Why is smoking bad? Well, everyone is aware that smoking can pose a serious risk to your health and wellbeing.
However, with so much information out there, it can be difficult to differentiate between what’s fact and what’s fiction.
Read on and find out some of the main reasons why cigarettes are terrible for your health.
It contains cancer causing chemicals
Arguably the most concerning factor of smoking cigarettes are that they contain cancer causing chemicals.
In fact, there around 41,000 chemicals in cigarettes, with the fast majority of them being carcinogenic and combined with the heat of the smoke, this can cause you’re cells to multiply until they become cancerous.
Nose, mouth, oesophagus, stomach, blood and kidney cancers are just a handful of diseases that smoking can cause.
It makes you prone to heart disease or a stroke
You hear accounts of heavy smokers living late into their lives without suffering from a serious illness, but despite these accounts the figures don’t lie, and according to the British Heart Foundation, smokers are almost twice as likely to have a heart attack compared to those who have never smoked.
This is due to the fact that smoking cigarettes can disrupt the composition of your blood, which can cause it to clot. This can increase your blood pressure which will result in your chances of having either a stroke, heart disease or any other cardiovascular illness being increasingly higher.
It makes your bones brittle
Perhaps one of the least known dangers of smoking is that in can wreak havoc on your skeletal system.
Smoking can lead to a slower bone cell production, as well as faster bone loss, which postmenopausal women are more prone to.
As smoking can result in a loss in bone density, this can cause smokers to suffer from joint and back pain, and in some rare circumstances, even tooth loss due to the loss of bone density in their jaw.
Lastly, smoking’s effect on your bone structure can make smokers more prone to fractures with slower healing periods.
It can cause premature aging
As well as causing damage to your insides, smoking can be harsh on the outside too.
Smoking speeds up the ageing process, despite how much you fight it. Examples of how it can affect your appearance include, age spots, dry skin, puffy eyes and fine lines around your eyes and lips.
These changes can be permanent due to how a lack of blood flow to your skin causes damage to your connective fibres.
It can lead to erectile dysfunction
As smoking can have such a damning effect on your blood flow, this can also impact on your ability to maintain an erection too.
A study published in June of last year discovered that male smokers have caused significantly more damage to their sperm than those that don’t smoke. This is due to nicotine causing damage to your blood vessels that supply the penis.
This lack of blood to the penis can also cause both younger and older men to suffer from premature ejaculation. Decreased blood flow can also cause a lack of stamina, which again can be very detrimental to a man’s performance in the bedroom. If studies are to be believed, smoking can also lead to a lack of sensation and can cause male smokers to have less sexual desire.
If you don’t want smoking to cause potentially unrepairable damage to your body, perhaps vaping is the way forward for you.
Is vaping as bad for you as smoking? No, in fact certain e cig kits contain an adjustable ring which allows you to choose a higher or lesser airflow, making it a far healthier alternative to smoking.
For more information on how to kick your smoking habit, try out some of these recommended steps.