The dangers of smoking are real facts and consequences. Tobacco smoking and its impact on human health. Raising the younger generation

A light legal drug is cigarettes. The real composition of the product that kills millions. History and modernity.

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Tobacco smoking(or simply smoking) - inhalation of smoke from smoldering dried or processed tobacco leaves, most often in the form of smoking cigarettes. People smoke for pleasure, because of a bad habit, or for social reasons (for communication, for “company,” “because everyone smokes,” etc.). In some societies, smoking tobacco is a ritual.

According to WHO data ( World Organization Health) about one third of the world's adult male population smoke tobacco. Tobacco smoking was brought to Spain by Columbus after the discovery of America and then spread to Europe and the rest of the world through trade.

Tobacco smoke contains psychoactive substances - alkaloids nicotine and harmine, which in combination are an addictive stimulant of the central nervous system and also cause mild euphoria. The effects of nicotine include temporary relief from fatigue, drowsiness, lethargy, and increased performance and memory.

Medical research indicate a clear connection between smoking and diseases such as lung cancer and emphysema, diseases of the cardiac system, as well as other health problems. According to WHO, throughout the 20th century, tobacco smoking caused the death of 100 million people around the world, and in the 21st century this figure will increase to a billion.

Composition of cigarettes

Piren- dissolves well in the blood, causes convulsions and spasms of the respiratory system, which reduces hemoglobin levels and inhibits liver function. Of course, all this is in large doses; in small doses (cigarette doses) it simply stretches out over time and does not act so noticeably.

Anthracite- if you constantly breathe dust or vapors of this rubbish, swelling of the nasopharynx and eye sockets develops, and fibroids develop. Also a bad thing, also not so noticeable.

Ethylphenol- reduces arterial pressure, depresses the nervous system, disrupts motor activity. Well, it's kind of relaxing.

And finally our favorites - NITROBENZENE And NITROMETHANE.

If you inhale concentrated nitrobenzene vapors, you will lose consciousness and die. In small doses it causes irreversible changes in the vascular system.

Nitromethane causes an accelerated pulse and weakened attention (distraction), and in high concentrations - a narcotic state and irreversible pathological changes in the brain.

These are the nice substances found in the average cigarette. Of course there is also hydrocyanic acid(about 0.012 g, forty times less lethal dose), ammonia, pyridinium bases, and a large number of substances with a total number of about four thousand items.

Harmful substances

Many smokers are calm about their bad habit. They are convinced that smoking does not cause great harm body, they do not know about harmful consequences smoking or they try not to pay attention to it. As a rule, they know nothing or have a very vague idea about the real consequences of smoking.

The serious harm that smoking causes to the human body is beyond doubt. Tobacco smoke contains more than three thousand harmful substances. It is impossible to remember them all. But you need to know three main groups of toxins:

Resins. They contain strong carcinogens and substances that irritate the tissues of the bronchi and lungs. Lung cancer is caused by smoking in 85% of all cases. Cancer of the mouth and larynx also mainly occurs in smokers. Tars are the cause of smokers' cough and chronic bronchitis.

Nicotine. Nicotine is a stimulant drug. Like any drug, it is addictive, addictive and addictive. Increases heart rate and blood pressure. Following brain stimulation, a significant decline occurs, including depression, which causes a desire to increase the dose of nicotine. A similar two-phase mechanism is inherent in all narcotic stimulants: first they excite, then they deplete. Complete refusal smoking may be accompanied by withdrawal syndrome, often lasting up to 2-3 weeks. The most common symptoms of nicotine withdrawal are irritability, sleep disturbances, anxiety, and decreased tone. All these symptoms do not pose a threat to health; they fade and disappear completely on their own. The re-introduction of nicotine into the body after a long break quickly restores addiction (just as a new portion of alcohol causes a relapse of the disease in former alcoholics).

Toxic gases (carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen oxide, etc.) Carbon monoxide or carbon monoxide is the main toxic component of tobacco smoke gases. It damages hemoglobin, after which hemoglobin loses its ability to carry oxygen. Therefore, smokers suffer from chronic oxygen starvation, which is clearly manifested during physical activity. For example, when climbing stairs or while jogging, smokers quickly become short of breath. Carbon monoxide is colorless and odorless, therefore it is especially dangerous and often leads to fatal poisoning. Tobacco smoke contains 384,000 maximum permissible concentrations of toxic substances, which is four times more than in car exhaust. In other words, smoking a cigarette for one minute is about the same as breathing directly from exhaust fumes for four minutes. Hydrogen cyanide and nitric oxide also affect the lungs, worsening hypoxia ( oxygen starvation) organism.

Smoking promotes vascular atherosclerosis. The consequences of atherosclerosis are myocardial infarctions, strokes, and premature aging. The immune system and endocrine system suffer. Many men experience impotence. Women become infertile or give birth to sick children. Due to narrowed sclerotic vessels, blood circulation is disrupted not only in the internal organs, but also in the arms and legs. For smokers obliterating atherosclerosis lower limbs threatens gangrene. Autopsies of heavy smokers often reveal blood clots in various vessels.

You can get rid of a bad habit on your own or with medical help (for those who are completely weak-willed).

If a person really wants to quit smoking, he can do without medical help. All kinds of drugs, chewing gum, procedures, physiotherapy, reflexology, hypnosis, etc. on their own are ineffective. Moreover, they can even get in the way in some sense, especially if you place unreasonably high hopes on treatment and abdicate responsibility for the result.

At abrupt refusal Smoking may cause temporary deterioration in health for some smokers. Malaise during the transition period is more likely to occur in those who maintain an ambivalent attitude towards smoking. And those who have made the final choice for themselves easily give up the bad habit, even if they had been poisoning themselves with nicotine for decades.

Advice to those who do not believe in their strength (who also believe) - start doing regular jogging at least 3-4 times a week and at an even, slow pace. Saturate your poisoned body with oxygen and you will find that you can no longer cram tobacco smoke, you will develop a disgust for him. To those in need psychological support courses on getting rid of bad habits, of which there are quite a few operating in Moscow.

Nicotine

Surprisingly, why do millions of people smoke, despite the obvious damage to their health? Once many of us start smoking, they are unable to stop. Why? Tobacco contains nicotine, a narcotic medicinal substance, which makes you return to it again and again. Nicotine recruits us into its supporters quickly and reliably.

The main harm to health when smoking is caused not by nicotine, but by the other 4,000 chemicals contained in tobacco smoke. They cause many of the diseases that we associate with smoking.

Scientists have been studying nicotine for decades and are finding more and more interesting properties in it. Apparently, nicotine really increases concentration, improves memory and helps control weight. On the other hand, nicotine has an extremely negative effect on the development of the fetus during pregnancy, and, in addition, a connection has been established between nicotine and sudden death of infants during sleep.

We can probably expect in the future that pharmaceutical companies will separate the positive and negative properties of nicotine and develop new drugs based on nicotine to treat... wide range diseases - from Alzheimer's disease to obesity.

Along with caffeine and strychnine, nicotine belongs to a group of chemical compounds called alkaloids. These are bitter-tasting and often poisonous substances produced by plants to prevent animals from eating them. People, being biologically somewhat perverted creatures, not only ignore this warning signal - the bitter taste, but even enjoy such taste sensations.

Most of the nicotine we get today comes from the Nicotiana tabacum plant, but there are 66 other plant species that contain nicotine. 19 of them grow in Australia. Apparently, the Australian Aborigines were the first people to use nicotine. They mixed crushed plant leaves containing nicotine with ash and chewed them. During long journeys Across the desert, the natives used nicotine both as a stimulant and as a remedy for hunger.

Nicotine owes its name to the French ambassador to Portugal, Jean Nicot, who was one of the ardent supporters of nicotine as a medicine. Tobacco was brought to Europe by the Spaniards and was first used in medical purposes. They were used to treat wounds, rheumatism, asthma and toothache. In 1561, Jean Nicot sent tobacco seeds to the royal court in France. This plant was named Nicotiana in his honor. Subsequently, the alkaloid found in this plant in the 19th century was also called nicotine.

The popularity of tobacco grew very quickly in both Europe and Asia, despite the fact that China, Japan, Russia and Muslim countries imposed severe fines for its use, including cutting off lips. The Roman Catholic Church did not ban tobacco, but it did excommunicate those who smoked in church. The clergy learned to circumvent this prohibition by inhaling tobacco, crushed into powder - snuff. TO end of XVII century, this method of taking nicotine became very common among the aristocrats of Europe.

Nicotine has a very short life in our body, and this is why smokers smoke so often. With a cigarette puff, nicotine enters the lungs, then into the bloodstream and into the brain, where it is captured by nerve cell receptors. But after about 40 minutes, the amount of nicotine is halved, and the smoker feels the need for a new portion. Therefore, a cigarette pack of 20 cigarettes is a day divided into 40-minute periods of nicotine intake.

If a smoker is engaged in training, a cigarette after physical activity gives him special pleasure. Why? Because physical exercise accelerate the metabolism of nicotine and the level of nicotine in the brain drops faster than usual. This also explains the tradition of “cigarettes after sex”; romance has nothing to do with it.

One cigarette can contain up to 1.2 milligrams of nicotine. If this nicotine was administered intravenously, this amount would be enough to kill seven adult men. However, when you smoke, you are getting a very diluted dose. Most of the nicotine in a cigarette disappears with the smoke. The tiny portion that reaches the lungs is diluted again in the bloodstream. As a result, blood contains about 100 nanograms of nicotine per milliliter, which is 1 billionth the nicotine content written on a pack of cigarettes. And by the time nicotine reaches the brain, its concentration drops to 40 nanograms. However, this is quite enough to satisfy most smokers.

Are health risks reduced by smoking low-nicotine cigarettes? At first glance it seems so. However, if a smoker smokes a “light” cigarette, he unconsciously takes deeper puffs to get the usual dose of nicotine. This is called compensatory smoking. As a result, he will likely smoke more cigarettes than usual, which means he will inhale more carbon monoxide, tar, and other combustion products from tobacco. So it is quite possible that “light” cigarettes are even more harmful than regular ones.

Smoking pipes.

When we see a person smoking a pipe, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Personally, I think that he is a wealthy person who has achieved almost everything he wanted in his life. People automatically classify such people as elite. This is due to the fact that smoking a pipe is not a cheap pleasure, and not everyone can afford it. A considerable number of people believe that smoking a pipe is not the same as smoking a cigarette. Maybe, I don't argue. So, is pipe smoking just as dangerous as smoking cigarettes, or is this just speculation from supporters of a healthy lifestyle.

Pipe smoking is becoming a fashionable habit nowadays, although it dates back more than three thousand years. Now a little history.

Archaeologists and historians involved in the study of the Mayan and Central American Indian civilizations claim that the entire history of the pipe came from there. Here tobacco was used both for medicinal purposes and in religious rituals (for example, inhaling tobacco smoke helps to communicate with the gods). Pipes appeared in Europe after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492.

At first, in Russia there was a very severe punishment for smoking a pipe in public. So pipe makers were flogged, their nostrils were torn out and sent to Siberia, and those who were caught smoking again had their heads cut off. Impressive, right? But still there were no fewer pipe smokers, quite the contrary. And the rulers had to make concessions. Pipes were made from various materials: stone, clay (in Europe - from clay and with small cups, because tobacco was too expensive), porcelain, beech, wild cherry, elm, walnut, ivory, marble and much more .

The first briar pipes, now the most famous and popular material for their manufacture, appeared in the first half of the 19th century in the south of France.

There are many types of pipes: bent and straight, long with a small cup and short nose warmers, with different shapes of cups (round (Prince), oval (Lovet), cylindrical (stand-up poker)), faceted, etc.

Now let's talk about the harm that comes from smoking a pipe. There is an opinion that a cigarette cannot be compared with a pipe because:

1. a person no longer receives such pleasure;

Pipe smoking causes less harm to health than cigarettes.

According to the results of research by American scientists at the National Cancer Institute, it became known that the consequences of smoking for pipe lovers are practically no different from those for lovers of “simple” types of tobacco products. “Tubifex worms” also often developed malignant tumors (esophagus, larynx, lungs), diseases of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. These data were obtained after a survey of 138 thousand smokers, of whom 15,265 smoked pipes rather than cigarettes.

For comparison between exceptional pipe smoking and upper malignancies digestive tract Scientists from Italy used data from 1984 to 1999 using a case-control method. This technique took into account age, education, body weight and alcohol consumption. As a result, they came to the following conclusions: compared with never smokers, those who smoked only a pipe were more likely to get sick. were 8.7 times higher for everyone malignant neoplasms upper digestive tract. Pipe smokers are 12.6 times more likely to develop cancer of the mouth and pharynx, and 7.2 times more likely to develop cancer of the esophagus. It was also observed that for those pipe smokers who drink a lot of alcohol, this risk increases to 38.8 times. Thus, pipe smoking and excessive drinking of alcohol multiply each other's harmful effects.

Pipe smoking was also found to be associated with a risk of death from 6 of 9 types of cancer: larynx, esophagus, nasopharynx, pancreas, lung, colon and rectum.

Now, before you light a pipe, think about it, do you need all this?

Smoking hookah

The effect of tobacco smoke on the smoker's body has been repeatedly examined from many perspectives. However, there have been no studies on the effects of smoke passing through a water filter, like in a hookah. This phenomenon has also been little studied from a sociological point of view. Indeed, from this point of view, we have to admit that for more than four centuries, every day hookah colors life and subordinates tens of millions of people to its rhythm, in public institutions or at home. The practice of hookah smoking has become a real mass phenomenon and today continues to actively develop.

Hookah tobacco comes in mainly three forms: The first is "tumbak", a regular tobacco (Nicotiana Rustica) containing a lot of nicotine, most used today in Iran. The smoker moistens it with water, squeezes it out and places it tightly in the hookah bowl. The second type is "mu essel", tobacco soaked in molasses and flavored with various fruit shavings. The third form, "jurak", can be considered intermediate.

In a hookah, the smoke is cooled by passing through water, and the cooling is accompanied by filtration. Hookah smoke, devoid of substances such as acrolein and aldehydes, unlike cigarette smoke, does not irritate the mucous membranes of the throat or nose of smokers and non-smokers located near the hookah. This fact partly explains the public fascination and widespread use of this method of smoking tobacco as hookah. Passing smoke through water also reduces the amount of tar, tar and other potentially carcinogenic nicotine substances. Initially, tobacco is distilled in a bowl from hot coals, then the smoke descends through a shaft that is immersed in water, after this “washing” the smoke rises along the hose and through the mouthpiece enters the smoker’s lungs.

Various scientific studies have shown that filtering tobacco smoke through water in a hookah reduces the content of: nicotine, up to 90% phenols, up to 50% fine particulate matter, benzopyrene (benzo(a)pirene), aromatic hydrocarbons polycyclique (polycyclique). There is a reduction in the carcinogenic potential of smoke that has crossed the water compared to smoke that has not undergone such filtration. Passing through water, the smoke is cleared of acroleine and acetaldehyde, substances harmful to alveolar macrophages (macrophages), the main cells of the lungs' defenses and important elements of the human immune system. Akram Chafei, in his studies of Egyptian hookah, notes that hookah smoking, like smoking a cigarette, “... brings about acute changes in pulmonary function.” While cigarette smoke affects the small airway endings of the bronchioles involved in the pulmonary blood supply, hookah smoke "... produces an immediate effect on the larger airways."

But the most interesting is the recent research of C. Macaron. Her merit and uniqueness of her research lies in the fact that she studied exclusively hookah smokers. In this way, mixed cigarette and waterpipe smokers and former cigarette smokers were separated. The blood levels of cotinine are higher in hookah smokers than in cigarette smokers. The author believes that while it is likely that smoke, passing through water, loses the concentration of some of its components, then other elements probably remain unchanged. On this basis, the researchers believe that the “cleaning” effect of water on smoke is negated. Meanwhile, we note that casual hookah smokers, and they represent the majority of hookah lovers, do not have a tobacco or nicotine addiction. They almost never smoke cigarettes because they seek, first of all, new aromas, tastes, and ambience, like some coffee lovers. In addition, often these smokers are simply following fashion or want to appear “cool”. They savor the hookah at the level of the taste buds, without feeling the need to inhale the smoke. If there is an addiction among them, it is most likely a behavioral or social addiction.

Using a special Smokelyzer apparatus, the alveolar CO content of various types smokers. The findings were consistent with those reported above; elevated levels of carbon monoxide were found in hookah smokers. This gas is formed during any slow or incomplete combustion process, as happens with tobacco in a hookah. The level of carbon monoxide ranges from 10 ppm to 60 ppm, depending on the individual and the degree of ventilation of the room - in an unventilated room, the CO content is increased - up to 28%. It is this gas that provokes an increase in heart rate.

As for the slight intoxication observed in smokers after smoking a hookah, it is not caused by any opiates, moreover, not contained in hookah tobacco, but is caused by the action of the same carbon monoxide.

Finally, a heavy hookah smoker explains that he cannot stop smoking hookah for more than two days. This period is not related to the half-life of nicotine, which occurs approximately 2 hours after smoking, but to cotinine, whose half-life ranges between 15 and 20 hours. Despite all the abundance, today there is no coherent hypothesis about the nature of such dependence.

Ministries of health today should focus their efforts on developing hookah products that reduce the carbon monoxide content of cigarette smoke, these could be alternative sources heating, for example electric, replacing coal combustion or special filters.

Teen smoking

Teenagers are unaware of the dangers associated with smoking because they constantly watch their elders casually do it. Another culprit that leads young people to smoke is peer pressure. However, sometimes smoking becomes the result of some kind of act of open defiance or simply a consequence of curiosity. If you have suspicions that your teenager has started smoking, and if they are justified, then pay attention to this and teach your child the dangers of smoking.

Smoking and the associated danger to life.

Every year, millions of people around the world die from diseases caused by smoking. And this figure is likely to rise as more young people take up this deadly habit.

The smallest smoker is a seven-year-old boy who makes his living by looking for waste suitable for recycling.

This scenario is typical for third world countries and is only the tip of the iceberg. Smoking is gradually taking away young lives, but it generates billions of dollars in taxes for governments. Thus, the problem remains still unresolved, like the dire predictions of impending global warming, which most choose to ignore.

Long-term smoking leads to several types of cancer. Due to early onset and longer exposure to the venom, young people are at increased risk. And quitting smoking is just as difficult as quitting heroin. Nowadays, there are support groups designed to help people get out of the hole and start living a healthy life. But this is easier said than done. Smoking is not prohibited by law and young children caught with a cigarette are not punished for it. Consequently, the vicious circle continues. If you are a parent and discover that your teenager is smoking, you need to take immediate action to help your child quit the habit.

How to help your child quit smoking

The distraught mother said she caught her son and daughter smoking in the room. The smell of cigarette smoke in the room helped solve the mystery. Empty cigarette packs and cigarette butts were found in the trash can. Anxious, the mother reported the incident to her husband, also non-smoking person. In order to wean their children from smoking, parents enrolled them in a rehabilitation and support program.

If you can't catch your kids smoking at home, try to find out who they hang out with and where they hang out after school. Someone will definitely tell you whether your teenager’s friends smoke.

Asking your son or daughter not to hang out with their smoking friends will not give you encouraging results. Instead, invite their friends to your home and show them videos, either on video or on the Internet (eg www.youtube.com), that detail the irreversible effects of smoking on the human body. Give them books about the effects of smoking or invite a doctor to a lesson at the children's school, or Parent meeting to discuss the dangers of smoking. Mobilize parents and ask school management and teaching staff to start a war on smoking. There should be no smoking areas and no smoking areas in the school. Instead, smoking should be banned completely. In response to protests, you can always explain that sometimes, in order to be kind, parents and teachers must be harsh. Smoking is deadly and in this case There should be no room for euphemism.

Be relentless in your efforts to wage the war on teen smoking. Smoking teenagers become adult smokers and suffer from its consequences in the future. Instead of waiting for disaster to strike, start your campaign today. If you love your children, make a strong decision. Someday, your children will thank you for persevering and making every effort to help them break a deadly and terrible habit.

Passive smoking

Smokers know that their addiction is harmful to them, but they assume that their smoking will only harm themselves. However, in recent years, more and more information has emerged that passive smoking contributes to the development of diseases characteristic of smokers in non-smokers.

When tobacco is burned, main and additional streams of smoke are formed. The main flow is formed during a puff of smoke and passes through all tobacco product, is inhaled and exhaled by the smoker. An additional flow is formed by exhaled smoke, and is also released between puffs into the environment from the charred part of the cigarette (cigarettes, pipes, etc.). More than 90% of the main stream consists of 350-500 gaseous components, of which carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are particularly harmful. The rest of the main flow consists of solid microparticles, including various toxic compounds. The content of some of them in the smoke of one cigarette is as follows: carbon monoxide - 10-23 mg, ammonia - 50-130 mg, phenol - 60-100 mg, acetone - 100-250 mcg, nitric oxide - 500-600 mcg, hydrogen cyanide - 400-500 mcg, radioactive polonium – 0.03-1. 0 nK. The main stream of tobacco smoke is formed by 35% of the burning cigarette, 50% goes into the surrounding air, making up an additional stream, from 5 to 15% of the components of the burnt cigarette remains on the filter. The additional flow contains 4-5 times more carbon monoxide, 50 times more nicotine and tar, and 45 times more ammonia than the main stream! Thus, paradoxically, many times more toxic components enter the atmosphere surrounding the smoker than enter the body of the smoker himself. It is this circumstance that makes passive or “forced” smoking particularly dangerous for others. When tobacco smoke is inhaled, radioactive particles settle deep in the lungs, are carried by the bloodstream throughout the body, settling in the tissues of the liver, pancreas, lymph nodes, bone marrow, etc.

The silent victims of secondhand smoke are children!

Children living in the same room with parents who smoke are twice as likely to develop respiratory diseases compared to children whose parents smoke in a separate room or children whose parents do not smoke. In such children, especially in the first year of life, bronchitis, night coughs, and pneumonia are more often recorded. Research from Germany shows a link between secondhand smoke and childhood asthma. The impact of passive smoking on the respiratory system of a child does not exhaust its immediate toxic effect on the body: even after growing up, there remains a difference in the indicators of mental and physical development in groups of children from families of smokers and non-smokers. If a child lives in an apartment where one of the family members smokes 1-2 packs of cigarettes, then the child has an amount of nicotine in his urine corresponding to 2-3 cigarettes!

The WHO Committee of International Experts also concluded that maternal smoking (“passive fetal smoking”) is the cause of sudden infant death syndrome in 30-50% of cases.

Passive smoking can cause blindness

Passive smoking increases a person's risk of blindness. According to the British Journal of Ophthalmology, scientists from the University of Cambridge studied the effect of smoking on age-related macular degeneration (SMD) and came to the conclusion that living with a smoker for five years doubles the risk of this disease, and regular active smoking triples it.

Early studies showed that smoking increases the likelihood of vision problems. However, the Cambridge team's work provides the clearest evidence that second-hand smoke has a similar effect. SDM usually develops in people over the 50-year mark. It affects the central part of the retina, which is extremely important for reading or driving. As a result, only peripheral vision remains active in a person. SDM does not always lead to blindness.

In the UK today there are about 500 thousand people suffering from this disease.

During the study, 435 patients with SDM and 280 without it were observed. Scientists have noticed that the more a person smokes, the greater their and their partners' chances of developing SDM. A person who smokes a pack a day or more for 40 years virtually triples this risk. And to double it, you only need to live with a smoker for five years.

It is more difficult for the wives of men who smoke to get pregnant

The results of a survey of pregnant women in antenatal clinics the city of Kyiv showed a clear influence of smoking of both parents on the likelihood of pregnancy. In particular, a man's smoking reduced the likelihood of pregnancy and development: the likelihood that pregnancy would not occur during the first year without contraception almost doubled. A weak but highly significant relationship was found between the number of cigarettes a man smokes per day and the duration of sexual activity before conception. Each additional cigarette smoked per day by a man reduced the likelihood of conceiving a child during the first year by an average of 1.05 times. The above study shows that the problem is not that pregnancy does not occur, but that it is interrupted when the future parents are not even aware of it.

Passive smoking increases the risk of breast cancer

Research conducted by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare found that the proportion of non-smoking women who develop breast cancer is 2.6 times higher if they are exposed to tobacco smoke at work or at home. This risk is especially high in women before menopause, which is likely due to higher concentrations of female sex hormones involved in breast tumorigenesis. “Avoiding both passive and active smoking is a measure to prevent breast cancer.”

Passive smoking increases the risk of heart disease

Exposure to tobacco smoke at work caused the death of about 250 people in Finland in 1996, according to a recent study. In a study conducted by the Finnish Institute Occupational Health, studied statistics on causes of death, exposure to tobacco smoke at work and information about the risk of various diseases. In the latest issue of the Finnish Medical Journal, Dr. Markku Nurminen writes that the biggest killer of diseases caused by secondhand smoke was coronary heart disease. The number of such deaths exceeds 100. The relatively high risk caused by exposure to tobacco smoke is explained by the fact that the most dangerous substances in second-hand tobacco smoke are in the gas phase, while the main risk factors in the smoke that smokers themselves inhale are contained in suspended phase. As a gas, substances travel deeper into the lungs than particulate matter in smoke, making it harder for the body to get rid of them.

Passive smoking and the brain

Inhalation of tobacco smoke causes disturbances in brain activity, since the nervous system is most sensitive to tobacco poisons, which entails serious illnesses central nervous system. According to some studies, circulatory disorders in the brain caused by exposure to tobacco smoke caused the death of almost 80 people in 1996. Exposure to second-hand smoke increases the risk of cerebral circulatory problems by 1.8 times.

Consequences of smoking

1. Brain -> Stroke

A stroke occurs when a blood vessel that supplies oxygen to the brain becomes blocked by a blood clot or other debris. Thrombosis cerebral vessels- the most common reason stroke. Thrombosis means the formation of a blood clot and disruption of the blood supply to the brain. Another type of stroke occurs when a diseased artery in the brain (such as an aneurysm) ruptures. This phenomenon is called cerebral hemorrhage.

2. Heart -> Heart disease

Smoking is the main cause of damage to the coronary arteries, which can lead to myocardial infarction. Smokers have an increased risk of atherosclerosis (clogged arteries) and other changes that affect the cardiovascular system. Smoking itself increases the risk of coronary artery disease, and when combined with other factors, these diseases become even more likely. Nicotine and carbon monoxide contained in tobacco smoke disrupt the supply of oxygen to the blood and, through various mechanisms, cause damage to the heart and blood vessels.

3. Lungs -> Lung cancer

Approximately 85% of lung cancer cases occurring in a year can be traced to smoking. People who smoke two or more packs of cigarettes per day for 20 years have a 60-70% increased risk of lung cancer compared to non-smokers. The risk of lung cancer is higher the more cigarettes you smoke per day, the longer you smoke, the more more quantity inhaled smoke, as well as the higher the tar and nicotine content in cigarettes.

On x-ray pathological is visible in the lung extensive education(arrow). Later, a biopsy proved that it was lung cancer. Characteristic symptoms: constant painful cough, hemoptysis, repeated pneumonia, bronchitis or chest pain.

4. COPD -> Chronic bronchitis

COPD is a chronic lung disease characterized by progressive narrowing and destruction of the bronchial tree and pulmonary alveoli.

Although the main cause of COPD is smoking, other factors also play a role - long-term inhalation of smoke, dust and chemicals, as well as frequent lung infections in childhood. Some people have an increased risk of COPD due to genetic reasons. These individuals have a genetic defect called alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency. COPD includes two main diseases - chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Most patients with COPD have a combination of both diseases.

Chronic bronchitis is manifested by a cough with sputum that occurs in winter for 2 years in a row. Some patients have a cough with sputum - the only symptom, others have complaints of difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. If you cough or produce phlegm, call your doctor to have your lungs checked.

Emphysema refers to an abnormality of the alveoli where the tissue around the alveoli changes, making them dilated and appearing like holes in the lungs on an X-ray (resembling Swiss cheese). Main symptom- shortness of breath. There is a cough, but it is less pronounced than with chronic bronchitis. The chest becomes barrel-shaped.

5. Stomach -> Cancer and stomach ulcers

The effect of long-term smoking is to stimulate secretion of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, corroding the protective layer in its cavity. Aching or burning pain between the sternum and the navel is the most common symptom, occurring after meals and early in the morning. The pain may last from a few minutes to several hours; Sometimes the pain is relieved by eating or antacids. Smoking slows down the healing of ulcers and promotes their recurrence.

Characteristic symptoms:

- aching or burning pain in the abdomen, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite and weight loss.

On early stages Stomach cancer usually has no symptoms. It is known that stomach cancer can occur against the background of an ulcer, and the risk is higher in smokers.

6. Fetus -> Risk factors

In women, smoking significantly increases the risk of chronic diseases, including pulmonary complications, and premature death. Studies have shown that smoking significantly increases the risk of heart disease in premenopausal women, especially while taking birth control pills. Studies have shown that women who regularly smoke one pack of cigarettes a day or more during pregnancy have babies that weigh less than those of non-smoking mothers. Carbon monoxide inhaled as part of tobacco smoke enters the fetal blood and reduces oxygen absorption, leading to severe oxygen starvation. Other effects of smoking include decreased blood flow, which interferes with the transport of vital nutrients from mother to fetus.

Low-weight babies are weaker overall and more susceptible to illness than average-weight babies. Women who smoke are more likely to end their pregnancy premature birth, miscarriage or stillbirth. Research also does not exclude that children born to mothers who smoked during and after pregnancy are more likely to experience sudden infant death syndrome.

7. Bladder -> Bladder cancer

Bladder cancer occurs mainly in smokers over 40 years of age. In men, the risk is 4 times higher than in women. The most common early symptom is blood in the urine without pain or discomfort.

Characteristic symptoms:

- blood in urine;
- pain in the pelvic area;
- difficulty urinating.

8. Larynx -> Esophageal cancer

Smoking can cause esophageal cancer by damaging cells located inside the organ. The longer a person smokes, the higher the risk.

Characteristic symptoms:

- difficulty swallowing;
- pain or discomfort in the chest;
- weight loss.

9. Tongue -> Oral cancer

Oral cancer is most common in people who smoke and drink alcohol. In most cases, the tumor occurs on the sides or lower surface of the tongue, as well as in the area of ​​the floor of the mouth.

Characteristic symptoms:

- small pale swelling or thickening unusual color on the tongue, in the mouth, on the cheek, gum or palate.

10. Uterus -> Malignant tumors

Smoking exposes the entire body to various carcinogenic chemical compounds. For example, in women who smoke, derivatives of tobacco components are found in the cervical mucus. Scientists believe these substances damage cervical cells and likely increase the risk of cancer.

Just the facts

1. In Russia, 70.5% of men smoke, and among high school students in large cities, 30-47% of boys and 25-32% of girls cannot do without a cigarette. Every year 25 billion cigarettes are smoked in Russia.
2. Men and women smoke various reasons. Californian scientists managed to establish this during an experiment. Each participant in the experiment was asked to carefully record the mood that prevailed at the moment when he took up a cigarette. It turned out that men mostly smoke when they are irritated or angry about something. Women reach for a cigarette when they feel emotional or have fun. True, both use smoking as a means to alleviate sadness or depression.
3. A tobacco museum has appeared in Russia. Its exhibits include many types of pipes, mouthpieces, and various types of tobacco. Its creator is Vladimir Yablokov, a well-known collector of cigarettes and cigarettes. He opened the museum right in his home in the city of Kachkanar. Now Vladimir Yablokov is planning to create a club at the museum, where he plans to wean the current generation of young people from the harmful habit of smoking.
4. The Omsk "Institute of Medical, Social and Legal Initiatives" under the leadership of Igor Baturin believes that cigarette propaganda deployed in the most crowded places subsequently negatively affects the health of children and adolescents. If the Omsk Antimonopoly Committee proves Baturin is right, the customer of tobacco advertising, the Philip Morris company, will be fined 200 times the minimum wage.
5. Last summer, Nicorette drugs became the first anti-tobacco drugs approved for over-the-counter sales in Japan. Nicorette chewing gum has been approved by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. According to a report by the Japanese Minister of Health in 1999, 52.7% of men and some percentage of women smoke, the percentages are increasing, and lung cancer has long overtaken stomach cancer in the mortality rankings. Nicorette is the number one smoking cessation drug in the world, available in 60 countries. Pharmacia has developed and marketed a range of nicotine replacement therapy products - chewing gum, patch, inhaler, aerosol and tablet. In 2000, sales of Nicorette exceeded one million.
6. China has 20% of the world's population and 25% of all smokers. More cigarettes are produced here than in any other country. Scientists predict that by 2025, more than two million Chinese will die from diseases caused by cigarettes.
7. In Zimbabwe, one third of all farmers and 12% of all workers are employed in the tobacco industry.
8. In 1988, Philip Morris paid $350,000 to have their cigarettes featured in the new James Bond series License to Kill.
9. In 1979, Philip Morris paid $42,500 to have Marlboro appear in Superman II, and fellow cigarette maker Ligget paid $30,000 to have its cigarettes appear in Supergirl. By the way, these films have a huge children's audience...
10. Children have been found to smoke the most advertised cigarette brands.
11. 49.7% Australian Aboriginals smoke.
12. Ottawa is a non-smoking city. By decision of the authorities, from September 1, 2001, smoking was prohibited in all public places, hospitals, indoors government agencies, in restaurants, as well as bars and private clubs. Lead is also excluded special places for smoking. Law enforcement officials will monitor compliance with the ban. Violators began to be fined on September 4. The first violation costs approximately 250 Canadian dollars, subsequent ones - up to 5,000 Canadian dollars.
13. Support the new law public organizations, doctors and trade unions. All of them not only care about the health of their fellow citizens, but also fight against social wastefulness: the spread of smoking leads to an increase in diseases, which results in high costs for sick leave, as well as possible claims against companies that did not warn their employees about the dangers of smoking in the workplace.
14. In Europe and the USA, persecution of smokers is also steadily increasing. A tough new bill is being prepared in the United States that will ban smoking in almost all public places. The current law, passed in 1995, prohibits smoking in restaurants with more than 35 seats, in office buildings and even in private offices with more than three employees. If the new law is adopted, smoking will only be allowed in specialized bars and nightclubs. There are states where anti-smoking laws are particularly strict. In California, for example, smoking is prohibited in all public places without exception.
15. Vitamin C is dangerous for smokers. Australian scientists found this out. The thing is that when smoking, among other nasty things, heavy metal cadmium, in combination with which harmless vitamin C can provoke the appearance cancer cells. Cadmium is practically not excreted from the body, therefore, as scientists warn, it is not recommended to abuse vitamin C (that is, consume more than 0.25 g per day) even if you quit smoking several years ago.
16. Aeroflot will tighten restrictions on smoking on airplanes. This is noted in his interviews by the company’s general director Valery Okulov. According to him, a survey of passengers shows that those who choose Aeroflot aircraft would prefer non-smoking flights.
17. Smoking is strictly prohibited in Singapore public transport, taxis, elevators, (cinema) theaters, public places, air-conditioned restaurants and shopping centers.
18. In Los Angeles, on Santa Monica Boulevard, there is a board counting the number of deaths from cigarette addiction. The countdown begins on January 1 and ends on December 31 of each year. The figure that manages to “run up” is impressive...
19. In his dying interview, the Hollywood star, a talented Jew from Vladivostok, Yul Brynner, exhorted “never smoke”! The cigarette helped the death of many artists: Louis Armstrong and Leonard Bernstein, Humphrey Bogart and Richard Boone, Walt Disney and Vincent Price, Steve McQueen and John Huston, Clark Gable and John Wayne, Gary Cooper and Betty Grable, Buster Keaton and Nat "King" Cole, Bing Crosby and Robert Taylor...
20. According to Interfax, an American tried to quit smoking for many years, and, in despair, cut off his right hand, which he used to bring a cigarette to his mouth. The act is meaningless - after all, you can hold a cigarette in your left hand, and the passion for smoking is certainly not in your hand, but in your head. Fortunately, the doctors managed to sew the sufferer’s hand back to its original place.

Smoking has now become a bad habit, with which little can be compared in terms of prevalence. Some new bans are constantly being introduced that are somehow related to it - either the government is trying to complicate the sale of cigarettes, or it wants to increase prices for them, or it is trying to impose a ban on smoking in various public places. But people still smoke and smoke.

There is information that on average every third adult in the world smokes at least with some frequency. And the number of victims of this addiction is constantly growing - tobacco ranks second among the most common causes of death in the world.

Many believe that the harm from it is nothing more than a myth actively circulating in the media, but all the research conducted on this topic confirms that the consequences are at least very noticeable, and in many cases even extremely dangerous. Let's try to figure out what the consequences of smoking may be.

Aesthetic consequences

First of all, we will focus on the not so dangerous, but very unpleasant consequences that active smoking entails. It affects a person’s appearance and his aesthetic appeal to others. Many appear negative factors, among which:

• Change in tooth color. This is not such a slight darkening as with regular use coffee, this is an unpleasant yellowness.
• Unpleasant smell. A smoker always smells very unpleasant. Of course, over time, a smoker simply stops paying attention to such a smell, but the people around him react to it and cannot ignore it.
• Loose skin. The properties of the skin change, it becomes flabby, especially under the eyes. It also sags all over the body.
• Pale skin. The skin not only turns pale, but becomes extremely uneven in color. In addition, as a consequence of smoking, characteristically pronounced spots appear.
• Hair loss. Smokers go bald to a greater extent than people who decide to abstain from smoking.

But if smoking tobacco only brought aesthetic changes, then it would not be such a big problem; in fact, the harm that the consequences of smoking cause is much greater.

Heart problems

Problems start with the heart. Smokers are approximately three times more likely to die from a heart attack. The likelihood of death from a stroke also increases to approximately the same extent. Aneurysm development occurs more often abdominal aorta. Due to the narrowing of the arteries, obstruction of large arteries develops, which can later lead to the development of gangrene.

Lung problems

One of the first places where the effects of smoking appear is in the lungs. At first, tobacco damage damages the respiratory epithelium. At first this leads to a normal morning cough, but then the problem gets worse. The likelihood of developing bronchitis or emphysema increases tenfold.

The biggest problem is lung cancer. The indicators of this problem among smokers are simply enormous - about 85% of the causes of all cases of lung cancer are due to lung cancer. To make matters worse, approximately 15% of all active smokers develop it.

In addition, the risk of developing active tuberculosis, which is also very dangerous for humans, increases significantly.

Other problems

This is only a small part of the consequences that come with active smoking. There are many more problems; they affect almost any system of the body. Here are just a few of the other problems that may arise:

• Decreased sexual desire.
• Problems with the reproductive system, including serious complications during pregnancy.
• Other types of cancer including prostate, mouth, colon and so on.
• Density reduction bone tissue and, as a consequence, the development of osteoporosis.
• Exposure of the necks of teeth and the development of periodontal disease.
• Problems with the stomach and intestines, including the appearance of chronic gastritis or ulcers, damage to the mucous membrane of the large intestine, and so on.
• Problems with saliva production.
• Relaxation of the muscles of the lower esophageal sphincter - and deterioration of motility of the muscles of the large intestine.

The consequences of smoking are very scary and very negative, so don’t indulge this lesson even in small quantities– the body will not appreciate this.

Tobacco smoke, which contains more than 4 thousand harmful compounds, causes chronic poisoning in smokers who systematically consume more than 15 cigarettes per day. In terms of prevalence, smoking hookahs, cigars, cigarettes, and pipes is comparable to mass poisoning on a global scale.

Consequences of smoking

Nicotine causes harm to the body. This nerve toxin enters the human body through the lungs and swallowed saliva during puffing.

When you inhale cigarette smoke, tar droplets containing nicotine are deposited in the alveoli of the lungs. Adsorbed in bloodstream, nicotine reaches the brain. High concentration it does not exist in the blood for long and after 30 minutes it returns to normal, and the person again wants to smoke.

Nicotine, swallowed with saliva, enters the esophagus, then into the stomach. The poison is absorbed primarily in the intestines, irritating the mucous membrane.

When the usual dose of tobacco is significantly exceeded, poisoning occurs (toxicosis):

• acute - with a single action large quantity poisons;
• chronic – smoking more than 15 cigarettes per day.

Acute toxicosis

Inhaling a large dose of tobacco causes a spasm in the stomach and throat. The smoker feels sick and vomits. Disturbances primarily affect the digestive system. The patient experiences diarrhea and abdominal pain.

As nicotine is absorbed into the blood, changes in the nervous system are observed, the following are noted:

• dizziness, tinnitus;
• extreme pallor, constricted pupils;
• excitement, headache;
• convulsions, trembling.

Gradually the patient's condition changes, he falls into a stupor, his body is covered with sweat. A few hours later, in the absence of help, the person dies. Similar symptoms, but less pronounced, is experienced by every smoker who takes a puff on a cigarette for the first time.

Chronic smoking - nicotineism

With prolonged smoking, the aversion to the smell and taste of tobacco smoke disappears, which is a sign of chronic tobacco poisoning or nicotineism. The number of cigarettes necessary for satisfactory well-being gradually increases. If more than 15 cigarettes are consumed per day for 2 to 5 years, chronic tobacco smoking occurs, which has dire consequences.

The patient requires an increasingly large dose of nicotine, the daily number of cigarettes reaches 2 packs. By this time, the person no longer has the euphoria from the cigarette, and the apparent increase in activity disappears. He falls completely into slavery from his habit, waking up with the thought of a cigarette.

Diseases from smoking

Nicotine affects all organs of the body. Changes affect endocrine system. By affecting the production of hormones, the poison interferes with the functioning of organs and systems. The toxin affects the adrenal glands, causing their anatomical disorders, increasing the production of hormones, stimulating the production of adrenaline.

Increased production of adrenaline leads to an increase in blood sugar concentration. This fact explains why smokers immediately light a cigarette in the morning. Tobacco affects thyroid gland, increasing its volume. The consequences of smoking also include an imbalance of gland hormones and the appearance of goiter.

Circulatory organs

Carbon monoxide from smoke enters the bloodstream and binds to red blood cells. This disrupts the transport of oxygen to the heart, causing hypoxia of myocardial tissue.

Smoking is dangerous for the vascular system:

• increased likelihood of heart attacks;
• an increase in the concentration of cholesterol in the blood;
• development of atherosclerosis;
• increasing the risk of thrombosis.

A heart attack caused by smoking is manifested by pain in the heart area, a feeling of suffocation, increased body temperature, and panic.

Smoking is the cause of obliterating endarteritis, caused by narrowing small arteries stop under the influence of nicotine, impaired oxygen supply to the muscles and connective tissues limbs.

A characteristic symptom is lameness, a feeling of “crawling sensations” in the affected foot, numbness, and absence of pulse in the arteries of the leg. The disease affects smokers of working age. Impaired oxygen transport due to vasoconstriction leads to tissue necrosis and provokes gangrene of the big toes.

Respiratory system

Respiratory diseases in smokers are especially severe. The probability of chronic bronchitis in smokers exceeds 82%.

• the number of cigarettes smoked per day is multiplied by the duration (in years) of smoking;
• the result is divided by 20.

With an index value above 10, the risk of lung disease increases.

Chronic lung disease affects 11 million smokers in Russia and 14 million in the United States. The disease is caused by the damaging effects of smoke particles and gases. 90% of cases of this disease are caused by active smoking, 10% get sick due to being in smoky rooms. Staying in a building with polluted air for 8 hours is equivalent to smoking 5 cigarettes.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Smoking is also dangerous because experienced addicts develop:

• uncomplicated bronchitis, laryngitis, tracheitis, bronchospasms;
• chronic bronchitis, bronchiolitis with deformation, limitation of the airways through which oxygen penetrates into the smallest alveoli of the lungs;
• emphysema.

A sign of oxygen starvation of the respiratory system is a change in the shape of the nails of the fingers and toes. They take on a convex shape and look like a watch glass. This sign appears on the legs earlier than on the hands. In chronic bronchitis with deformation of the bronchi, the fingers take on the appearance of drumsticks.

Lung cancer

Lung cancer is another answer to the question regarding the dangers of smoking. The risk group includes smokers who consume more than a pack of cigarettes per day. 20% of them get lung cancer and die from this disease.

Symptoms of lung cancer include:

• weight loss;
• shortness of breath at rest, when moving;
• cough;
• frequent bronchitis, acute respiratory infections;
• sudden causeless chills;
• hemoptysis.

Nervous system

Nicotine poisoning of the nervous system is manifested by headaches, fatigue, and apathy. When the amount of poison in the blood increases, excitement occurs, up to the appearance of psychosis. The patient's condition worsens and is accompanied by confusion.

Sign acute poisoning Nicotine in brain structures causes dizziness, tinnitus, disruption of the hearing aid, and distortion of visual perception. Increases when smoking intraocular pressure, which increases the symptoms of glaucoma.

Digestive tract

Cigarette smoke contains ammonia; when inhaled, it irritates the mucous membranes of the cheeks, tongue, and gums. Smoke coats the smoker's teeth with plaque. Under the influence high temperature and toxic components in places where the mucous membrane comes into contact with a cigarette increases the risk of cancer.

Oral cancer is caused by smoking in 92% of cases, and esophageal cancer is caused by the same cause in 78% of cases.

TO medical consequences Smoking also includes stomach problems. So, nicotine:

• irritates the mucous membrane by swallowing saliva with smoke particles;
• disrupts innervation due to the effect of nicotine on the autonomic nervous system.

Smokers experience spasms of the esophagus and stomach, and the secretion of gastric juices and saliva increases. Nicotine can also act in the opposite way. In old age, smokers experience a decrease in secretion gastric juice, deterioration of fibrin digestion.

Smokers more often develop gastritis, erosion, stomach ulcers, the liver becomes enlarged, and inflammation occurs in the intestines.

Excretory organs

Smoking increases the risk of urinary system diseases. Toxic substances cause irritation of the bladder, ureters, and kidneys. These diseases are more common in men.

Nicotine is the main cause of bladder cancer in 47% of all cases, kidney cancer develops due to smoking in 48% of patients.

Reproductive organs

In women, there is a decrease in estrogen levels, and the balance between the hormones responsible for ovulation and the cyclicity of menstruation is disrupted. Women who smoke are more likely to suffer from bleeding, early menopause, and infertility. Pregnancies in women who smoke more often end in miscarriages and are accompanied by toxicosis.

In men, smoking affects potency, disrupts hormonal balance, and deteriorates sperm quality.

Forecast

The prognosis depends on the smoking experience. At long-term use tobacco causes irreversible damage to the lungs, heart, and nervous system; they are organic in nature and are not fully compensated even with complete cessation of smoking.

Video about the consequences of smoking:

The words “cigarette” and “health” are incompatible with each other, and the consequences can be very irreversible, and a person at any age should know about the dangers of smoking. Nicotine is a powerful toxin that gradually destroys the cells of the bronchopulmonary system, and then the entire body. Therefore, realizing the colossal harm of smoking, it is important to finally get rid of this destructive addiction, carry out a series of preventive measures for the final removal of toxic substances.

What is smoking

This bad habit is global problem modernity, since every year it is rapidly becoming “younger”. The number of men smoking is constantly growing, and female body Such fatal dependence is often characteristic. Tobacco smoking is equated to alcohol addiction, since in both cases a person can die from fatal diseases. In recent years, many people have become aware of this problem and are quitting smoking, but the younger generation still strives to “try everything.”

How many harmful substances are in a cigarette?

Helpful information Note for heavy smokers: one cigarette contains about 4,000 chemical compounds, 40 of which are poisons hazardous to health. These are carbon dioxide, arsenic, nicotine, cyanide, benzopyrene, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, hydrocyanic acid. After arbitrary inhalation of tobacco smoke (this concerns the health of passive smokers), pathological processes also predominate in the body, which are provoked by radioactive substances such as polonium, lead, and bismuth. This chemical composition is what makes tobacco harmful.

Why is smoking harmful?

Chemical substances, which are contained in a cigarette, can become fatal for a person if they enter the body for a long time. From destructive dependence in relatively at a young age Thousands of people die every year, and even more are susceptible to chronic cough, bronchitis, obstructive pulmonary disease and other diseases with unexpected clinical outcomes. Therefore, it is important to promptly treat tobacco addiction and the consequences of its prevalence in a person’s life.

The harm of smoking on the human body

Everyone suffers during prolonged exposure to nicotine internal organs and systems, since smokers’ blood is enriched not with oxygen, but with toxic substances. This pathological condition favors atherosclerosis and becomes the main cause of most cardiovascular diseases. However, health problems do not end there; the presence of bad habits contributes to a decrease in intellectual abilities and more.

For men

The first thing to note is that nicotine can have a detrimental effect on the potency of the stronger sex. Men who smoke for a long time do everything to personally experience violations before the age of 40. erectile function. For a full-bodied and active representative of the stronger sex, this is a tragedy, so you should not bring your own body to the point of the appearance of these pathologies. In addition to heart disease, health problems may include:

• Chronical bronchitis;
• pneumonia;
• BPH;
• oxygen starvation of tissues (hypoxia);
• tuberculosis;
• progressive retinal dystrophy;
• decreased visual acuity and hearing;
• deterioration appearance and skin structure;
• exacerbation of nervous diseases;
• chronic cough;
• gradual yellowing, destruction of tooth enamel;
• malignant tumors.

For women

These pathologies are partly characteristic of the female body if a representative of the fairer sex smokes. Nicotine in high concentration causes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, does not exclude the presence of diagnosed infertility. Smoking kills gradually, but first it turns a woman into a disabled person. If we talk about diseases of the respiratory tract, nicotine is not limited to such a pathological process. Cigarettes cause harm to the body on a large scale, and here are the clinical pictures that occur:

• nicotine contributes to miscarriage in early pregnancy;
• presence lingering cough smoking becomes the norm of everyday life;
• smoking increases the risk of myocardial infarction and cerebral stroke;
• Negative consequences spread to the skin, contribute to its aging;
• there is a change in voice timbre, a dry cough is constantly bothering you;
• smoking can result in lung cancer;
• nicotine can cause deep depression;
• smoking causes mental disorders that are prone to relapse;
• under the influence of nicotine, gastric vessels become pathologically narrowed, peristalsis is disrupted;
• Cigarettes cause serious damage to the structure of nails, hair, and teeth.

For the child's body

Teenagers also “dabble in cigarettes,” not understanding how they may suffer from the negative effects of nicotine in the future. Smoking increases the risk of developing chronic diseases, and the health consequences can be the most irreparable - death from lung cancer at a relatively young age. Drinking alcohol and smoking causes the following pathologies in adolescents:

• cigarette reduces intellectual abilities, significantly inhibits psychomotor functions;
• the consequences of smoking cigarettes for schoolchildren are accompanied by the risk of diseases of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems;
• the harm of cigarettes becomes the main cause of cancer, the formation of tumors not only in the bronchopulmonary system;
• if a teenager becomes addicted to such a drug, the consequences affect the physical and mental state;
• bad habits disrupt metabolism, increase body weight, and contribute to the development of obesity.

Diseases from smoking

Understanding how smoking affects the human body, it is important to know all the existing diagnoses that a smoker may personally encounter at a young age. Less, but also noticeable, harm from hookah smoking. If a person constantly smokes, he must understand that he can be overtaken by the following chronic diseases with the most unexpected clinical outcome:

• Chronical bronchitis;
• emphysema;
• malignant lung tumor;
• vascular atherosclerosis;
• myocardial infarction;
• obliterating endarteritis;
• impotence and frigidity;
• pulmonary embolism;
• congenital deformities of the child;
• extensive pathologists of the gastrointestinal tract;
• diagnosed infertility;
• pneumonia.

Cancer

Smoking is harmful to health, and colossal. Nicotine at long-term exposure provokes cell mutation and promotes the formation of malignant tumors. The problem is aggravated by a genetic predisposition to this kind of pathology. Oncology is fatal, and a person can die at a young age. The disease brings physical torment and mental suffering, and pathological process you can't always stop it. Therefore, it is important to explain to the child as early as early childhood why smoking is harmful.

The harm of smoking to others

Giving up bad habits is not only beneficial for your health, but also a benefit for others. The harm from smoking cigarettes is felt by passers-by and close relatives who have to regularly come into contact with a heavy smoker. Nicotine in tobacco smoke causes increased heart rate, impaired heart rate, cough and even severe attacks of suffocation. When faced with secondhand smoke, here's what you should be especially wary of:

• risk of arbitrary miscarriage (for pregnant women who smoke);
• reduced fertility;
• depressive state;
• redness, irritation of the eyes;
• dry throat, sore throat;
• attacks of coughing, choking;
• decline in performance.

Consequences

The harm of smoking is obvious after the first cigarette, as a sore throat, unpleasant odor, and dry mucous membranes appear in the throat. This is just the beginning; in the future, changes in the body may become irreversible. Here's what heavy smokers should be especially wary of:

• increased concentration fatty acids and cholesterol in the blood;
• increased risk of sudden death;
• development of cardiac ischemia in women;
• increased risk of developing atherosclerosis.

Death

Statistics for Russia report that up to 3,000 people of different ages die annually from passive smoking. If the child smoking parents, then about 2,700 newborns and children of the first year of life die from sudden death syndrome. Up to 62,000 people die annually from extensive pathologies of the myocardium and cardiovascular system. The collected facts are not consoling, so before you light another cigarette, it is important to always remember such shocking statistics.

Video

Inhaling tobacco smoke is an undoubted risk and a test of your health. To understand this, you don’t need a lot of research, of which thousands have accumulated over more than 100 years of history of the tobacco industry. It is sometimes very difficult to understand them, so we decided to describe in simple language almost all the negative consequences of smoking on health.

Smoking tobacco can have consequences. Tobacco smoke contains an incredible amount of chemical compounds, many of which are poisonous. More than 70 are known carcinogenic substances(that is, those that cause cancer).

Moreover, several hundred substances are artificially added to a cigarette - many medications that, when smoked, relieve spasms, reduce irritation, and dilate the bronchi. Of course, you can’t do without flavorings, preservatives, and moisturizers. It has long been known that cigarettes contain ammonia derivatives. But manufacturers do not add all this chemical artificially in order to kill someone. This is done for two reasons:

1. Make the habituation process faster.
2. Make the inhalation process more comfortable.

Perhaps for this reason, people continue to smoke and do not feel the harm from smoking tobacco to the body, considering this activity their pleasure or choice. This is carelessness and frivolity!

Nicotine is the main component of any product, be it electronic or traditional cigarettes, snus, nasvay, nicotine gum or patches. It belongs to the average stimulants. Reaching the brain in just a few seconds, nicotine excites the nervous system. For some time, a smoker may feel an influx of energy. But since nicotine becomes highly and quickly addictive, the effect of the drug becomes less and less. Later the person becomes lethargic, irritable and wants to smoke more. What can happen from smoking cigarettes? Nicotine is quickly and highly addictive, both physically and mentally. psychological level. People who smoke always experience physical withdrawal from nicotine, which impairs their cognitive functioning throughout their lives, that is, it impairs complex brain functions (for example, memory or mental abilities). Constant withdrawal syndrome in smokers creates anxiety, irritation and depression, and sleep problems in their lives.

When a person inhales tobacco smoke, he receives a huge amount of substances that destroy the entire respiratory system. Very quickly this destruction leads to various diseases. Of course, smokers are at higher risk of getting sick. infectious diseases, but the most a terrible consequence is increased risk get irreversible chronic diseases such as:

• emphysema, which is characterized by pathological expansion of the air spaces of the distal bronchioles. Accompanied by destructive morphological changes in the alveolar walls;
• Chronical bronchitis;
• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a group of lung diseases;
• lungs' cancer.

Children whose parents smoke are more likely to cough, wheeze and have asthma attacks compared to children whose parents do not smoke. They are also more likely to develop pneumonia and bronchitis.

Our lungs are the organ that takes the hit first. This is why cancer and other lung diseases are the most common diseases that can occur among smoking people. Fortunately, after quitting smoking, the lungs are able to cleanse and recover. After a person quits smoking, temporary breathing discomfort may occur as the lungs and Airways are starting to heal. An increase in mucus immediately after stopping smoking is a positive sign that the respiratory system is recovering.

Smoking damages the entire cardiovascular system. Nicotine constricts blood vessels, which restricts blood flow and consequently deprives every cell in the body of oxygen, nutrients and vitamins. Over time, continued narrowing along with damage to the blood vessels can cause peripheral artery disease. Smoking also increases blood pressure, weakens the walls of blood vessels and thickens the blood. All this increases the risk of stroke.

It is not uncommon for smokers to undergo cardiac bypass surgery or stenting (placement of a special dilator frame at the site of narrowing/destruction of a blood vessel) due to heart disease.

Of course, smoking negatively affects the cardiovascular system not only of the smoker himself, but also on the health of those around him - those who are exposed to passive smoking. Exposure to passive smoke non-smoking people poses the same risks as those who smoke. Risks include stroke, heart attacks and other heart diseases.

If the smoker does not see the terrible changes that occur inside our body, then the obvious signs of smoking associated with skin changes can be seen. The effects of smoking on the skin occur due to toxic substances tobacco smoke (including nicotine), which actually changes the structure of your skin. Recent studies have shown that smoking dramatically increases the risk of squamous cell carcinoma (skin cancer). Fingernails and toenails are not protected from the effects of smoking, which increases the likelihood of contracting fungal infections. It doesn’t matter how a person gets nicotine - by inhaling tobacco smoke or vapor from electronic cigarettes, using chewing tobacco (snus) or nasvay, but it has long been known that nicotine provokes hair loss, baldness and gray hair.

Smoking increases the risk of developing cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, stomach and intestines. Smokers also have a higher percentage of those who develop pancreatic cancer. Even people who “smoke lightly” are at risk of developing cancer of the throat and mouth. Smoking also greatly affects insulin, making it more likely to develop insulin resistance. This increases the risk of disease and complications of type 2 diabetes.

Negative effects of smoking on the human reproductive system

Nicotine affects blood flow in general, and, of course, blood flow in the genital area. For men this means a decrease sexual activity in all senses. Impaired blood flow in women leads to sexual dissatisfaction and reduces the ability to achieve orgasm. Smoking can also reduce sex hormone levels in both men and women. This may have the effect of reducing sexual desire.

Nicotine creates serious problems in men by disrupting the synthesis of prostaglandins and nitric oxide. This means a decrease in the quantity of sperm and its quality and, accordingly, problems with conception. Fertility is directly related to smoking.

Whether you smoke traditional or electronic cigarettes, it in any case creates a nicotine addiction, which makes any person continue to smoke or vape. At the Allen Carr Center, we understand that learning about the dangers of smoking does not help you quit smoking. Most people are well aware of the dangers of smoking and its effect on our body, and this does not stop either teenagers or adults. Most people continue to smoke because they cannot quit for various reasons. Therefore, it is considered difficult to quit smoking.

But Allen Carr's system has been proving for over 35 years that quitting smoking is incredibly easy! And we're so confident that we even offer a money-back guarantee if things go wrong.