<\/p>\n
T<\/strong>he fact that smoking causes lung disease<\/strong> and oral cancer<\/strong> isn’t exactly news, and only tobacco industry executives would express (feigned) shock at being told. But cigarettes can lead to awhole slew of problems involving every system of your tar-filled body, and most people aren’t aware of this.The American Council on Science and Health’s book Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn’t Tell You is the first comprehensive look at the medical evidence of all types of harm triggered by smoking. Referencing over 450 articles from medical journals and reviewed by 45 experts \u2014 mainly medical doctors and PhDs \u2014 if this book doesn’t convince you to quit, nothing will.<\/p>\n Among some of the things that cancer sticks do:<\/p>\n – B<\/strong>esides cancers of the head, neck, and lungs, ciggies are especially connected to cancers of the bladder, kidney, pancreas, and cervix. Newer evidence is adding leukemia and colorectal cancer to the list. Recent studies have also found at least a doubling of risk among smokers for cancers of the vulva and penis, as well as an eight-fold risk of anal cancer for men and a nine-fold risk for women.<\/p>\n –\u00a0S<\/strong>moking trashes the ability of blood to flow, which results in a sixteen-fold greater risk of peripheral vascular disease. This triggers pain in the legs and arms, which often leads to an inability to walk and, in some instances, gangrene and\/or amputation. 76% of all cases are caused by smoking, more than for any other factor, including diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure.<\/p>\n –\u00a0S<\/strong>mokers are at least two to three times more likely to develop the heartbreak of psoriasis. Even if that doesn’t happen, they’ll look old before their time. The American Council tells us,”Smokers in their 40s have facial wrinkles similar to those of nonsmokers in their 60s.”<\/p>\n –\u00a0S<\/strong>mokers require more anesthesia for surgery, and they recover much more slowly. In fact, wounds of all kinds take longer to heal for smokers.<\/p>\n –\u00a0P<\/strong>uffing helps to weaken bones, soft tissue, and spinal discs, causing all kinds of musculo-skeletal-pain, more broken bones and ruptured discs, and longer healing time. “A non-smoker’s leg heals an average of 80 percent faster than a smoker’s broken leg.”<\/p>\n –\u00a0S<\/strong>moking is heavily related to osteoporosis, the loss of bone mass, which results in brittle bonesand more breaks.<\/p>\n –\u00a0C<\/strong>igarettes interfere with your ability to have kids. “The fertility rates of women who smoke are about 30 percent lower than those of nonsmokers.” If you’re an idiot who continues to smoke while you’re expecting \u2014 even in this day and age, some people, including stars Catherine Zeta\u00a0Jones and Courtney Love, do this \u2014 you increase the risks of miscarriage, stillbirth, prematurebirth, low birth weight, underdevelopment, and cleft pallet. If your child is able to survive outside the womb, it will have a heavily elevated risk of crib death (SIDS), allergies, and intellectual impairment.<\/p>\n –\u00a0S<\/strong>moking also does a serious number on sperm, resulting in more deformed cells, less ability of them to swim, smaller loads, and a drastic decrease in overall number of the little fellas. The larger population of misshapen sperm probably increases the risk of miscarriages and birthdefects, so even if mommy doesn’t smoke, daddy could still cause problems. What’s more, because smoking hurts blood flow, male smokers are at least twice as likely to be unable to get it up.<\/p>\n –\u00a0B<\/strong>esides shutting down blood flow to the little head, smoking interferes with the blood going to the big head in both sexes. This causes one quarter of all strokes. It also makes these strokesmore likely to occur earlier in life and more likely to be fatal.<\/p>\n – <\/strong>“D<\/strong>epression \u2014 whether viewed as a trait, a symptom or a diagnosable disorder \u2014 is overrepresentedamong smokers.” Unfortunately, it’s unclear how the two are related. Does smokingcause depression, or does depression lead to smoking? Or, most likely, do the two feed on eachother in a vicious cycle?<\/p>\n – <\/strong>“S<\/strong>mokers experience sudden hearing loss an average of 16 years earlier than do neversmokers.”<\/p>\n –\u00a0S<\/strong>mokers and former smokers have an increased risk of developing cataracts, abnormal eyemovements, inflammation of the optic nerve, permanent blindness from lack of blood flow, andthe most severe form of macular degeneration.<\/p>\n –\u00a0L<\/strong>ighting up increases plaque, gum disease, and tooth loss.<\/p>\n – I<\/strong>t also makes it likelier that you’ll develop diabetes, stomach ulcers, colon polyps, and Crohn’sdisease.<\/p>\n –\u00a0S<\/strong>moking trashes the immune system in myriad ways, with the overall result being that you’remore susceptible to disease and allergies.<\/p>\n –\u00a0A<\/strong>nd let’s not forget that second-hand smoke has horrible effects on the estimated 42 percent of toddlers and infants who are forced to inhale it in their homes:<\/p>\n According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), children’s “passive smoking,”as it is called, results in hundreds of thousands of cases of bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections, and worsened asthma. Worse yet, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 702 children younger than one year die each year as a result of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), worsened asthma and serious respiratory infections<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It’s very surprising to note that smoking can have a few health benefits. Because they zap women’s estrogen levels, cigarettes can lead to less endometriosis and other conditions related to the hormone. Smoking also decreases the risk of developing osteoarthritis in the knees, perhaps because the pliability of thin bones takes some pressure off of the cartilage. And because it jacks up dopamine levels, it helps ward off Parkinson’s disease. Of course, these benefits seem to be side effects of the hazards of smoking, so the trade-off hardly seems worth it.\u00a0It is hard to quit? Even so the life is likelier to turn up to become difficult if you aren’t quiting now, or at least try to. Do not smoke, it really kills you!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fact that smoking causes lung disease and oral cancer isn’t exactly news, and only tobacco industry executives would express (feigned) shock at being told. But cigarettes can lead to awhole slew of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1208],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"yoast_head":"\n