How Smoking is Detrimental to Your Oral and Overall Health - Jake Hardin

What Can Smoking Do To Your Body?

Smoking cigarettes, especially for long periods of time, will harm nearly every organ in your body. Your chances of being diagnosed with type kind of cancer or disease skyrockets when compared to nonsmokers. Cigarette smoking is actually one of the leading causes of death in the United states; for nearly one in five deaths is related to tobacco use.

Smoking and Death

- In the United States nearly 500,000 deaths occur each year due to cigarette smoking

- Cigarette smoking causes more deaths each year than illegal drug use, alcohol use, HIV, and motor vehicle injuries combined

- Globally, smoking tobacco has killed over 100 million people just in the 20th century, which is far more than the combined number of deaths in both World War I and II.

- There are around 7,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, 250 of which are known to be harmful to the body. Of these 250 harmful chemicals, at least 69 of them are known to cause cancer.

- Out of all deaths caused by lung cancer worldwide, 80% of those are attributable to smoking tobacco

Smoking and The Body

-  As seen from the diagram above, there are countless parts of the body that are affected by tobacco use. The number of problems that can arise due to smoking tobacco is obscene. For example, if you do chose to smoke your chances of developing diabetes is 40% higher than nonsmokers, and also impacts the health of your teeth and gums, which can cause tooth loss.

Some Effects of Smoking on the Body's Organs and Systems:

• Increased risk of lung infection. (reduced lung function due to irritated trachea and voice box
• Raised blood pressure and Heart rate
• so-called 'Stickier' blood (more prone to clotting), as well as a increased risk of heart attack and stroke
• Weaker immune system (more severe and longer-lasting illnesses)
• Reduced bone density
• Damage to sperm, such as lower sperm count
• premature wrinkling 
• gum disease

Smoking and Dental Problems

- Smoking obviously causes many problems internally that we cannot see, however there are external factors you need to worry about as well if you are an active smoker.

• Bad breath and tooth discoloration are two of the most noticeable problems smokers have: 
• After smoking a cigarette your breath and entire body will reek of all the different chemicals you just inhaled, and for those who have never experienced the smell of someone who just got done smoking a cigarette, it's nothing pleasant.
• Another thing to consider is if you have been an active smoker for some time, because there is a good chance that you have yellow-stained teeth caused by the different harmful chemicals that are put in cigarettes '
• Both of the issues stated above can cause problems to not just your overall health but to your social life as well, because appearance and hygiene are two crucial aspects in being accepted by societies standards.  

One Cigarette Smoked is One Too Many

Based on a Gallup survey done in 2012, 31% of U.S. smokers smoked at least one pack of cigarettes per day, while 68% said that they smoked less than one pack per day, and the remaining 1% said they smoked 1+ packs a day. 

All that being said, even for those who smoke 10 or fewer cigarettes per day (there's 20 per pack), their life expectancy is usually around 5 years shorter and their risk of getting lung cancer is 20 times higher than that of nonsmokers. You may be thinking that smoking a few cigarettes a day can't be too bad, however those who smoke 4 or fewer cigarettes a day have a 5 times higher risk of lung cancer.

- The bottom line is that there are not any safe tobacco products available on the market, nor is there a 'safe' amount of tobacco to consume, so really the best and only way to prevent tobacco-related deaths and illnesses is to completely avoid using it.

Brown, Alyssa. "In U.S., Smokers Light Up Less Than Ever." Gallup.com. Gallup, Inc., 13 Sept. 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

"Effects of Smoking on Your Health." Health Effects of Smoking. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

"Harms of Cigarette Smoking and Health Benefits of Quitting." National Cancer Institute. National Cancer Institute, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

"Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 01 Oct. 2015. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

"Smoking and Dental Health: Yellow Teeth, Bad Breath, and Other Smoking Effects." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

"Smoking’s Death Toll." The Tobacco Atlas. World Lung Foundation, 2015. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.