5 Reasons Why Smoking Is Bad
Smoking damages your body and good health in numerous ways. In addition to the adverse health effects on the smoker, smoking harms a fetus and the people around a smoker. The cost of smoking in terms of health-care resources and other economic costs cannot be underestimated.
Heart and Blood Vessel Disease
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that smoking increases the risk of heart disease and stroke twofold to fourfold. Smoking causes blood vessel narrowing, which leads to reduced blood delivery to body tissues. Smoking also increases the risk for weakening and ballooning blood vessels, known as aneurysms. Rupture of an aneurysm can lead to stroke or sudden death.
Lung Disease
A September 2003 report from CDC noted that 49 percent of current smokers have chronic bronchitis and 24 percent have emphysema. Among former smokers, 24 percent have emphysema and 26 percent have chronic bronchitis. The risk of dying from chronic obstructive lung disease, or COPD, is 12 to 13 times higher among smokers compared to nonsmokers.
Weak Bones
Women smokers have higher rates of osteoporosis and hip fractures after menopause. According to a hallmark 1997 study published in "BMJ," 1 in 8 hip fractures among women is due to smoking. At age 60, the risk of hip fractures in female smokers is 17 percent higher than in nonsmokers and is 71 percent higher at age 80.
Cancer
Cigarette smoke contains numerous chemicals, including more than 50 that are known to cause cancer, reports the American Lung Association. Smokers have higher rates of many kinds of cancer, including those of the lung, stomach, bladder, mouth and esophagus. Cigarette smoking is responsible for approximately 90 percent of lung cancer cases. The American Cancer Society reports that as of 2013, only about 16 percent of people with lung cancer survive 5 years or longer.
Secondary Harm
Secondhand smoke causes cancer and other disease. The American Cancer Society notes that secondhand smoke is responsible for more than 45,000 deaths due to heart disease and about 3,400 deaths due to lung cancer in nonsmokers in the U.S. each year. Children exposed to secondhand smoke have more ear infections and colds and an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome, explains the American Lung Association