Problems of Smoking

Cigarette smoking causes a large number of serious health problems, particularly for those who people who have smoked for many years. According to the American Heart Association, almost 440,000 deaths each year in the United States are caused by smoking. Smoking affects every system in the body and causes a variety of major and minor symptoms and conditions.

Identification

• Cigarette smoke produces a mixture of chemicals, including formaldehyde, cyanide, methanol, ammonia, benzene, carbon monoxide, acetylene and nitrogen oxide. When a cigarette is lit, these chemicals are released into the air. Cigarettes also contain nicotine, a drug found in tobacco leaves. Nicotine is a very addicting substance and the addition of this drug to cigarettes makes it difficult for some smokers to stop smoking, despite the many health risks smoking causes.

Heart and Lung Problems

• According to a 2004 report by the U.S. Surgeon General, smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the country. Other long-term health problems associated with smoking include high blood pressure, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, stroke, premature aging of the skin, coughing, shortness of breath, congestive heart failure, coronary heart disease and hardening of the arteries. Smoking increases the risk that you will develop an abdominal aortic aneurysm. An aneurysm occurs when a section of an artery wall weakens and bulges. Eventually, this weakened area may burst and cause a life-threatening loss of blood.

Effects

• Smoking doesn't just cause long-term health problems, it also causes unnecessary strain on your heart while you are actually smoking a cigarette. Carbon monoxide produced by cigarette smoke enters your bloodstream and decreases the amount of oxygen available in your blood. Blood vessels narrow as you smoke, making the heart beat faster. When this occurs, your blood pressure increases and blood flow is reduced to your heart and other parts of your body. As smoke reaches your lungs, it begins to irritate the sensitive airways, resulting in coughing and increased mucus production.

Considerations

• Even if you don't smoke, you can still suffer from some of the dangerous effects of cigarettes if you breathe in cigarette smoke when other people are smoking. Approximately 49,400 non-smokers die of heart disease or lung cancer in the United States each year due to secondhand smoke, according to the American Cancer Society. Exposure to secondhand smoke can cause headaches, nausea, eye irritation, dizziness, asthma and respiratory problems in non-smokers.

Warning

• According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, smokers have more problems achieving pregnancy than non-smokers and may take longer to actually become pregnant. Some of the chemicals in cigarette smoke can interfere with the estrogen production in the ovaries and may make the eggs released by the ovaries more likely to contain genetic abnormalities. When smokers become pregnant and continue to smoke during pregnancy, their babies are more likely to be born prematurely or to be low birth weight babies. Babies that weigh less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces at birth are considered to be low birth weight babies.