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The harmful health effects of smoking are extensive, and have been exhaustively documented. There is a strong dose-response relation with heavy smoking, duration of smoking, and early uptake associated with higher risks of smoking related disease and mortality.
Major facts of harmful effects of smoking on health
Among the top harmful effects of smoking are cancer, heart and lung disease. The risk of heart attack among smokers, for example, is at least double over the age of 60 years, but those aged under 50 have a more than fivefold increase in risk.
Lung cancer from smoking is caused by the tar in tobacco smoke. Men who smoke are ten times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers. Not only lung cancer, smokers are susceptible to the development of several other types of cancer, including oral cancer.
Smokers are also at greater risk of many other non-fatal diseases, including osteoporosis, periodontal disease, impotence, male infertility, and cataracts. Smoking strips the skin of its natural glow, and ages the skin by causing the development of wrinkles, dark circles, and gray skin pallor. Harmful effects of smoking in pregnancy increase rates of fetal and perinatal death and reduced birth weight for gestational age. Some of the increases in health risk associated with smoking are greater among younger smokers.
Smoking harmful effects on teeth
If you are smoking that the greatest visible impact will be on your teeth. Tar is responsible for staining your teeth, yellowing it to an unpleasant extent, and this can only be removed with professional dental cleaning. In the meantime, smoking also weakens your gums and caused bad breath.
Health effects of second hand smoking
Second hand smoke is usually relatively less harmful than actually smoking a cigarette, particularly if the exposure is inconsistent and infrequent. However, one wonders whether this is still the case when the smoker frequently smokes indoors, trapping the smoke and exposing others in the room to the smoke. Passive smoking is associated with cot death and respiratory disease in childhood and lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke in adults.
Unfortunately, many smokers don’t really take the time out to carefully think about the harmful effects of smoking. In reality, there are probably a million different reasons to stop smoking, but only you must yourself realize real smoking harmful health effects and determine your own ways to stop smoking.
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