Tobacco Use and Health Risks

Tobacco use has become so common that over the past 10 years, it has been reported that on average, 1 in 3 adults smoke a cigarette daily! Smoking cigarettes is something we all do or have seen other people do, and it’s no foreign concept. In fact, smoking is a habit that reportedly goes way back to almost 6000 B.C. Actually, tobacco wasn’t always used for purely smoking or chewing. From as early as 1 B.C., it has been said that Indians used tobacco for several reasons, including medicinal as well as religious. It was normally used to treat wounds, treat pain, and other things as well.

Tobacco has been growing natively in North America (in many of the southern states) as well as South America for thousands of years, and it is included in the same family as the pepper, potato, and the poisonous nightshade. Tobacco seeds come in extremely small sizes, and 300,000 of them only weigh a whopping 1 oz. The tobacco leaf is usually quite massive, and once it has matured fully, it is dried and sold. Today, the most common uses that people get out of tobacco are either smoking it or chewing it. Nowadays, researchers have discovered over 40 various chemicals that are existent in cigarette smoke. These are all potent enough to cause cancer.

Immediate Effects of Tobacco Use

Of course, smoking or chewing tobacco is completely unhealthy, but what is it that makes it so attractive? Why do people keep doing it, and why is it so hard to quit? When somebody lights up a cigarette or places the chewing tobacco in his/her mouth, the body immediately responds to it; “it” meaning the nicotine in the smoke. Nicotine causes the body’s blood pressure to rise as well as the heart rate and blood flow from the heart. The carbon monoxide affects the blood by reducing the amount of oxygen that it’s able to carry. All of this creates an imbalance between the cells’ demand for oxygen and the amount of oxygen the blood can actually supply. This is noticed when a person experiences a sense of euphoria, and stress levels are significantly reduced.

Health Risks Associated with Tobacco Use

The immediate effects of smoking are certainly to blame for addiction and constant use by so many people. However, prolonged tobacco use can entail some pretty rough consequences. Tobacco Use Is Associated With a Number of Health Problems Including:

Tobacco has also been reported to contribute to the formation of cervix cancer, pancreas cancer, and kidney cancer.

Of course, smoking is highly addictive, and it’s always recommended not to start because of this. The most addictive property found in tobacco is nicotine. It’s a highly potent stimulant that if used long enough, will cause anybody to become addicted. There have been other accusations made to tobacco manufacturers that there are other properties added within cigarettes and chewing tobacco that increase a person’s chances of becoming addicted. Of course, one cigarette in a lifetime will certainly not cause any damage, but repetitive smoking over a long amount of time will begin to cause undesired consequences.

Smoking During a Pregnancy

If you’re a smoker yourself, then you may or may not know that smoking during a pregnancy can pose extreme hazards for you as well as your baby. Exposing a fetus in the womb to cigarette smoke immediately begins posing problems. The baby in the womb tends to receive less oxygen and food than normal, and this is a result from the imbalance caused by the nicotine and carbon monoxide. Once the baby receives less oxygen and food, the placenta generally spreads further out inside of the uterus in an attempt to draw more nutrients and oxygen. While the placenta spreads out, this makes it even thinner which can dramatically increase the risk of “placenta previa” and “placental abruption.”

Because of this deprivation of food and oxygen (and especially if the mother regularly smokes during the pregnancy), the infant is much more likely to have a low birth weight. This can cause many other problems including poor functioning of the lungs. Mothers That Smoke During Their Pregnancy Increase the Following Risks:

Quitting Tobacco Use

Quitting the use of tobacco is highly recommended to anybody because of the dangerous health effects involved. If pregnant, it’s even more crucial that she quits for the infant’s wellbeing. Nobody ever proved that quitting tobacco use is easy, and it won’t be (especially if the tobacco user has been using for a long time). However, by quitting, you’ll be doing yourself a very generous favor, and you’ll essentially be elongating your life span. Once you’ve quit, you’ll thank yourself that you made the effort!