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It’s time to quit. Would it help if you knew smoking puts you on a rollercoaster to premature ageing?
The advertisements (in the good old days) were powerful: smoking was an instant "in" to the jet-set lifestyle. You'd look cool, and be desirable, fit and healthy as you snow-skied and sailed yachts.
Of course, the realities of smoking were never screened to a susceptible audience. The truth is that there's nothing pretty about smoking. It's the fast track to looking old way before your time.
A wrinkle in time
Smoking leads to wrinkles, lines, and sagging skin. You can also expect bad breath, yellow teeth, and stained fingers. Then there's heart and lung disease; or even impotence.
And, of course, it kills you.
Tobacco smoking is a prevantable cause of death. Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body and leads to a myriad of diseases, including heart disease, cancer, stroke and lung diseases.
One of the obvious effects of smoking is right out there for everyone to see. It ratchets up the wrinkle factor as it sucks away the vital glow of a healthy skin. And there’s more: Thorax, a journal of the British Medical Association (BMA), published research showing that middle-aged smokers who have heavily wrinkled faces are five times likelier to suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than smooth-faced puffers.
Smoking is notorious for causing premature ageing of the skin, as well as causing emphysema and bronchitis, which block the airways and restrict the flow of oxygen around the body. The only positive here is that the findings about the wrinkle factor could provide a fast-track tip for doctors who are diagnosing patients.
“Extensive facial wrinkling may be a marker of susceptibility to the effects of cigarette smoke and should promote the screening of affected individuals for airflow obstruction," said the researchers.
But, if you’re already a senior citizen, and have just started to puff, should you worry about the effects of smoking? After all, there's a time lag from the start of smoking to the onset of chronic disease associated with the habit.
You should still quit. Many older smokers may live another 10 to 20 years or more, during which the impact may manifest. And remember, the longer you’ve been smoking, the higher disease burden you carry.
What does the damage?
Yes, cigarettes do have filters, but they don’t remove enough tar to make the product less dangerous. Plus, there are those taste-improving chemicals added to tobacco that up the risk of cancer.
If you still cannot resist the pull of nicotine, know just what it is you’re dragging on:
- Ammonia: most people prefer to use ammonia for cleaning windows and toilet bowls. By adding ammonia to cigarettes, nicotine in its vapour form can be absorbed through your lungs more quickly. This, in turn, means your brain can get a higher dose of nicotine with each puff.
- Cadmium: in industrial and consumer products, cadmium is used for batteries, pigments, metal coatings, and plastics. Cadmium damages the lungs, can cause kidney disease, and may irritate the digestive tract.
- Benzene: a naturally-occurring substance produced by volcanoes and forest fires and present in many plants and animals. But benzene is also a major industrial chemical made from coal and oil. Benzene is used to make other chemicals, as well as some types of plastics, detergents and pesticides. It’s also a component of gasoline and is linked to leukaemia.
- Formaldehyde: used as glue in wood products and as a preservative in some paints. It can cause watery eyes, burning sensations in the eyes, nose and throat, nausea, coughing, chest tightness, wheezing, skin rashes, and allergic reactions
- Nickel: a hard, silvery-white metal. Causes increased susceptibility to lung infections, chronic bronchitis and reduced lung function
- Lead: used in ammunition, roofing, gasoline, paints and ceramic products and caulking. Lead can affect almost every organ and system in your body. The most sensitive is the central nervous system, particularly in children. Lead also damages kidneys and the immune system. Exposure to lead is more dangerous for young and unborn children. Harmful effects include premature births, smaller babies, decreased mental ability in the infant, learning difficulties, and reduced growth in young children.
- Acetone: present in vehicle exhaust, tobacco smoke, and landfill sites. Breathing moderate-to-high levels of acetone for short periods can cause nose, throat, lung, and eye irritation; headaches; lightheadedness; confusion; increased pulse rate; effects on blood; nausea; vomitting; unconsciousness and possibly coma; and shortening of the menstrual cycle in women.
- Pyridine: made from crude coal tar or other chemicals, and used to dissolve other substances. Headaches, giddiness, a desire to sleep, quickening of the pulse, and rapid breathing have been witnessed in people who have breathed in pyridine.
Many of these chemicals were added to make the smoker better able to tolerate toxic amounts of cigarette smoke. And remember: the bottom line is they were added with the intention of keeping one wanting more.
Quit now!
