 |
NetWellness provides the highest quality health information and education services created and evaluated by faculty of our partner universities.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
|
|
|
NetWellness provides the highest quality health information and education services created and evaluated by faculty of our partner universities.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
|
Smoking and Tobacco |
Introduction03/22/2007 |
Cigarettes contain at least 43 individual cancer-causing chemicals and smoking is directly responsible for almost 90% of all lung cancers. Smoking causes most of the cases of emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Secondhand smoke is responsible for 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in U.S. nonsmokers.
Tobacco-related diseases claim about 438,000 American lives each year.Some of the adverse health effects include:
- Cigarettes contain at least 51 individual cancer-causing chemicals and smoking is directly responsible for almost 90% of all lung cancers.
- Smoking causes most of the cases of emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
- Babies born to mothers who smoke have a 30% greater chance of being born prematurely.
- Although healthy in appearance, full-term infants of smokers have been found to be born with narrowed airways and impaired lung function.
- Smoking by parents (secondhand smoke) is associated with adverse effects such as exacerbations of asthma, increased upper respiratory infections (colds, ear infections, etc.) and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) in their children. Children under 18 months of age are more susceptible to secondhand smoke, which causes lower respiratory tract infections.
- Secondhand smoke is responsible for 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in U.S. nonsmokers.
- Smoking damages nearly every organ of the body. (Surgeon General's 2004 Report)
- Smoking damages the flow of blood needed by men to have an erection. Smoking and diabetes are the leading cause of impotency (inability to have an erection).
- Using tobacco decreases HDL (good) cholesterol.
- Smoking increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) for women who use oral contraceptives.
- Smoking is the biggest risk factor for sudden cardiac death. Smokers have two to four times the risk of nonsmokers.
Nicotine is an addictive substance. It reaches the brain faster than drugs that are used intravenously. Users of nicotine become physically, as well as psychologically, addicted. Because nicotine is used socially, this makes it even more difficult to quit.
Other reasons that smoking is difficult to give up include:
- fear of weight gain
- fear of having to survive the withdrawal symptoms that occur
It takes most smokers more than one try to become tobacco free, but persistence pays off! Within 10 years after quitting smoking, an ex-smoker's risk of lung cancer drops to 50% less than the risk for those who continue to smoke. Ten to 15 years after smoking cessation, a smoker's risk of premature death is similar to that for a person who has never smoked. Heart disease and ulcer risks decrease, along with risks of tobacco-related cancers such as esophageal, kidney, pancreatic, and cervical cancer.
|
Karen L. Ahijevych, PhD, RN Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs College of Nursing Comprehensive Cancer Center James Cancer Hospital & Solove Research Institute The Ohio State University |
|
|
|
Mary Ellen Wewers, PhD, MPH Professor & Associate Dean for Research College of Public Health Comprehensive Cancer Center James Cancer Hospital & Solove Research Institute The Ohio State University |
|
|
|
Please note: only your personal physician or other health professional you consult can best advise you on matters of your health based on your medical history, your family medical history, your medication history, and how information from any of these databases may apply to you. Neither University of Cincinnati (NetWellness) nor any party involved in creating, producing or delivering this web site shall be liable for any damages arising out of access to or use of this web site, or any errors or omissions in the content thereof. (More) 
|