THE HEALTH RISKS OF SMOKING - PART ONE.They say that in a lifetime, a person takes a risk or two. In making life-changing decisions, the person takes a big step closer to fulfilling his or her own destiny.
On the other hand, there are those people who did make life-changing decisions in a slightly different way. They altered the design of their lives and opened up to possibilities of diseases, disabilities and addiction among others. All these created through smoking.
Smoking entails the act of taking in the fumes of a burning matter, usually a cigarette. This vice poses one of the most serious threats to the health of people. It is considered to be the major cause of most illnesses and diseases.
Doing the very act of smoking is considered as active smoking and the active smoker is the one whose health is directly exposed to the effects of smoking.
What are the effects of smoking to one's health?
In considering the health risks of smoking, it is incumbent to look upon the four components, rather undesirable components of an ordinary cigarette.
We discussed some of these earlier, but let us now break down the components of a cigarette.
A single cigarette stick is loaded with harmful toxic substances. The tobacco or cigarette has 4 main components - irritants, nicotine, carbon monoxide and carcinogen - that affect the different body systems of the human person.
Component No. 1 Irritants
An average stick contains irritants like ammonia, formaldehyde and oxides. Such irritants usually cause the respiratory tract to swell.
Component No. 2. Carcinogen
There are about 40 kinds of chemicals, more or less, found in a cigarette. They are considered carcinogenic, meaning cancer promoting.
Lung cancer is usally related to smoking. The respiratory system of a smoker is open to higher development of this cancer. Mortality rate of lung cancer cases is very high and found to be dependent of the number of cigarette packs consumed.
Component No. 3. Carbon Monoxide
The carbon monoxide component harms the circulatory system. This disables the capacity of the blood to carry oxygen to the heart.
Component No. 4. Nicotine
It is the major component of the cigarette and it also poses a notorious threat to the body. Nicotine causes the act of smoking to be highly addicting. Nicotine in the body system could also result in an increased heart rate and high blood pressure.
The four harmful components mentioned above, all contribute to the harmful effects of smoking to the human body. The immediate effects may be manifested by coughing, burning of the nose and throat or dizziness. There is also the tendency of increasing the health risks of a person already suffering from illnesses like high blood pressure and diabetes.
Smoking results in the body being susceptible to cardiovascular or heart diseases. It was found that heart attack is the primary cause of death which the major risk factor is smoking. There are claims that smoking may not directly cause the increase in high blood pressure, but it increases the risk of suffering a stroke or heart attack.
