Tobacco Effects on Health
In modern times, most smokers associate the negative effects of smoking
cigarettes with the idea of lung cancer alone. But the inconvenient
truth is that every cigarette smoker is in huge risk of developing a
wide array of fatal diseases, like bone marrow cancer, leukemia and
chronic heart condition just to name a few.
So far, the facts mentioned above might not come as a surprise to anyone,
if so, then what originates them will surely do. When we smoke we are
at risk of developing all these ailments not by smoking one cigarette
alone, but by becoming addicted to them. And the alarming fact is that
all it takes our bodies to start becoming addicted to tobacco, tar and
the more than 60 other toxins present in cigarettes is just 8 seconds
after the first smoke. That’s all the time we need to release dopamine
and serotonin into our metabolisms.
And this is not all; cigarettes manage to perfectly mask their addiction
by providing some other tangible pleasurable sensations to smokers,
like the loss of appetite for example, which makes the smoker lose weight
and by consequence, feel good about him or herself. These sensations
help reinforce the ones caused by the chemicals found in cigarettes,
and overall increase the pace at which the smoker becomes addicted.
Inside our bodies, the toxins carried by cigarettes cause a blood pressure
increase, which directly affects our heart rates. They also increase
the carbon monoxide contents of our organism, which greatly lowers the
amount of oxygen our blood can carry. All of the above, just with the
first cigarette. On top of that, the effects in the long term range
all the way from heart disease and high chance of stroke to various
types of cancer.
These, without considering the effects that second-hand smoke can have
over the people around the smokers. In this case the effects can be
even worse for the surrounding people, since they are not only exposed
to the smoke exhaled by the smoker, but also to the one resulting every
time the cigarette burns, which can be even more harmful, since it is
made of the cigarette toxins burned in raw.
But as bad as this situation might be, there are always choices open
for those who sincerely want to leave cigarettes behind and opt for
a healthier lifestyle. And even if quitting is still not a choice, a
new alternative has opened up that provides many improvements health-wise,
while at the same time letting smokers keep their smoking. This is known
as electronic cigarettes, which are cigarette-like devices that resemble
the former in shape, size and function, letting smokers inhale from
a vaporized nicotine solution.
As you have seen, in all respects, electronic
cigarettes provide smokers with almost the complete “cigarette experience”,
while at the same time releasing them from the potential dangers of
the more than 60 toxic substances to be found in cigarettes. For those
even barely interested in quitting, this one is definitely worth a try.
