SMOKING to SMOKILL

SMOKING to SMOKILL

Warm Greetings!!

Nowadays with increasing complexities in life, people are constantly in the mode of stress. No doubt stress is a troublemaker but the path for its extraction used by the people, is deadly!

Generally stress is extracted by performing Yoga or some low/high intensity exercises. But this seems to be a time consuming process as well as old school. People have thus resorted to a much faster process for relaxation - ‘CIGARETTE SMOKING’. Yes you read it correctly!

Cigarette smoking has become the most common activity for people. Call it a pastime or an instant stress reliever. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are around 120 million active smokers in India. Also India consists of 12% of the total smokers in the world. But due to smoking cigarettes, 9 lakh people die every year. This number is extremely painful and it’s on the inclination.

Let’s analyze this grave situation more closely. Apart from adults, I’ve also seen many teens smoking on a regular basis. This has gone way beyond of just relieving oneself from stress. It has become a status quo for many people. I read a lot of literature with respect to the effects of cigarette smoking and found quite interesting facts which I would like to share with you all.

Cigarette is made up of Tobacco leaves which consist of Nicotine and a variety of other compounds. When these compounds burn, they are known to release thousands of chemicals over many of which are known to cause cancer. All different forms of Tobacco like Pipes, Cigars, Hookahs and Smokeless Tobacco are dangerous. Cigarette smoke consists of poisonous gases like Carbon Monoxide (CO) & Nitrogen Oxide (NO) as well as many cancer causing radioactive particles.

So when you smoke a cigarette and inhale the tobacco smoke, nicotine enters the brain within seconds. It’s a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant which induces a pleasurable feeling as well as it’ll make you energetic for a short period of time. It induces relaxation and a mild feeling of euphoria too. Basically you feel like a KING! All of these benefits with a single puff of Cigarette? Cigarette lovers would be like “WOW, This was so fulfilling!”

But this filling is fully gone after a certain while.  After the effect of the nicotine subsides, you feel tired and crave more and more. With increasing doses, the brain gets desensitized and there is moment when you can’t stay away from a cigarette. Apart from the above mentioned symptoms, Bad breath, decreased appetite and dizziness are the other symptoms of low to moderate doses of tobacco.

But no one actually sticks to low doses of tobacco. People always try to reach the higher level. A higher dose of tobacco for a long term has some serious implications on our health.

A] SENSES: Smoking increases the risk of macular degeneration (Vision Loss/ Blurred Vision), cataracts, and poor eyesight. It can also weaken your sense of taste and sense of smell, so food may become less enjoyable (Decreased Appetite).

B] CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES:

i) When nicotine flows through your Adrenal Glands (One above each kidney), it stimulates the release of epinephrine which increases your Blood pressure.

ii) In addition, Nicotine and CO can damage the lining of the inner wall of your arteries. Fatty deposits can build up at these damaged sites and become large enough to narrow down the arteries. This would severely decrease the blood flow through the arteries, a condition called as Atherosclerosis.

iii) Smoking also causes Coronary Heart Disease. In coronary heart disease, these atherosclerotic plaques narrow the arteries supplying blood to the heart. This reduces the blood flow extremely and thus less oxygen reaches your heart muscle, increasing the risk for Heart attack.

iv) Smoking also increases your risk for blood clots as it causes the platelets in your blood to clump together.

v) Smoking increases your risk for Peripheral vascular disease as atherosclerotic plaques block the large arteries in your arms and legs.

vi) Smoking can also cause Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm which is the swelling of the Aorta (the major blood vessel that supplies blood to the body)

C] LUNG DISEASES: When we inhale Air through nasal passage, it gets moistened, warmed and filtered before it reaches the lungs. Air then passes through the trachea (Wind pipe) and then into the respective left and right bronchi. It further enters the smaller network of bronchioles. This entire network is called as a Bronchial Tree. The bronchioles terminate into smaller air exchange globules called as Alveoli.

From these thousands of alveoli, oxygen from the air moves into the blood stream and carbon dioxide (CO₂) moves out of the blood stream (Exhalation).

i) The hair-like projections in the bronchial tubes (Cilia) push the harmful chemicals out of the lungs. Cigarette smoke irritates the lining of the bronchial tubes causing them to swell and develop mucus. It also slows down the movement of cilia thus retaining some of the chemicals and mucus in your lungs.

While sleeping, some of the cilia start recovering and push more pollutants and mucus out of the lungs. When you wake up, your body tries to expel these materials by coughing repeatedly.

This is termed as smoker’s cough. Over time it develops into Chronic Bronchitis (Inflammation of the Bronchial tubes). The cilia stop working and the airways become blocked by mucus and scar tissue. Breathing becomes more difficult and the lungs are more vulnerable to further diseases.

ii) Cigarette smoke may also damage your alveoli making it harder for O₂ and CO₂ to exchange with your blood. Over time so little oxygen can reach your blood that you may develop Emphysema, a condition in which you have to gasp for every breath.

iii) Chronic bronchitis and Emphysema are collectively termed as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). It’s the gradual loss of ability to breathe for which there is no cure.

C] CANCER: Cigarette smoke consists of carcinogens for example, Cyanide, Formaldehyde, Benzene, Ammonia and many more. Such toxic chemicals can damage the DNA in your healthy cells. As a result, these damaged cells create new unhealthy cells which may spread to other parts of the body. Smoking can cause Cancer of the Lungs, Blood and Marrow, Mouth, Larynx, Throat, Esophagus, Stomach, Pancreas, Kidneys, Bladder, Uterus and Cervix.

D] INFERTILITY: Both men and women who smoke are at higher risk of Infertility. Women who smoke may experience menopause at an earlier age than nonsmoking women. Smoking increases a woman’s risk of cervical cancer.

E] PREGNANCY: If a pregnant woman smokes, she exposes the baby to the toxic chemicals and increases the risk of Low birth weight, miscarriage, pre-term delivery, infant death, stillbirth and Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Nicotine may also pass to the baby through breast milk and may cause more complications.

F] DIGESTIVE SYSTEM: Smokers are at great risk of developing oral problems. Tobacco use can cause gum inflammation (gingivitis) or infection (periodontitis). These problems can lead to tooth decay, tooth loss, and bad breath.

G] INTEGUMENTARY SYSTEM (SKIN, HAIR & NAILS): Smoking causes skin discoloration, wrinkles, and premature aging. Your fingernails and the skin on your fingers may have yellow staining from holding cigarettes. Smokers usually develop yellow or brown stains on their teeth. Hair holds on to the smell of tobacco long after you put your cigarette out. It even clings to nonsmokers.

After reading so many fatal health effects of Smoking, I had a simple solution – Just BAN it! And this leads me to think, why it’s not banned yet? I read a few articles as well as some reviews on Quora. I was really shocked to read that Cigarette Industry is the largest commercial sector and they provide direct or indirect employment for lakhs of people for its farming and processing. So people say it should not be banned.

People are looking at the Employment side. No one is looking at the Mortality rate.

I rarely recovered from the above stats and then I read someone saying – You cannot tell anyone to stop smoking. It’s their ‘Wish’. I had a good laugh on this. Don’t stop smoking for ‘Your’ betterment; stop smoking for ‘Our’ betterment.

Second hand smoke (Passive Smoking) has a similar kind of effect on Non – smokers. But guess what, People don’t think about their own self, why would they think about others? It’s high time for people to understand the dangerous health issues related to smoking.

Nicotine withdrawal being difficult is another reason why people aren’t quitting. It’s a slow procedure where you bring the nicotine levels down gradually. This would bring more symptoms like irritability, anxiety, insomnia, difficulty in concentrating and many more. But to prevent premature death, quitting this habit is one of the many ways out.

I’ve seen Teachers who teach Biology on one end, who smoke on the other end! This is the classic example of Educated Illiterates. We need to understand the consequences of cigarette smoking and spread more awareness amongst people.

Fact for the Day: One Cigarette reduces your life by 11 minutes.