The dangers of smoking for health cannot be underestimated

Maybe right now you are feeling the pleasure of smoking in every puff. When you smoke, you may also feel fine and there is nothing wrong with your body. However, are you aware that the enjoyment of smoking is not worth the dangers it causes? The dangers of smoking not only cause cancer, heart attacks, impotence, and pregnancy and fetal disorders.

The dangers of smoking for active smokers

It feels like both men and women, old or young, must be smoking. Launching the Databoks news site, the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) report mentions Indonesia as the country with the highest number of active smokers in ASEAN, namely 65.19 million people. This number can represent around 34% of the total population of Indonesia in 2016.

Even though as the warning label says on every pack of cigarettes, smoking is a bad habit that can cause various deadly diseases.

Cigarettes contain thousands of substances that can harm the body. The effect may not appear immediately but over time the various substances in it can bring harm to the body. Here are the various dangers of smoking that you should be aware of:

1. Risk of cancer

Reporting from the pages of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking causes 90 percent of deaths from lung cancer.

However, smoking can also cause cancer in other parts of the body such as:

• Mouth
• Larynx (voice box)
• Pharynx (throat)
• Esophagus
• Kidney
• Cervix
• Heart
• Bladder
• Pancreas
• Stomach
• Colon (12 finger intestine)

When the body's cells are exposed to cigarette smoke, that's when the cells are in danger. No matter what type of cigarette you use, the risk of cancer is inevitable. Therefore, smoking is very dangerous for the body's organs because it can be damaged slowly.

2. Diabetes risk

Diabetes is one of the health hazards that can arise from smoking. Active smokers even have a 30 to 40 percent higher risk of developing diabetes than nonsmokers.

This is because the nicotine in cigarettes makes blood sugar levels either too high or too low. In addition, nicotine also changes the chemical processes in cells so that they cannot respond to insulin. This condition is known as insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance is a condition when cells cannot use blood sugar properly due to disruption of the body's response to insulin.

When insulin resistance occurs, the blood sugar levels in the body can get too high. This is because the insulin hormone is responsible for helping the body absorb glucose. This absorbed glucose can be burned for energy or stored as fat.

Unfortunately, when insulin is interrupted by smoking, blood sugar levels get out of control. If left untreated, this condition can increase diabetes complications such as heart problems, kidney, nerve and eye damage.

3. The immune system is weakened

Cigarette smoke contains tar and other chemicals that can weaken the immune system. When the immune system is weakened, this part cannot work optimally to fight the incoming infection. This makes you more susceptible to various diseases even though they are mild.

A weakened immune system also makes you more susceptible to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or rheumatism. This disease attacks the joints in the bones of the hands and feet. If not treated promptly, this disease can lead to bone loss and joint deformities.

4. Eye disease and vision problems

According to the National Eye Institute, smoking can double the risk of macular degeneration in people over the age of 65. Macular degeneration is when the macula, or a small dot near the center of the retina, is damaged. Even though this area allows you to see objects that are straight ahead. Although it doesn't cause total blindness, macular degeneration makes your main vision ability impaired. As a result, it will be difficult for you to see someone's face, drive, read, write, or do homework. In addition, smoking is also a danger to the eyes because when you have diabetes, cataracts and glaucoma are complications that are prone to attack. In addition, diabetics who smoke are also at an earlier risk of developing diabetic retinopathy which can cause blindness.

5. The wound becomes difficult to dry

Nutrients, minerals and oxygen are all supplied to the tissues via the bloodstream. Unfortunately, nicotine causes blood vessels to tighten, which can reduce the nutrition supplied to the wound. As a result, wounds take longer to heal.

This slower healing increases the risk of infection after an injury or surgery. This is certainly dangerous because bacteria or viruses can enter and infect the body.

6. Tooth and mouth disease

People who smoke are twice as likely to develop gum disease. If you smoke too many cigarettes in a day, your risk of disease increases sharply.

Gum disease or what is known as periodontitis is a gum infection that can destroy the bones that support the teeth. Periodontitis is one of the main causes of tooth loss in adults.

The various symptoms that usually appear when a person has gum disease, namely:

• Swollen and tender gums
• Bleeding gums when you brush your teeth
• Tooth loss or loss
• Sensitive teeth

In addition, smoking can stain teeth. Usually heavy smokers have yellow or brown stains on their front teeth especially in the middle. The reason is, the tooth area is the part where cigarettes usually stick when smoked.

7. Impaired sense of taste and smell

Cigarette poison makes the sensitivity of the tongue as a sense of taste and nose as a smell dull. As a result, active smokers usually cannot smell or taste food optimally so that their appetite often decreases.

However, this will not last forever or permanently. When you quit smoking, this ability will return on its own.

8. Cardiovascular disease

Smoking is very dangerous because it can damage your entire cardiovascular system. Nicotine can tighten blood vessels, which can restrict blood flow. Over time, the narrowing will occur along with damage to the blood vessels. This condition can lead to peripheral artery disease.

Other cardiovascular dangers of smoking include increasing blood pressure, weakening the walls of blood vessels, and increasing the risk of blood clots. This makes the risk of stroke and coronary heart disease increased much higher than those who do not smoke.

In fact, people who smoke fewer than five cigarettes a day may also have early signs of cardiovascular disease.

9. Respiratory system problems

Cigarette smoke is a substance that can slowly damage the lungs and respiratory system. Over time, this damage can lead to incurable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The longer and more cigarette butts are smoked, the risk of COPD increases. This is because smoking is indeed the most common cause of COPD.

The appearance of voices in the chest such as wheezing, crackling, or whistling is an early sign of COPD. In addition, shortness of breath and coughing up mucus are also symptoms that cannot be underestimated. In a severe condition, COPD makes sufferers gasp and feel as if they are drowning.

Emphysema

Emphysema is a condition in which the air sacs in the lungs slowly disintegrate, causing shortness of breath. When the air sac is damaged, this will automatically decrease the amount of oxygen that reaches the blood.

Over time, these ruptured sacs make emphysema sufferers have to work very hard to get enough air. In fact, even in a state of inactivity, his chest will feel very tight.

People with emphysema are also at risk for many other health problems due to weak lung function including pneumonia. When the condition is severe, the patient can only breathe with the help of oxygen. Emphysema is incurable but can be treated and slowed down if the person stops smoking.

Chronic bronchitis

Chronic bronchitis is a condition when the airways produce too much mucus. This makes the sufferer aroused to cough. Usually this condition is one of the most common in smokers.

Over time, the airways become blocked by scar tissue and mucus. Over time this condition can cause lung infection (pneumonia).

There is no cure for chronic bronchitis. However, quitting smoking can help control the symptoms. Quitting smoking also helps control the damage so that the condition doesn't get worse.

Smoking can also worsen or prolong respiratory problems such as asthma, or respiratory infections such as the common cold.

In addition, children whose parents smoke are more prone to coughing, wheezing and asthma attacks than children whose parents do not smoke. Not only that, these children also tend to be at high risk of developing pneumonia and bronchitis.

10. Problems with skin, hair and nails

Skin changes are one of the symptoms that often appear in smokers. Substances in tobacco smoke can change the inner skin structure. This makes the risk of squamous cell carcinoma cancer increased sharply, especially on the lips. In addition, smokers also usually experience premature aging such as skin that wrinkles faster.

People who smoke are also more susceptible to fungal nail infections. Fungal infection makes nails brittle and not as strong as usual. Heavy smokers also usually have yellowish nails due to handling cigarettes too often.

In addition, this condition also disturbs the appearance of the nails. Smokers also tend to be at higher risk of experiencing hair loss, baldness, and premature graying.

11. Fertility and reproductive disorders

Smoking can damage a woman's reproductive system and make it difficult to get pregnant. Most likely this is due to tobacco and other substances in cigarettes that affect hormone levels in the body. In addition, women who smoke tend to go through menopause earlier than those who don't.

Meanwhile, in men, smoking brings its own dangers to the penis. This is because smoking damages arteries and blood flow, two important factors in the erection process. Smokers tend to be at higher risk for impotence or erectile dysfunction. The more cigarettes smoked and the longer this habit is practiced, the higher the risk of impotence.

Smoking can also have an effect on sperm which can reduce male fertility. If the sperm quality is poor, the fetus is at high risk for miscarriage and birth defects.

12. Complications of pregnancy

Smoking is a high-risk activity for pregnant women. If a pregnant woman smokes, there are a lot of health problems that can lurk both the mother and the fetus, such as:

• Experiencing an ectopic pregnancy (wine pregnancy) in which the embryo grows outside the uterus
• Tend to have premature rupture of the membranes and placenta that separated from the uterus prematurely
• Serious bleeding, premature birth, and emergency caesarean section
• Experiencing miscarriages, stillbirths, babies with cleft lip or palate, and low birth weight babies
• Babies are at high risk of developing birth defects and sudden infant death syndrome
• The lungs, brain, and nervous system of the fetus are susceptible to damage

Do not just because the desire to smoke is difficult to contain, your baby will be affected. Love your body and the baby who is in the womb by quitting smoking.

Health hazards in secondhand smoke

The dangers of smoking don't just impact smokers themselves. However, secondhand smoke that other people inhale can also harm their health.

People who share in inhaling secondhand smoke (but not smoking) are called passive smokers. Secondhand smoke is also at a higher risk of exposure to the same health problems or dangers from those who smoke actively.

Babies and children are especially vulnerable to the effects of secondhand smoke from other people. The reason is, unlike adults, babies and children cannot escape when cigarette smoke is nearby.

Reporting from the page of the American Cancer Society, research shows that children whose parents smoke tend to:

• Get sick more often
• Have more lung infections such as bronchitis or pneumonia
• More frequent coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath
• More frequent ear infections

In addition, inhaled cigarette smoke can also trigger asthma attacks and worsen symptoms. In fact, children who become passive smokers can develop asthma even though previously there were no asthma symptoms that appeared. Meanwhile, in infants, the problems that arise can be more fatal, namely sudden infant death syndrome.