In this blog,

• What Can Smoking Cause
• Heart Health Under Attack
• Smoking and Lung Damage
• COPD and Breathing Problems
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Surgeon General’s Warning: Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide; Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, and May Complicate Pregnancy. These labels began appearing on the sides of cigarette packages over 50 years ago.

What Can Smoking Cause

Smoking is not merely a habit it represents a significant health hazard that quietly compromises the body’s vital systems. As soon as smoke penetrates your lungs, a complicated blend of thousands of harmful chemicals starts to disrupt the functioning of your heart and lungs, paving the way for chronic damage and illness.

If you are a current smoker or have been one in the past you have seen these warnings on the sides of your cigarette packs or cans of chewing tobacco. These warnings, however, do not deter many tobacco users though health effects of cigarette smoking.

Heart Health Under Attack

Tobacco use accounts for almost half a million deaths annually. It is the second leading cause of cardiovascular disease. Smoking and chewing tobacco causes coronary heart disease, cancer, strokes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, COPD. It can also cause infertility and is also linked to your reproductive health. When you smoke, chemicals like nicotine and carbon monoxide enter your bloodstream and tighten blood vessels, raise blood pressure, and make your blood thicker and more likely to clot.

Your lungs are at the forefront with each inhalation. Tobacco smoke causes irritation and inflammation of the sensitive lung tissue, diminishes oxygen exchange, and hinders the body’s capacity to eliminate mucus and harmful substances. This can result in chronic ailments such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, bronchitis, and lung cancer — all of which complicate breathing and diminish quality of life.

Tobacco related cardiovascular disease is caused by damage to your blood vessels. The damage allows for an excess build-up of plaque in the arteries. This can lead to heart attacks and abnormal arrhythmias. In some cases, it can even lead to death.

Plaque build-up in the arteries is known as atherosclerosis.  Chewing tobacco more than doubles your risk for a heart attack according to the World Heart Federation. Smoking tobacco causes your arteries to harden, reduces your circulation and increases the tendency of the formation of blood clots.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

COPD, according to the CDC, is a group of diseases affecting your breathing. These include emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and asthma. Smoking accounts for roughly 80 percent of all COPD related deaths. Smoking causes damage to the airways to and from your lungs. Damage includes losing elasticity in the airways and air sacs in the lungs.

“This inhibits your ability to get a full breath. Furthermore, damage or destruction may occur to the walls between the air sacks.. Consequently, the walls of your airways may become inflamed and swollen, causing an excess of mucus. This, in turn, makes it more difficult to breathe and incites a ‘smoker’s cough.’”

Read this also: The Importance of Indoor Air Quality in Preventing Viral Illnesses

Quitting smoking now is the best way to avoid and in some cases reverse some of the damage to your body. There is no cure for COPD but quitting can stop the progression of the disease. The impact of quitting begins almost immediately.

As soon as 20 minutes after blood pressure and pulse return to normal and your circulation improves. After 72 hours it can become easier to breathe. After quitting, the individual reduces the risk of a heart attack by half within five years. Being tobacco-free for 15 years the risk of cardiovascular disease is almost the same as if you had never smoked! For more information on the milestones of living tobacco free visit the World Heart Federation.