What are the six health risks that are associated with smoking?

Answer 1

Smoking Affect Blood Pressure

Smoking a cigarette raises the blood pressure by 5-10 mm Hg for about 30 minutes. If this is combined with drinking a cup of coffee, the effects are bigger and last longer. The important thing about smoking is not what it does to your blood pressure, but that it greatly increases your risk of heart disease.

Smoking Related Cancers:

Adult Acute Leukemia
Adult Chronic Leukemia
Cervical cancer
Esophagus Cancer
Laryngeal Cancer
Lung Cancer
Kidney Cancer
Oropharyngeal Cancer
Pancreas Cancer
Stomach Cancer
Urinary Bladder

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES

Smoking also has been linked time and again to cardiovascular diseases. Among these, the biggest killer is heart disease: according to the CDC, smoking triples the risk of dying from heart disease among middle-aged men and women.

Studies also show an increased risk of death from stroke, aneurysms, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular illnesses.

RESPIRATORY DISEASES

Smoking is cited as a risk for dying of pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, or emphysema. The CDC says people who smoke increase their risk of death from bronchitis and emphysema by nearly 10 times.

OTHER ILLNESSES

A report recently published in the American Journal of Epidemiology suggested that smoking increased the risk of developing non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) by more than three times.

Studies have pointed to smoking as a risk in vision loss among older people, mental impairment later in life, Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

EFFECT ON PREGNANCY

Pregnant women who smoke can pass nicotine and carbon monoxide to their baby through the placenta. Research indicates this can prevent the baby from getting the oxygen and nutrients it needs to grow -- potentially leading to fetal injury, premature birth, or low birth weight. According to the American Lung Association, smoking during pregnancy accounts for an estimated 20 to 30 percent of low birthweight babies, up to 14 percent of premature deliveries, and about 10 percent of all infant deaths.

A mother who smokes can also pass nicotine to her baby through her breast milk.

SECONDHAND SMOKE

The studies didn't just point to the ill effects of smoking on those who smoke -- non-smokers, too, are apparently affected by the smoke from their friends, family members and strangers who light up in their presence.

A steady stream of reports documented the statistical risks of contracting cancer or suffering from heart disease, even if you've never put a cigarette to your lips.

The American Heart Association last fall released a seven-year study showing that never-smoking spouses of smokers have more than a 20 percent greater chance of death from coronary heart disease than those who have never smoked who live with non-smokers. That study gave more impetus to the drive to make workplaces and other public areas smoke-free.

The effects of smoking are hard on the children of smokers as well, the studies say. Dr. Claude Hanet of the St. Luc University Hospital in Brussels, Belgium, said earlier this year that a baby born to a smoking mother "should be considered an ex-smoker."

Hanet's study cautioned that cigarette smoke was more detrimental with decreasing age.

And a University of Birmingham, England, study, published in the British Journal of Cancer showed a possible link between fathers who smoked and an increased incidence of cancers in their children, while studies in the U.S. showed a possible link between smoking and DNA damage.

ADDICTION

Of all the diseases associated with smoking, addiction is perhaps the one that receives the least attention. But President Clinton declared nicotine an addictive drug last August. In March, the Liggett Group, makers of Chesterfield and Lark brand cigarettes, admitted that cigarettes were addictive and cause cancer and agreed to pay about $750 million total to 22 states that had filed suit to force tobacco companies to pay for Medicaid for smoking-related illnesses.

Scott Harshbarger, the Massachusetts attorney general and president of the National Association of Attorneys General, told reporters that the Liggett deal "will produce information that indicates major tobacco companies were fully aware that the product they were selling is addictive, that the product they were selling had great impact on public health."

Other tobacco companies are clearly none too keen on the Liggett deal. For them, nicotine remains what they call a harmless flavor enhancement.

Source: http://www.doctor-dubai.com/emergency.asp