Smoking tobacco cigarettes affects every system in the human body. From your bones to your cardiovascular system to your respiratory system, each system is damaged in a different way when you smoke.
1. Bones. Recently, scientists have discovered a link between tobacco use and a decrease in bone density (a.k.a osteoporosis). While there are many other risk factors for loss in bone density –including weight, alcohol consumption, and activity level– smoking may work to increase these risks, especially in women. In addition, smoking lowers the level of estrogen, which may cause early onset menopause further increasing their risk.
2. Lungs and breathing. The most obvious part of the body that smoking damages are the lungs –every cigarette smoked damages a person’s breathing and scars their lungs. Moreover, smoking also affects lungs and breathing by causing: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, tuberculosis.
3. Cancer risks. As most people know, smoking is known to cause cancer. This stems from tobacco cigarette smoke (including menthol cigarettes) containing more than 7,000 chemicals –70 of which are carcinogenic. In fact, smoking tobacco cigarettes is the number-one risk factor in the development of lung cancer. In addition to lung cancer, tobacco smoke can lead to other cancers including: Trachea, stomach, bronchus, bladder, esophagus, pancreas, oral cavity, kidney, lip, liver, nasopharynx, uterine cervix, nasal cavity, colon, larynx, rectum.
4. Smoking and pregnancy. Smoking can have an effect on fertility, pregnancy and infants. The simple act of smoking can make it harder for a woman to become pregnant. In addition, it can affect baby’s health before and after birth including: preterm (early) delivery; stillbirth (death of the baby before birth); low birth weight; sudden infant death syndrome (known as SIDS or crib death); ectopic pregnancy; orofacial clefts in infants.
