What are the health risks of social smokers?

Are you a social smoker or have friends with this smoking habit? Social smokers are people who usually smoke just to socialize. This smoking habit may only spend one pack of cigarettes a month and does not appear to be actively smoking. This may be due to awareness of the dangers of smoking, but the environment forces you to do this habit. The problem is, what are the health risks even if you only smoke at certain moments? Is it safer or as dangerous as active smokers?

Health risks of being a social smoker

Most social smokers think that they will not be adversely affected because the number of cigarettes smoked is not as many as active smokers. In fact, even though you don't smoke every day, the dangers of smoking still lurk your health.

Every cigarette smoked has an effect on health. Even though you are a social smoker, health risks such as heart disease and cancer will still increase.

Then every cigarette smoke that enters the body can cause the platelets to clot, causing clogged blood vessels and triggering a heart attack or stroke.

Social smokers are also sometimes called light smokers. Light smokers usually smoke smaller amounts. It's just that, according to research at Columbia University, whether it's five cigarettes or two packs of cigarettes a day, the damage to the lungs is almost identical.

The cigarette smoke process damages the lungs

About 480,000 people in America each year die from smoking. Social smokers still burn the same cigarettes and smoke around 7000 chemicals. At least 69 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer.

Even though social smokers only smoke five cigarettes a day, the negative impact on the body is still significant, such as active smokers, including the lungs.

These chemical compounds can cause damage to cells in the lungs. The damaged cells will experience inflammation and swell, then the body will try to repair the damage. During this process, normal and healthy tissue can be damaged too.

Decreased lung function

The amount of air that enters when you breathe is part of lung function and naturally decreases with age. One of the dangers of smoking is to accelerate the decline in lung function.

When lung function decreases, it will be difficult for you to get oxygen which is important for organs, such as the heart and brain. This can affect your health even before you develop blockages in the arteries.

If you are not getting enough oxygen, you will need additional oxygen from the tube to keep your body getting the amount of oxygen it needs.

Social smokers are still detrimental to those around you

The smoke exhaled by a smoker or also called secondhand smoke, plus the smoke from cigarettes itself is poisonous to those around you. Research shows that just being in the presence of cigarette smoke increases health risks such as cancer and heart disease.

Although the health effects are almost the same as those of light or active smokers, there is good news for those of you who are social smokers. You may find it easier to quit. Because you only smoke in certain conditions or there are certain triggers that cause you to smoke.

Try to come up with a plan for how to avoid the places where you normally smoke, as well as control your behavior when you socialize with smokers.

There are still many ways to socialize compared to smoking. Spending more time with friends who don't smoke or going to places where smoking is prohibited can help social smokers to quit quickly.