15 years later the
mortality of ex-smokers is similar to the one of non-smokers.
LUNG CANCER
About 50 years ago, lung cancer was still a very rare disease.
Sometimes it was found out during the autopsy on a dead body but
was otherwise described rarely. However, the number of people ill
of cancer increases every year and even more rapidly as the number
of people with any other cancer disease. Lung cancer is more often
a man- than a woman-disease.
Chances for going down with lung cancer depend on the cigarettes
smoked per day. An average smoker risks about 10X more to get lung
cancer than a non-smoker does, however, a passionate smoker who
smokes few packets per day risks even 20X more. The same chances
grow also with smoking years. Statistics show that with the
doubling years from 10 to 20 the risk increases for 16X. It has
also been shown in several experiments that tobacco smoke includes
substances that cause cancer. To treat lung cancer it must first be
found out. For this an X-ray picture of chest is very important,
where doctors can distinguish unusual shadows in lungs. X-ray is
recommended to all smokers after 40, who can notice some changes in
their cough or they can even go down with pneumonia. Although,
similar shadows can also be signs for other diseases. In case the
doctor predicts lung cancer the treatment goes on with other
methods. If the cancer is detected very late there are only few
chances to get over. Such patient is treated with radioactive rays,
what usually stop cancer-expansion, embellish pains and lengthen
patient's life. Only by giving up smoking you can partially reduce
the danger of falling ill of lung cancer.
CHRONICLE
BRONCHITIS
All over the World chronicle bronchitis is the most common
chronicle lung disease. There are a lot of things that affect it
and the most serious is smoking. In the late age it is almost
everyday disease, which can be recognised by continuous cough and
mucous, sometimes even purulent expectoration. Patients treat their
chronicle bronchitis usually only as oppression and not as a
disease although it can lead to death. We can search the reason for
such behaviour in fact that people know the cause of their trouble
- cigarette, but they just cannot give it up.
Chronicle bronchitis affects work ability, invalidity and also
mortality. It is well known that chronicle bronchitis is almost the
most common cause for staying out of work.
The beginning of the chronicle bronchitis has its foundation in the
fact that lungs are not successful anymore in fighting against
harmful influences from the surroundings. One of them is the air,
which comes into lung constantly, and brings a lot of gases and
physical particles in, what all comes to alveoli. Considering the
level of air pollution, which is not very high, non-smokers do not
have such problems with breathing some poisonous substances. On the
other hand, air pollution very rarely affects smokers, because they
are much more affected by inhaling tobacco smoke, which consists of
100 million more harmful substances and parts as the most polluted
air in London after the great catastrophe. In that time about 4000
people died, smokers however inhale these poisons day after day.
Still, lungs can fight against these factors when they still have
some power. But when the concentration of the substances becomes
too high and the mucus does not secrete fast enough it must be
secreted by a man, by his constant chronicle cough. The mucus which
has some time been kept back in respiratory pathways is a perfect
place for multiplication of bacteria. This can be a cause for
gasping, when patients after longer physical work claim to get
gasped very fast. For example, first patient gasps by a quick rise
on few stairs, but later because of the trachea contraction he
gasps already after an easier work.
Chronicle bronchitis can change the structure of respiratory
pathways so much that it can curtail lungs' and heart's
function.
The number of people sickened of chronicle bronchitis can fall only
when the air pollution gets lower or when smokers give up their
habit. Still, if they will not be totally safe from chronicle
bronchitis, they can at least be saved from everyday cough up of
mucous expectoration, which stands still in respiratory pathways
during the night.
[START] [HISTORY]
[CONTENTS] [CONSEQUENCES]
[STATISTICS] [ACTS] [STORY]
[QUITTING] [LINKS] [THANKS]
[ALL ABOUT] [AUTHORS] [SLOVENSKO] [ENGLISH]