Wednesday, June 12, 2013

How Smoking Affects Your Body And Appearance

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it is well-known that smoking cigarettes or inhaling secondhand smoke can lead to a myriad of health problems down the line. If you still need convincing, read on to learn about how smoking directly affects different parts of your body and your physical appearance.

Skin

Ironically, while smoking a cigarette may look “cool” when you’re relaxing, it is actually making you less physically attractive with every puff. Studies show that smoking causes premature sagging and wrinkling of the skin, so that smokers can look about 1.5 years older than nonsmokers. Since smoking also decreases the amount of oxygen in the blood, the skin also takes on a gray, ashen tone, replacing the natural glow or blush of healthy skin. It also slows down the wound healing process, so unsightly scars and stretch marks can become more prominent.

Body Weight & Fat

Contrary to popular belief, smoking can actually make you fatter. According to studies conducted by the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, heavy smokers tend to have greater body weight than nonsmokers. Smoking can cause insulin resistance, an important hormone that regulates body fat storage. The fact that smokers cannot breathe smoothly can also lead to a decrease in exercise and a sedentary lifestyle, hence making it difficult to shed pounds.

Lungs

When you inhale a mouthful of cigarette smoke, you are literally killing off the cilia in your airways. Cilia are the hair cells in your throat that helps the airway expel mucus or irritants, so without them, the smoker would be coughing away nonstop at all the mucus buildup in the throat due to the irritants from the smoke. Not only do the risks of esophageal, throat, mouth, and lung cancer increase dramatically, the lung’s ability of getting oxygen for the body also decreases. Lastly, cigarette smoke coats the walls of lungs with tar (yes, the stuff we pave roads with!), and it can take 10 years or for the body to neutralize the substance.

Heart & Blood

Since the lungs cannot get adequate oxygen to flow through the body, the heart works harder to get what little oxygen there is throughout the body. The blood pressure and rate also increases. Elevated CO2 levels in the blood also causes cholesterol deposits on the blood vessel walls, so clotting is more frequent, and the blood becomes stickier and less fluid. Hence, heart attack, stroke, and other life-threatening cardiovascular problems can easily become a reality with smoking.

Hormones

The amount of toxins and carcinogens in cigarette smoking causes the body to go into “alert mode,” which results in internal inflammation everywhere. Stress hormones are secreted from the adrenal glands above the kidneys, increasing the blood pressure (hence the usual jolt of energy smokers receives). Your blood also goes into overdrive to try and rid the body of such toxins. Smoking also messes with insulin, an important metabolic hormone, so it also increases the risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes.
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