What Are the Side Effects of Smoking Cigarettes?

Statistics

• The list of diseases to which smoking cigarettes contributes only increases as research continues. According to 2009 American Heart Association statistics, over 440,000 annual deaths are due to cigarette smoking, with several more deaths indirectly influenced by cigarettes. The more than 4,800 chemicals in a given cigarette act upon the body's cells and cardiovascular system to wreak havoc. American Lung Association 2009 statistics paint an especially bleak picture of the dangers of cigarette smoking: According to them, at least 8.6 million people in the United States have a major disease attributable to cigarette smoking.
  
  

Lung Diseases

• Cigarette smoking is known to lead to fatal lung diseases such as lung cancer, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. When you inhale a cigarette, your lungs absorb chemicals such as cyanide which inflame the lung's bronchi, which in turn decreases mucus production and leads to a higher a rate of lung infections. Over time, carcinogenic cigarette smoke wears away at the lungs and often causes cell mutations that result in cancer.
  
  

Heart Diseases

• Smoking cigarettes have a negative impact on the cardiovascular system in both direct and indirect ways. Cigarette smoke causes plaque to build up in the arteries, which decreases your blood's ability to flow to the heart. If the arteries narrow enough, heart attack may occur. Indirectly, cigarette smoke impairs lung functioning so that smokers have a difficult time exercising. As exercise levels decrease, plaque build-up and weight gain increase. Cigarette smoke also increases the blood's ability to clot, raises blood pressure, decreases blood oxygen levels and decreases the body's level of protective high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.
  
  

Other Diseases

• Although lung disease and heart disease are the best-known risks of smoking, the U.S. Department of Health has linked cigarette smoking to potentially fatal diseases such as leukemia, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, bladder cancer, pancreatic cancer and abdominal aortic aneurysm. Less serious but still potentially hazardous side effects include peptic ulcers, decreased immune system functioning and infertility. Pregnant women who smoke increase their chances of miscarriage, premature birth and other pre- and postnatal complications.
  
  

Addiction

• One of the most insidious side effects of smoking cigarettes is the highly addictive nature of tobacco. Tobacco contains nicotine, which when smoked causes the body to develop a physiological addiction. Nicotine affects the brain even faster and more directly than intravenously injected drugs. Thus, although many of the most detrimental effects of cigarettes require years of use, nicotine's addictive nature greatly increases the likelihood that smokers will smoke long enough to encounter these long-term problems. While many smokers think they can quit at any time, nicotine withdrawal often prevents successful quitting. The best way to avoid the potentially fatal side effects of smoking is to not smoke cigarettes in the first place.