What Abilities Does Smoking Decrease?

Cigarettes are the cause of one in every five American deaths, according to Ygoy, a website that provide information on a variety of health and lifestyle issues. Diseases related to smoking costs the United States $150 billion a year. Despite these facts, the American Heart Association estimated that 23 percent of men and 18 percent of women throughout the United States smoke. Basic human abilities decrease due to smoking.

Hearing

• Yale University tested 67 teenagers in 2008 and found the kids who smoked or whose mothers smoked when pregnant had trouble focusing and interpreting sounds when distracted. The teenagers underwent brain scans, which showed an increase of white matter. BBC News stated that other research has shown that children with excess white matter have problems interpreting and transmitting sound due to an inconsistency between the white matter and the brain.

Happiness

• According to Healthy Happy You, a website that provides health-related information, Finnish researchers have discovered a link between smoking and the ability of a person to be happy. Depression results when the smoker tries to quit because the brain is suffering withdrawal from the drugs found in cigarettes. The effects on happiness don't stop there. Smokers suffer from a preoccupation with cigarettes.

Sleep

• ABC News reported in 2008 that smoking lowers people's ability to sleep. Research from the American College of Chest Physicians reported that smokers are four times more likely to be tired after they wake up. This is because they are less able to access a deep sleep than people who don't smoke.

  "This may be because smokers experience nicotine withdrawal each night, which may contribute to sleep disturbances," ABC reported.

  The research goes on to say smokers find falling asleep more difficult due to the stimulants found in cigarettes.

Taste

• Researchers in Greece announced in 2009 that smoking makes food taste dull. The scientists discovered the taste buds on smokers' tongues were flatter than those found on nonsmokers. Sixty-two men from the country's army were tested -- about half were smokers. The men were, on average, 25 years old.

  "Nicotine may cause functional and morphological alterations (of taste buds) without severely affecting their number," said Pavlidis Pavlos, research team leader from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.