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Hurriah · #1 Thursday, March 06, 2008

For many years there has been research on the health effects of smoking and in recent decades the concern has continued to grow. This is because more adverse health effects of smoking are being discovered every day, yet millions of people continue to smoke and young people continue to start smoking in great numbers.There's hardly a part of the human body that's not affected by the chemicals in the cigerettes you smoke. Let's take a tour of your body to look at how smoking affects it.

What does cigerette contains?

Cigerette smoke contains more than 4000 chemical compounds and at least 400 toxic substances
When you inhale, a cigarette burns at 700°C at the tip and around 60°C in the core. This heat breaks down the tobacco to produce various toxins.
The products that are most damaging are:
Tar,
Nicotine
Carbon monoxide
Components of the gas

Effect of nicotine on human body

Nicotine readily diffuses through, your skin, Lungs and Mucous membranes (such as the lining of your nose or your gums)
Nicotine is quickly absorbed by the blood and transported to the brain with in 30 minutes
Within 10 to 15 seconds of inhaling, most smokers are in the throes of nicotine's effects
Nicotine changes how your brain and body functions,it can both invigorate and relax you, depending on how much and how often you smoke.
Nicotine itself may also block the release of the hormone insulin,so the cells take up excess glucose from your blood so this makes people somewhat hyperglycaemic, having more sugar than usual in their blood.
Nicotine also stimulates the production of adrelanine hormone, which results in increases in heart beat , which there fore causes stress on heart
It paralysis the cilia , so it cannot trap the dust partilcles entering the body causing coughing
Nicotine may also increase your basal metabolic rate,this means that you burn more calories than you usually would when you are just sitting around,losing weight by smoking doesn't give you any of the health benefits,it actually does the opposite
Nicotine can increase the level of your bad cholesterol, LDL that damages your arteries. This makes it more likely that you could have a heart attack or a stroke
Effect of Tar

It combines with oxygen to form aresol (droplet of air),
this enters th respiratory system and causes the epithelium to be thickened , leading to bronchitis

The particles contain chemicals including several cancer-causingsubstances
Tar is sticky and brown and stains teeth, fingernails and lung tissue
Tar contains the carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene that is known to trigger tumour development (cancer).
Results in slow growth of fetus

Effect of Carbonmonoxide

Carbon monoxide inhibits the blood's ability to carry oxygen to body tissues including vital organs such as the heart and brain

It combines with hameoglobin to form carboxy hameoglobin , which lowers the oxygen carrying capacity of blood
Carbon monoxide combines with red blood cells over 200 times more easily than oxygen.
It also takes much longer for your body to eliminate carbon monoxide than to absorb it, with is one reason why exposure can be so dangerous.
Infants, children, those with underlying heart disease, pregnant women and the pregnant mother’s fetus experience the adverse effects of carbon monoxide poisoning at lower levels.

Effect of Other components of gas such as

Hydrogen cyanide:

The lungs contain tiny hairs (cilia) that help to clean the lungs by moving foreign substances out,hydrogen cyanide stops this lung clearance system from working properly,

Free radicals:

These highly reactive chemicals can damage the heart muscles and blood vessels.
They react with cholesterol, leading to the build-up of fatty material on artery walls.
Their actions lead to heart disease, stroke and blood vessel disease

The Following User Says Thank You to Hurriah For This Useful Post:
paindu (Thursday, March 06, 2008)