EYES
Smoke 20 or more cigarettes a day and the risk of developing cataracts doubles. Macular degeneration, which affects the retina and causes blindness among the elderly, is 2 – 5 times more likely.
MOUTH
Mouth and tongue cancers are caused mainly by smoking: heavy smokers face a risk up to 30 times greater than non smokers. Tobacco chewed or held in the mouth causes 150,000 deaths a year, mainly in Asia. Smelly breath, stained teeth and gum disease are common.
LUNGS
Before mass-produced cigarettes in the 20th century, lung cancer was rare. Today it’s not and 90 percent of people who get it can blame smoking as the cause. Medical treatment is palliative at best – only a small minority of lung cancer patients are alive five years after their diagnosis. Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are also mainly smoker’s diseases. Breathlessness, coughing, wheezing, bloody spit, exhaustion as the heart works overtime to pump blood through damaged lungs: what a way to go.
LEGS
Arteries start to harden and narrow, resulting in peripheral vascular disease. Walking becomes painful and severe cases develop gangrene – 90 percent of peripheral vascular patients are smokers.
BRAIN
Smoking speeds up the heart rate and raises blood pressure. Smokers are more at risk from stroke. A recent European study of smokers over 65 years of age found evidence of damage to critical mental abilities – reasoning, comprehension and memory – when compared to non-smokers of the same age group.
THROAT
Carcinogenic chemicals condense on the mucous membrane as smoke enters the throat. Smoking causes 80 percent of cancers of the esophagus.
SKIN
As blood flow to the skin decreases it turns leathery and prone to wrinkles. Tar stains fingers and nails yellow. Smokers are twice as likely to develop the shocking red and silvery rashes of psoriasis.
REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS
Women smokers suffer greater menstrual distress, higher rates of infertility and ectopic pregnancy and earlier onset of menopause. Babies of smoking mothers are, on average, half a kilo lighter, thus affecting their chances of survival. Congenital abnormalities are more common. Men produce less sperm and it has a greater tendency to show abnormalities. Blood vessel damage can also cause impotence.
BABIES
The latest research shows that second hand smoke affects babies brains and has now been linked to causing S.I.D.S so, if anyone has babies they must consider this fact carefully.
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