How does long-term effect tobacco affect the human body?

Answer 1

A book would be needed to list the harmful effects of tobacco on the human body but I presume you are referring to smoking.

Tobacco contains nicotine which is a very addictive drug and very toxic. The nicotine in a packet of cigarettes is capable of killing a man or a woman. Tobacco smoke has well over 100 harmful chemicals in it and most are cancer forming.

Nicotine has the effect of constricting the blood vessels thus making the heart work harder and reducing the blood flow. Small blood vessels such as those on the face will be affected and cause wrinkles prematurely. The tiny blood vessels in the macula (the area on the retina at the back of the eye that pinpoint what is being looked at can degenerate due to blood starvation leading to permanently impaired vision. Blood starvation in the lower limbs can lead to leg amputation and the fatty deposits in the arteries lead to higher blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. Only about 40% of tobacco smoke inhaled will be exhaled. The rest remains in the lungs and sticks to the lung membrane leaving a thick tarry cancer forming deposit which destroys the small hairs that clear the lungs of dust, and air impurities and reduces the lung's efficiency. Added to this, tobacco smoke contains carbon monoxide which actually grabs the oxygen already in the blood stream so reducing the blood's ability to carry oxygen around the body. Is this enough? I could go on and on and on.

Every cigarette smoked shortens life by eleven minutes and 80% of smokers die of smoking related illnesses and the rest have a reduced quality of life.

The human lungs are simply not designed to cope with dense poisonous smoke being drawn into them day in and day out. Many far less dangerous substances have been banned on the grounds that they are harmful to health and are cancer forming but STILL people smoke.

Cancer is a very lonely disease and a smoker who gets it is on his/her own. If it is contracted in the lower lung the prognosis is dire.

A non smoker saving the cost of a packet of cigarettes a day from the age of 20 to 60, could accumulate around one million pounds if the money is put in the right place! How is that for a pension fund?

Finally, it is no good a smoker arguing against the statistics. I am not one to believe all the stupid reports we read about, that emanate from two bit researchers, but the evidence we have is built up from the Surgeon General's report "Smoking and Health" which was published over fifty years ago and has been built on ever since.

Fortunately, help is at hand if the above does not put a smoker off the habit. The NHS and others have ways of helping smokers give up but the best advice is "Don't start in the first place."