Dangers of Smoking and How to Stop it

If you are a smoker or you associate with people that smoke, you need to know that tobacco use is one of the most important causes of heart attack globally. In today's modern world, tobacco use is the most important risk factor producing a greater relative risk in persons under the age of fifty than those over fifty.

Smoked or chewed, first-hand or second-hand, all kinds of tobacco, in whatever form they are used, cause heart attacks and there is more than enough evidence to prove that tobacco use increases other adverse health conditions.

Dangers of tobacco smoking are particularly severe and while it is often very difficult to think of ways in which tobacco use is beneficial, it is all too easy to mention the ways in which it is a health hazard. To be exact, all forms of tobacco use, including different types of smoking and chewing of tobacco and inhalation of second-hand smoke are potentially hazardous and should be discouraged.

On its own, cigarette smoking is as widespread and significant as a risk factor that it has been described as "the leading preventable cause of disease and death". Second-hand smoke may be even more dangerous than previously thought. The fact is that smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and has negative health impacts on people at all stages of life. It harms unborn babies, infants, children, adolescents, adults and the elderly.

Besides containing addictive nicotine, cigarette smoke contains chemicals which damage the lungs and other parts of the respiratory system and increases the risk of development of cancer of the lungs and respiratory system.

Research shows that there are at least sixty chemicals in cigarette smoke that are cacogenic. Cigarette and tobacco smoke contain highly toxic chemicals like carbon monoxide, ammonia, formaldehyde, arsenic and cyanide which are all produced as cigarette burns.

Tobacco smoke raises blood pressure but decreases the circulation of oxygen to the brain and body. Cigarette smoking is also a significant risk factor for other various disorders, including emphysema, chronic bronchitis, stroke, and osteoporosis and contributes to early menopause. Smoking has been linked to cancer of the lungs, mouth, esophagus, pancreas, kidney, bladder and cervix.

Smoking is associated with higher levels of chronic inflammation, another damaging process that may result from oxidative stress. Smokers have a higher risk of developing a number of chronic disorders including fatty buildups in arteries, several types of cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (lung problems). Atherosclerosis (buildup of fatty substances in the arteries) is a chief contributor to the high number of deaths from smoking.

The dangers of smoking cannot be exhaustively explained. To really stop smoking, you must always ask yourself the reason why you are about to light up that cigarette. If you find out that it's got no sensible reason, DROP IT.