Tobacco smoke, in which more than 4,000 harmful compounds are found, causes chronic poisoning among smokers who systematically consume more than 15 cigarettes a day. The prevalence of smoking hookahs, cigars, cigarettes, tubes is comparable to mass poisoning on a global scale.
Consequences of tobacco smoking
Harm to the body is applied with nicotine. This toxin of the neuro-paralytic action enters the human body through the lungs and swallowed saliva during the tightening.
When inhaled smoke from a cigarette, resin droplets with nicotine are deposited in the alveoli of the lungs. Adsorbed into the bloodstream, nicotine drops into the brain. High concentration of it in the blood does not exist for long, and after 30 minutes it is normalized, and the person again wants to smoke.
At a significant excess of the usual dose of tobacco, poisoning( toxicosis) occurs:
- acute - with a single action of a large number of poisons;
- chronic - smoking more than 15 cigarettes a day.
Acute Toxicosis
Inhalation of a large dose of tobacco causes a spasm in the stomach, throat. Smoking vomits, vomiting opens. Violations primarily affect the digestive system. The patient has diarrhea, there are pains in the abdomen.
As nicotine is absorbed into the blood, changes in the nervous system are observed, noted:
- dizziness, tinnitus;
- extreme pallor, narrowed pupils;
- excitation, headache;
- convulsions, trembling.
Gradually the patient's condition changes, he falls into a stupor, his body is covered with sweat. A few hours later, in the absence of help, a person dies. Similar symptoms, but less pronounced, are experienced by every smoker who first made a cigarette puff.
Chronic tobacco smoking - nicotinism
With long-term smoking, the rejection of the smell and taste of tobacco smoke disappears, which is a sign of chronic tobacco poisoning or nicotinism. Gradually, the number of cigarettes required for a satisfactory state of health increases. If a day consumes more than 15 cigarettes in the course of 2 to 5 years, then there is a chronic tobacco smoking that has sad consequences.
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The patient needs an increasing dose of nicotine, the daily number of cigarettes reaches up to 2 packs. By this time, the person no longer has the euphoria from the cigarette, the seeming rise of activity disappears. He completely falls into slavery from his habit, wakes up with the thought of a cigarette.
Diseases from smoking
Nicotine affects all organs of the body. Changes affect the endocrine system. Influencing the production of hormones, the poison interferes with the work of organs and systems. The toxin affects the adrenal glands, causing their anatomical disorders, increasing the production of hormones, stimulating the production of adrenaline.
The increased production of adrenaline leads to an increase in the concentration of sugar in the blood. This fact explains why the smokers smoke a cigarette in the morning. Tobacco affects the thyroid gland, increasing its volume. To the number of consequences of smoking is also the violation of the balance of the hormones of the gland, the appearance of goiter.
Circulatory organs
Carbon monoxide coming from the smoke penetrates the blood and binds to red blood cells. This disrupts the transport of oxygen to the heart, causes hypoxia of the myocardial tissue.
Smoking is dangerous for the vascular system:
- by increasing the likelihood of infarction;
- increase in the concentration of cholesterol in the blood;
- development of atherosclerosis;
- increased risk of thrombosis.
Heart attack, provoked by smoking, is manifested by pain in the heart, the appearance of a sensation of suffocation, fever, panic.
A characteristic symptom is lameness, a feeling of "crawling crawling" in the affected foot, numbness, lack of pulse in the arteries of the foot. The disease affects smokers of working age. Disruption of oxygen transport due to narrowing of the vessels leads to tissue necrosis, provokes gangrene of the big toes.
Respiratory system
Diseases of respiratory organs in smokers are particularly difficult. The likelihood of chronic bronchitis in smokers exceeds 82%.
Calculate the risk of obstructive pulmonary disease by the smoker's index:
- The number of cigarettes smoked per day is multiplied by the duration( in years) of smoking;
- result is divided by 20.
With an index value higher than 10, the risk of lung disease increases.
Chronic lung disease affects 11 million smokers in Russia and 14 million in the United States. The disease is caused by the damaging effects of particles of smoke and gases.90% of cases of this disease are caused by active tobacco smoking, 10% become ill due to being in smoke-filled premises. Staying in a building with polluted air for 8 hours is equivalent to smoking 5 cigarettes.
Danger of smoking and the fact that addicts with experience develop:
- uncomplicated bronchitis, laryngitis, tracheitis, bronchospasm;
- chronic bronchitis, bronchiolitis with deformity, restriction of airway patency, through which oxygen penetrates into the smallest alveoli of the lungs;
- emphysema.
A sign of oxygen starvation of the respiratory system is the change in the shape of the fingernails of the fingers and feet. They acquire a convex shape, become like a watch glass. On the legs this sign appears earlier than on the hands. In chronic bronchitis with deformation of the bronchi, the fingers become a kind of tympanic sticks.
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is another answer to the question of what is dangerous about smoking. The risk group includes smokers who consume more cigarettes a day.20% of them develop lung cancer and die from this disease.
Symptoms of lung cancer include:
- weight loss;
- shortness of breath at rest, while moving;
- cough;
- frequent bronchitis, acute respiratory infections;
- sudden causeless chills;
- hemoptysis.
Nervous system
The poisoning of the nervous system by nicotine manifests itself as headaches, fatigue, apathy. With an increase in the amount of poison in the blood there is excitation, until the appearance of psychosis. The patient's condition worsens, accompanied by confused consciousness.
Digestive tract
In the smoke from the cigarette there is ammonia, when tightened, it irritates the mucous cheeks, tongue, and gums. Smoke covers the teeth of the smoker. Under the influence of high temperature and toxic components in the areas of contact of the mucosa with a cigarette, the risk of cancer increases.
Oral cancer is caused by smoking in 92% of cases, the same cause in 78% of cases is caused by esophageal cancer.
The medical consequences of smoking are also related to stomach problems. So, nicotine:
- irritates the mucous by swallowing saliva with smoke particles;
- disrupts innervation due to the action of nicotine on the autonomic nervous system.
Smokers have spasms of the esophagus, stomach, secretion of gastric juices, saliva. Nicotine is able to act in the opposite way. In the elderly, smokers have a decrease in secretion of gastric juice, a deterioration in the digestion of fibrin.
Smokers often develop gastritis, erosion, stomach ulcers, liver is enlarged, inflammation in the intestine arises.
Discharge organs
Smoking increases the risk of diseases of the urinary system. Toxic substances cause irritation of the bladder, ureters, kidneys. More often, these diseases are observed in men.
Nicotine is the leading cause of bladder cancer in 47% of all cases, kidney cancer develops due to smoking in 48% of patients.
Reproduction organs
Women have a decrease in estrogen levels, a balance between hormones responsible for ovulation and the cycling of menstruation. Smoking women are more likely to suffer from bleeding, early menopause, infertility. Pregnancy in smoking women often end in miscarriages, accompanied by toxicosis.
In men from smoking, potency suffers, hormonal balance is disrupted, sperm quality deteriorates.
Forecast
The prognosis depends on the experience of the smoker. With prolonged use of tobacco, irreversible damage occurs in the lungs, heart, nervous system, they are organic and not fully compensated even with complete cancellation of smoking.
Video on the effects of smoking: