Smoking is the number one preventable form of death in the United States.
Smoking cigarettes kills an estimated 440, 000 people per year from heart disease, lung cancer, and other health problems in the United States.
According to medical researches smoking harms effects the body in almost all key ways:
Nicotine reaches the brain 10 seconds after cigarette smoke is inhaled. It has been found in every part of the body, including breast milk.
Passing throughout the body toxic ingredients in cigarette smoke causes damage in several different ways.
Cigarette smoke has harmful effects on red blood cells. Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin in the red blood cells, preventing the affected cells from carrying a full load of oxygen.
Carcinogens in cigarettes smoke damage the genes that control cell growth and cause cells to grow abnormally or reproduce too fast.
Chemical compounds in cigarette smoke such carcinogen benzopyrene bind to cells in the airways and major organs of smokers.
Smoking can cause oxidative stress that mutates DNA, promotes atherosclerosis, and also leads to chronic lung injury. Oxidative stress is believed to be behind the aging process and the development of cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Smoking lowers levels of antioxidants in the body. Antioxidants repair damaged cells.
Smoking is linked to higher levels of chronic inflammation in the body.
Latest studies in addition to the already-known health effects of smoking cigarettes revealed additional risks.
For example, the Surgeon General further expanded the list of cancers that were caused by cigarette smoking to include cervical cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, and stomach cancer as well as acute myeloid leukemia.
