What will happen to me

What will happen to me?

Smoking is bad for your health. It's harmful because there are so many things in tobacco smoke that can harm your body. The most common diseases caused by smoking are lung cancer, heart disease and stroke.

How smoking damages your body

There are more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke. Many of these are poisons. At least 43 of these chemicals cause cancer. Every time you breathe in tobacco smoke, you breathe in poisons that harm your body.





Source:
Burns DM.
Nicotine addiction.
In: Braunwald E, Fauci AS, Kasper DL (editors). Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 15th edition. McGraw-Hill, London, UK; 2001.





1 Smoke also contains tar and harmful gases, such as carbon monoxide.

* The tar and chemicals in tobacco smoke cause your lungs to make a thick fluid called mucus. It clogs your lungs and can cause a "smoker's cough."
* There are tiny hairs that help "sweep" germs and other things out of your lungs. Those hairs can't move easily when you have mucus and tar in your lungs. So you're more likely to get an





infection
You get an infection when viruses, bacteria, fungi or other tiny organisms get into your body. These bugs are so tiny that you can't see them without a microscope. For example, an infection in your airways causes the common cold. And an infection in your skin can cause rashes such as athlete's foot.

infection in your lungs.

* The chemicals in smoke make the walls of your airways swell and get thicker. This makes the airways narrower, so you get less air when you take a breath.
* The walls of your lungs have many tiny bags (or sacs) that hold air. Cigarette smoke damages those sacs. When that happens, less oxygen gets into your blood, and you get out of breath and get tired more easily. Eventually, you can get a lung disease called





chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a condition, most frequently affecting people who have smoked for a long time, involving difficulty breathing and coughing. It can include both emphysema, which is the breakdown of lung tissue, and chronic bronchitis, which is a recurrent, long-lasting cough that brings up phlegm.





chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). If you have this, it gets harder and harder for you to breathe.
* The chemicals in smoke can lead to lung cancer. The chemicals damage cells in your lungs, and the damaged cells can then become cancer cells. The more you smoke, the greater your chance of getting lung cancer. If you smoke cigars or a pipe, you also have a higher chance of getting lung cancer than people who don't smoke.





Source:
National Cancer Institute.
What you need to know about lung cancer.
Available at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/wyntk/lung (accessed on 19 November 2008).





2 To learn more, see our articles on lung cancer.
* Carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke gets into your blood. It reduces the amount of oxygen your blood can carry. This means your heart has to work harder to get enough oxygen to all the cells in your body. The extra work puts a strain on your heart, which over many years can lead to heart problems.
* Some particles in smoke seem to help





LDL cholesterol
LDL cholesterol is often called "bad cholesterol." It is carried in the blood by molecules called low-density lipoproteins (LDLs). A high level of LDL cholesterol places you at risk for heart disease and atherosclerosis.





"bad" cholesterol in your blood stick to your blood vessels. When cholesterol builds up in the blood vessels, it makes them narrower and increases the chances that you'll have a heart attack or





stroke

You have a stroke when the blood supply to a part of your brain is cut off. This damages your brain and can cause symptoms like weakness or numbness on one side of your body. You may also find it hard to speak if you've had a stroke.

stroke.

If you keep smoking
We can't say for sure what will happen to you as an individual if you keep smoking. Everyone is different. This is what we know from studies of people who smoked.

* About half of all smokers die of a disease that's caused by smoking. The big killers are lung cancer, heart disease and stroke.





Source:
National Cancer Institute.
Prevention and cessation of cigarette smoking: control of tobacco use.
Available at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/prevention (accessed on 19 November 2008).





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* On average, the life of someone who smokes is 13 or 14 years shorter than the life of someone who doesn't smoke.
* If you smoke, you're more likely to get cancer in your lungs,





intestine
Your intestine is a long tube that runs from your stomach to your rectum. The intestine is divided into the small intestine and the large intestine. The small intestine helps your body absorb nutrients. The large intestine helps your body absorb water and other materials.





intestine, throat,





pancreas
Your pancreas is an organ that's behind your stomach. It makes several different chemicals. Some of the chemicals help your body digest food. Your pancreas also makes a chemical called insulin, which helps your body use the sugar in your blood.





pancreas,





kidney
Your kidneys are organs that filter your blood to make urine. You have two of them, on either side of your abdominal cavity, toward your back.





kidneys,





bladder
Your bladder is the hollow organ at the top of your pelvis that stores urine. It is similar to a balloon, only with stronger walls. It fills up with urine until you go to the bathroom.





bladder or





cervix

The cervix is a piece of tissue that sits between a woman's womb and her vagina. It has a small opening in it that gets much bigger when a woman is having a baby.

cervix.
* Smoking is the most important cause of

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a condition, most frequently affecting people who have smoked for a long time, involving difficulty breathing and coughing. It can include both emphysema, which is the breakdown of lung tissue, and chronic bronchitis, which is a recurrent, long-lasting cough that brings up phlegm.

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
* Cutting down on the number of cigarettes you smoke doesn't improve your health. You have to stop completely to benefit.





Source:
National Cancer Institute.
Prevention and cessation of cigarette smoking: control of tobacco use.
Available at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/prevention (accessed on 19 November 2008).





3 But cutting down may be a good first step toward quitting completely, if you find it too hard to stop right away.





Source:
Hyland A, Li Q, Bauer JE, et al.
Predictors of cessation in a cohort of current and former smokers followed over 13 years.
Nicotine and Tobacco Research. 2004; 6 (supplement 3): S363-S369.





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One long-term study looked at more than 100,000 women, and followed them for 24 years. It showed that smokers were almost three times more likely to die during the 24 year study, compared to non-smokers. The study also showed that, 20 years after quitting, the chances of death decreased to be the same as someone who'd never smoked.

Source:
Kenfield SA, Stampfer MJ, Rosner BA, et al.
Smoking and smoking cessation in relation to mortality in women.
Journal of the American Medical Association. 2008; 299: 2037-47.





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What smoking does to other people
If you smoke when you're pregnant, you can damage your baby's health. The chemicals in smoke keep babies from getting all the oxygen and nutrients they need to grow. Here's what we know from the research.





Source:
American Lung Cancer Association.
American Lung Association Fact Sheet, Smoking and Pregnancy.
Available at http://www.lungusa.org/site/c.dvLUK9O0E/b.35422 (accessed on 19 November 2008).





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* Your baby is likely to weigh less than it would have if you hadn't smoked. Infants who don't weigh enough are likely to have breathing problems.

* Your baby may be born early and need special care.

* As your baby grows, he or she is more likely to get

asthma

Asthma is a long-term disease of the lungs. It makes you wheeze, cough and feel short of breath. Asthma attacks are caused by iflammation and narrowing of the airways, which makes it hard for air to pass in and out of the lungs.

asthma.
* As many as 1 in 10 infant deaths are due to the mother smoking while she was pregnant.

Breathing in smoke from other people's cigarettes can cause health problems in people who don't smoke. Second-hand smoke can:





Source:
American Lung Cancer Association.
Secondhand smoke fact sheet.
Available at http://www.lungusa.org/site/c.dvLUK9O0E/b.35422 (accessed on 19 November 2008).





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* Cause lung cancer and heart problems (such as heart attacks and stroke) in people who don't smoke
* Make children's asthma worse
* Cause





pneumonia
Pneumonia is an infection in your lungs. Anything that causes infections (bacteria, viruses or fungi, for example) can give you pneumonia.

pneumonia, ear infections,

bronchitis
Bronchitis is inflammation of the major airways (also called bronchi) that lead in and out of your lungs.





bronchitis, coughing and wheezing in young children
* Lead to lung infections in children. Up to 15,000 children need hospital treatment each year because of breathing problems.

If you quit

Almost as soon as you stop smoking, your body starts to clear itself of the poisonous chemicals found in smoke.





Source:
Dresler C, Leon M.
Tobacco control reversal of risk after quitting smoking. IARC handbooks of cancer prevention.
Volume 11. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France; 2007.





8 Here's what happens.

* Within hours. The amount of carbon monoxide in your blood will return to normal within 48 hours. (Carbon monoxide keeps oxygen from getting into your blood and makes it harder for you to breathe.)
* Within days. Your sense of taste and smell will get better.
* In 1 to 2 months. If you have a long-term cough, symptoms like coughing, producing phlegm and wheezing will improve.
* In 1 year. If you have COPD (a condition which makes it hard for you to breathe), your breathing will get easier.
* In 5 years. For women, your risk of cervical cancer drops to the same as someone who's never smoked.
* In 10 to 15 years. Your risk of coronary heart disease (which causes heart attacks) is about the same as someone who's never smoked.
* In 10 to 20 years. Your risk of lung cancer falls to 70 percent of what it would be if you kept smoking.

The sooner you stop smoking, the better. If you stop smoking before the age of 35, you avoid 90 percent of the health problems linked with smoking.





Source:
Peto R, Darby S, Deo H, et al.
Smoking, smoking cessation, and lung cancer in the UK since 1950: combination of national statistics with two case-control studies.
BMJ. 2000; 321: 323-329.





9 But even if you quit after the age of 50, you reduce your chances of dying from a disease linked to smoking.

Stopping smoking increases your chance of living longer. On average, if you give up smoking:





Source:
Doll R, Peto R, Boreham J, et al.
Mortality in relation to smoking: 50 years’ observations on male British doctors.
BMJ. 2004; 328: 1519.





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* At age 30, you'll gain an extra 10 years of life
* At age 40, you'll gain an extra 9 years of life
* At age 50, you'll gain an extra 6 years of life
* At age 60, you'll gain an extra 3 years of life.

See Other ways quitting helps for more information.

The downside of quitting
Giving up smoking also has its problems. But most of them are temporary, and the improvement in your health will soon outweigh these short-term problems.

* You may get depressed, feel anxious, or find it harder to concentrate.





Source:
Stapleton J.
Cigarette smoking prevalence, cessation and relapse.
Statistical Methods in Medical Research. 1998; 7: 187-203.





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* There's some evidence that smokers who quit get more sore throats, coughs, sneezing and other cold symptoms than those who don't.

Source:
Ussher M, West R, Steptoe A, et al.
Increase in common cold symptoms and mouth ulcers following smoking cessation.
Tobacco Control. 2003; 12: 86-8.





12 These symptoms seem to last for just two weeks after quitting and then they go away.
* For many people the biggest drawback to quitting smoking is putting on weight. The average is about 8 pounds to 13 pounds.





Source:
Ockene JK, Emmons KM, Mermelstein RJ, et al.
Relapse and maintenance issues for smoking cessation.
Health Psychology. 2000; 19 (supplement 1): S17-S31.





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Sources for the information on this page:

1. Burns DM.Nicotine addiction.In: Braunwald E, Fauci AS, Kasper DL (editors). Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 15th edition. McGraw-Hill, London, UK; 2001.

2. National Cancer Institute.What you need to know about lung cancer.Available at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/wyntk/lung (accessed on 19 November 2008).

3. National Cancer Institute.Prevention and cessation of cigarette smoking: control of tobacco use.Available at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/prevention (accessed on 19 November 2008).

4. Hyland A, Li Q, Bauer JE, et al.Predictors of cessation in a cohort of current and former smokers followed over 13 years.Nicotine and Tobacco Research. 2004; 6 (supplement 3): S363-S369.

5. Kenfield SA, Stampfer MJ, Rosner BA, et al.Smoking and smoking cessation in relation to mortality in women.Journal of the American Medical Association. 2008; 299: 2037-47.

6. American Lung Cancer Association.American Lung Association Fact Sheet, Smoking and Pregnancy.Available at http://www.lungusa.org/site/c.dvLUK9O0E/b.35422 (accessed on 19 November 2008).

7. American Lung Cancer Association.Secondhand smoke fact sheet.Available at http://www.lungusa.org/site/c.dvLUK9O0E/b.35422 (accessed on 19 November 2008).

8. Dresler C, Leon M.Tobacco control reversal of risk after quitting smoking. IARC handbooks of cancer prevention. Volume 11. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France; 2007.

9. Peto R, Darby S, Deo H, et al.Smoking, smoking cessation, and lung cancer in the UK since 1950: combination of national statistics with two case-control studies.BMJ. 2000; 321: 323-329.

10. Doll R, Peto R, Boreham J, et al.Mortality in relation to smoking: 50 years’ observations on male British doctors.BMJ. 2004; 328: 1519.

11. Stapleton J.Cigarette smoking prevalence, cessation and relapse.Statistical Methods in Medical Research. 1998; 7: 187-203.

12. Ussher M, West R, Steptoe A, et al.Increase in common cold symptoms and mouth ulcers following smoking cessation.Tobacco Control. 2003; 12: 86-8.

13. Ockene JK, Emmons KM, Mermelstein RJ, et al.Relapse and maintenance issues for smoking cessation.Health Psychology. 2000; 19 (supplement 1): S17-S31.