Smoking is act or addiction of inhaling and exhaling the smoke of tobacco or any other harmful addictive drug. Smoking is one of the leading causes of preventable death globally. Smoking is not good for the body; not even in passive form.
Smoking causes diminished overall heath, such as self-reported poor health, increased absenteeism from work, and increased health care utilization and cost
The first thing to say is that the health benefits of stopping smoking are so huge that they completely outweigh any risks from side effects .
Smoking causes more deaths each year than all of these combined:
-
- Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
- Illegal drug use
- Alcohol use
- Motor vehicle injuries
- Firearm-related incidents
Smoking causes about 90% (or 9 out of 10) of all lung cancer deaths in men and women.1,2 More women die from lung cancer each year than from breast cancer.
About 80% (or 8 out of 10) of all deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are caused by smoking.
Cigarette smoking increases risk for death from all causes in men and women.
Smoking:
- Harms nearly every organ of the body.
- Causes many diseases and reduces the health of smokers in general.
- Quitting smoking lowers your risk for smoking-related diseases and can add years to your life.
- Inhaling smoke into the lungs, no matter what the substance is, has adverse effects on one’s health.
- Combustion of tobacco produce carbon monoxide which impairs the oxygen carrying ability of the blood.
INCREASED HEALTH RISK IN SMOKING
Smokers are more likely; than nonsmokers to develop heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer.
- Smoking is estimated to increase the risk—
- For coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times
- For stroke by 2 to 4 times
- Of men developing lung cancer by 25 times
- Of women developing lung cancer by 25.7 times
- Smoking causes diminished overall heath, such as self-reported poor health, increased absenteeism from work, and increased health care utilization and cost.
INCREASED RISK OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES IN SMOKERS
Smokers are at greater risk for diseases that affect the heart and blood vessels (cardiovascular disease).
- Smoking causes stroke and coronary heart disease.
- Even people who smoke fewer than five cigarettes a day can have early signs of cardiovascular disease.
- Smoking damages blood vessels and can make them thicken and grow narrower. This makes your heart beat faster and your blood pressure go up. Clots can also form.
- Heart attack occurs when a clot blocks the blood flow to your heart. When this happens, your heart cannot get enough oxygen. This damages the heart muscle, and part of the heart muscle can die.
- Stroke occurs when a clot blocks the blood flow to part of your brain or when a blood vessel in or around your brain bursts.
- Blockages caused by smoking can also reduce blood flow to your legs and skin.
INCREASED RISK OF RESPIRATORY DISEASES IN SMOKERS
Smoking can cause lung disease by damaging your airways and the small air sacs (alveoli) found in your lungs.
- Lung diseases caused by smoking include COPD, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
- Cigarette smoking causes most cases of lung cancer.
- If you have asthma, tobacco smoke can trigger an attack or make an attack worse.
- Smokers are 12 to 13 times more likely to die from COPD than nonsmokers.
SMOKING PREDISPOSE TO CANCER
Smoking can cause cancer almost anywhere in your body:
- Bladder
- Blood (acute myeloid leukemia)
- Cervix
- Colon and rectum (colorectal)
- Esophagus
- Kidney and ureter
- Larynx
- Liver
- Oropharynx (includes parts of the throat, tongue, soft palate, and the tonsils)
- Pancreas
- Stomach
- Trachea, bronchus, and lung
Smoking increases the risk of dying from cancer and other diseases in cancer patients and survivors.
SMOKING CAUSES MANY OTHER HEALTH RISKS
Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body and affects a person’s overall health.
- Smoking can make it harder for a woman to become pregnant and can affect her baby’s health before and after birth. Smoking increases risks for:
- Preterm (early) delivery
- Stillbirth (death of the baby before birth)
- Low birth weight
- Sudden infant death syndrome (known as SIDS or crib death)
- Ectopic pregnancy
- Orofacial clefts in infants
- Smoking can also affect men’s sperm, which can reduce fertility and also increase risks for birth defects and miscarriage (loss of the pregnancy).
- Smoking can affect bone health.
- Women past childbearing years who smoke have lower bone density (weaker bones) than women who never smoked and are at greater risk for broken bones.
- Smoking affects the health of your teeth and gums and can cause tooth loss.
- Smoking can increase your risk for cataracts (clouding of the eye’s lens that makes it hard for you to see) and age-related macular degeneration (damage to a small spot near the center of the retina, the part of the eye needed for central vision).
- Smoking is a cause of type 2 diabetes mellitus and can make it harder to control. The risk of developing diabetes is 30–40% higher for active smokers than nonsmokers.
- Smoking causes general adverse effects on the body. It can cause inflammation and adverse effects on immune function.
- Smoking is a cause of rheumatoid arthritis.
QUITTING SMOKING WOULD PREVENT YOU FROM RISK OF MANY DISEASES
- Quitting smoking cuts cardiovascular risks. Just 1 year after quitting smoking, your risk for a heart attack drops sharply.
- Within 2 to 5 years after quitting smoking, your risk for stroke could fall to about the same as a nonsmoker’s.
- If you quit smoking, your risks for cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder drop by half within 5 years.
- Ten years after you quit smoking, your risk for lung cancer drops by half.
MANAGEMENT OF A CASE OF SMOKING
AS A PARENT:
- Set an example for you child as teen smoking is more common in teens whose parents smoke. So quit smoking for your child.
- Tell your child that smoking is not allowed and don’t take it casually.
- Understand your child and his attractions so that he can overcome the peer pressure in his group and stand up to say no to smoking.
- Make your child understand that the money he is spending on his addiction can make him buy other interesting things of his use.
- Be with your child and help him quit smoking by giving your support.
AS A DOCTOR:
- Inform the patient about ill effects of smoking.
- Keep regular sessions for counseling the child for smoking cessation.
- Ask-advise-assess-assist-arrange.
- Talk to the child about his feelings and issues which made him smoke for the first time.
- Motivate the child to quit smoking.
- Homeopathy also has effective medicines for helping the patient quit smoking:
- TABACUM (relieve terrible craving for tobacco when discontinuing use)
- IPECAC
- ARSENIC ALB
- NUX VOMICA
- PHOSPHOROUS
- IGNATIA
- CLEMATIS
- PLANTAGO
- SEPIA
- LYCOPODIUM
- GELSEMIUM
Homeopathy would help the smoker in withdrawal of smoking, smokers hangover, headache caused by smoking, vasoconstriction by smoking, pain in stomach, constipation, palpitation, withdrawal symptoms like intense nicotine craving, tingling in feet and hands, sweating, nausea, abdominal cramps, insomnia, depression, weight gain.
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