Smoking cigarettes is a form of recreational drug use and the leading cause of preventable early death in the US.

When you smoke tobacco, you inhale harmful chemicals and smoke into your lungs; these quickly absorb into the bloodstream, leading to multiple health conditions. In addition, the nicotine in tobacco is highly addictive; your body becomes accustomed to the drug, making it challenging to quit ingesting it without withdrawal symptoms.

Any form of tobacco is unsafe, including cigarettes, cigars, pipes, hookahs, chewing tobacco, snuff, and vaping.

Quitting smoking is one of the best ways to improve your health and the health of those around you.

Why should I quit smoking?

When you smoke, smoke and aerosolized drugs in the tobacco enter your lungs, absorb into the bloodstream, and continue throughout your body via your blood. For this reason, smoking has far-reaching effects on not only your lungs, but your whole body.

Smoking can cause:

• inflammation
• atherosclerosis (fatty build-up on the walls of blood vessels)
• heart disease
• heart attacks
• coronary artery disease
• peripheral artery disease
• blood clots
• abnormal heart rhythms
• increased workload on the heart
• decreased HDL (good cholesterol)
• increased LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides
• thickened blood, making it harder to carry oxygen to the body's cells
• lung disease, such as emphysema
• lung cancer
• stroke
• high blood pressure 
• rapid heart rate
• blood vessel damage

Cigarettes are not the only tobacco product you should avoid; cigars, pipes, hookahs, chewing tobacco, snuff, and vaping are also harmful.

• Smokeless tobacco, or chewing tobacco, can cause cancer of the mouth and pancreas, precancerous lesions, gum problems, and nicotine addiction. 
• Pipes and cigars can cause mouth, lip, larynx, esophagus, and bladder cancer.
• Hookahs used with tobacco can cause many health issues similar to cigarettes.
• Vaping with e-cigs, e-hookahs, mods, vape pens, vapes, or tank systems can also lead to health problems. They contain harmful substances like lead, cancer-causing chemicals, and nicotine which is addictive, and some flavorings may have links to lung disease. There is also limited evidence they are adequate to help you quit smoking.

You are 2 to 4 times more likely to get heart disease if you smoke and double your stroke risk. Unfortunately, those around you may suffer the same health conditions as you due to second-hand smoke inhalation.

We will discuss the dangers of second-hand smoke in my next blog post.

Stay tuned!

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Sources:

America Heart Association. (2018). 5 Steps to Quit Smoking and Vaping | American Heart Association

CDC. (2022). Tips For Quitting | Quit Smoking | Tips From Former Smokers | CDC

Johns Hopkins Medicine. (n.d.). Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease | Johns Hopkins Medicine

National Institute on Aging. (2019). Quitting Smoking for Older Adults | National Institute on Aging (nih.gov)

NCCIH. (2021). Quitting Smoking | NCCIH (nih.gov)

NIH. (2022). Smoking and Your Heart - Strategies To Quit Smoking | NHLBI, NIH