Smoking is a human behavior which involves the combustion of a substance, usually plant material, and the inhalation of resulting fumes. Today, smoking is mostly practiced by rolling the dried leaves of the tobacco plant into a cigarette. Other forms of tobacco smoking include the use of a smoking tobacco with a pipe or cigar, or using a bong. Cigarette smokers almost always inhale the smoke; most pipe and cigar smokers do not inhale.
While some people use it for relaxation, social reasons, or habit, it is one of the leading causes of preventable diseases worldwide, including lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic respiratory conditions.
It can harm nearly every organ in your body and increase your risk of certain health conditions like glaucoma, cancer, and lung disease.
It can also increase inflammation throughout your body and negatively affect your immune system, making you more susceptible to infection.
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Why is smoking so addictive?
When a person smokes, nicotine reaches the brain within about ten seconds. At first, nicotine improves mood and concentration, decreases anger and stress, relaxes muscles and reduces appetite. Regular doses of nicotine lead to changes in the brain, which then lead to nicotine withdrawal symptoms when the supply of nicotine decreases. Smoking temporarily reduces these withdrawal symptoms and can therefore reinforce the habit. This cycle is how most smokers become nicotine dependent.
Absorption of cigarette smoke from the lung is rapid and complete, producing with each inhalation a high concentration arterial bolus of nicotine that reaches the brain within seconds, faster than by intravenous injection. Nicotine has a distributional half life of 15-20 minutes and a terminal half life in blood of two hours. Smokers therefore experience a pattern of repetitive and transient high blood nicotine concentrations from each cigarette, with regular hourly cigarettes needed to maintain raised concentrations, and overnight blood levels dropping to close to those of non-smokers.
What smoking does to your body ?
lower sperm count
Cigarette smoking reduces sperm quality, giving you a lower sperm count, less semen, and poorer sperm movement
The more cigarettes you smoke, the worse your sperm quality is, but even ‘light’ smokers less than 10 cigarettes a day have reduced sperm quality. Smoking can cause DNA damage in sperm, which is linked to an increased risk of miscarriage.
Erectile dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction does not cause infertility, but it can make it harder for you to conceive. And the more you smoke, the higher your risk of erectile dysfunction.
To get an erection strong enough for sexual activity, extra blood needs to flow into the penis. Smoking cigarettes damages your blood vessels, which affects blood flow everywhere in the body, including your genitals.
It fills your lung and blood stream
When the smoke reaches your lungs, it travels to the small air sacs (alveoli) and damages them. This can lead to emphysema, a form of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). From your alveoli, carbon monoxide in the smoke moves into your blood. It bumps oxygen out of your red blood cells, starving your cells and tissues. The lack of oxygen can make you feel short of breath. Your cells sound the alarm to let your body know you need more oxygen, but this causes inflammation and mucus to form, making it even harder to breathe.
genetic damage to sperm
Smoking causes genetic damage to sperm primarily by inducing high levels of oxidative stress, which leads to DNA fragmentation, strand breaks, and chromosomal aberrations. Toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (e.g., benzopyrene) and heavy metals like cadmium, cross the blood-testis barrier, attacking
the sperm genome during development, increasing the risk of birth defects and reducing fertility.
Smoking increase the risk of cervical infection in your cervix
It increase the risk of cancer in your cervix
Infection with HPV is the main cause of cervical cancer. This virus damages DNA, which makes cervical cells more likely to form a tumour.
Smoking can prolong infection with HPV. This could make it more likely that the virus will damage DNA in cervical cells. Scientists believe that this may be one way smoking causes cervical cancer.
Toxic chemicals from smoke may also cause cervical cancer. Toxic chemicals from smoke move into each organ of your body from the blood stream. They stick to the DNA inside your cells. DNA contains the blueprint to produce more cells. Chemicals from smoke change your DNA, forming mutations in your genes. These changes are the triggers that start cancer growing.
