Smoking Skin Effects: Age Naturally, Not the Faster Way

Attractiveness and appearance are equally important to obtain social advantages which are beneficial in improving the quality of life. At the same time, the psychological impact of looking older than a person’s chronological age are significant, most especially when it comes to self-perception. Cigarette smoking has the ability to alter the physical appearance of a person in various and dramatic ways. Although wrinkles in the face are an inevitable part of aging, cigarette smoking can speed up this process.

It has been found out that smoking is an independent risk factor in the development of accelerated facial wrinkling and such risk is dose dependent on the level of exposure to smoking. Smokers who consume more than 50 packs every year were noted to be times more likely to get wrinkles compared to non-smokers. The risk is increased further when smokers are exposed to both smoking and the sunlight. In addition, it has also been found out that the risk of wrinkling is equivalent to approximately 1.4 years of aging compared with those who don’t smoke. The typical face of a smoker is distinguished by having one or more of the following characteristics: subtle gauntness of facial features having a prominence of an underlying bony contours, facial wrinkles that radiate at right angles from the upper and lower lips, as well as the corners of the eyes, a slightly pigmented gray appearance, and a slightly orange, plethoric, red, and purple complexion.

Spare Your Mouth from Cigarette Smoking

Since then until now smoking is considered to be the leading cause of preventable disability, illness, and even premature death. The number of smokers around the world continue to rise as more people start to smoke at an early age. And this is despite the fact that there have been so many alterations regarding the laws in smoking, as well as the high tax that people need to pay. In addition, campaigns against smoking have been rampant, informing people about the dangers of smoking not just to their health but even to the environment. Alternatives and other options to help them quit are provided but all these things seem to be of no avail as more people still die or suffer for the rest of their lives because of smoking.

Cigarette smoking causes harmful effects to the entire body. It is in fact a known cause of emphysema, heart disease, and lung and mouth cancers. The use of tobacco products has a very negative effect on one’s oral health. Some of the effects of smoking might be obvious such as tooth discoloration, bad breath, loss of taste and smell, and can even lead to more serious periodontal problems.

Inflammation of the mouth’s lining and salivary gland openings on the roof of the mouth can lead to a severe mouth sensitivity. And smokers commonly develop leukoplakia, these are white patches inside the mouth. In addition, tooth decay can be amplified because of smoking as it increases plaque build up and tartar. Tooth decay damages the teeth and gums but when smoking, there would be an increased loss of bone within the jaw. Periodontal treatments, tooth extractions, and oral surgeries are some of the most common effects of cigarette smoking on the teeth. And for those people who undergo surgery and they smoke, they delay their healing process. In some cases, there are people who are not qualified to undergo surgery because of smoking. Moreover, and perhaps the most serious effects of smoking to the mouth is the development of oral cancer which can lead to premature death and can be very painful.

Cigarette Smoking: The FAQs and the Answers

When smoking, the poisons coming from a tobacco smoke pass through the lungs and directly go into the bloodstream. Then these are carried throughout the body and interfere with how the body normally works. In every puff that a person takes from a cigarette, he is actually increasing the carbon monoxide in the bloodstream which takes over the place of oxygen in the blood. The nicotine content of a cigarette immediately increases the heart rate of a person, as well as blood pressure. It also causes the blood vessels to narrow, thus reducing the flow of the blood. All these things, when combined create a great stress to the body, most especially to the heart. And as time passes by, smoking takes its toll on the body. The immune system becomes depressed, it interferes with the clearing system of the lungs, and reduces the blood flow to the hands and feet, and of course it hardens the arteries.

What Disease Will I Acquire from Smoking?

Smoking is the primary cause of various diseases such as lung cancer, stroke, heart disease, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. In addition, smoking also causes cancer of the throat, tongue, lip, nasal sinus, nose, esophagus, voice box, pancreas, bladder, kidney, stomach, cervix, and even bone marrow. Aside from these things, smoking is also a significant factor for blindness, hip fractures, loss of bone density, peptic ulcers, gum disease, vein disease in the legs, etc. Any problem that is caused by smoking can be painful, long lasting, and crippling. Thus, the earlier one quits the more that he would be able to reduce the risk of these serious illnesses, more so death.

The Detrimental Effects of Secondhand Smoke to Health

Inhalation of smoke coming from cigarettes or tobacco products is known as secondhand smoke or passive smoking. If you are someone who made the decision not to smoke as you want to live a healthy life and you care for your loved ones and those around you then surely you have made the right decision. However, not smoking is not enough. You might not be aware that the threat of cigarette smoking still haunts you. This is in the form of secondhand smoke, and yes, this too is harmful. In fact, studies have proven that passive smoking is equally harmful as active smoking.

Smoking is known to trigger different kinds of cancer. This is made possible as tobacco products contain carcinogenic substances. Once these substances are being burned, the smoke coming from the tobacco products also contains such harmful substances. Secondhand smoke increases the risk of people to develop lung cancer by up to 20-30%. And there are around 3, 400 nonsmokers who die from lung cancer as a result of secondhand smoking.

E-Cig: Start To Quit Cigarette Addiction Now

If you are ready and prepared to get rid of your smoking addiction, it’s time to replace it with an e cigarette starter kit? Cigarette smoking has always been branded as dangerous to our health, not just for you but also the people surrounding you who tend to inhale the dangerous smoke from your tobacco. That’s why a lot of organization provides campaign against smoking. In some countries, government imposed high taxes on these products to regularize cigarette consumption. Others promote the use electronic cigarettes. 

But how does an e-cigarette can help your way to start quitting smoking? In a post the The Anatomy of Cigarette Addiction, you can see how a person gets addicted to cigarette smoking. The main ingredient that causes addiction is nicotine. The truth is nicotine is not that bad for your health but tobacco is. This is because aside from nicotine, it contains thousand of other chemicals such as ammonia, methane, methanol, cadmium, etc. These are harmful chemicals that can cause inflammation that develop to cancer and other related diseases.

The addiction is caused by nicotine because of the “high” feeling it can give. An e-cigarette contains e-liquid that provides the same feeling to a person using the tobacco but do not give harmful chemicals found in the traditional tobacco. It makes the e-cigarette an alternative device to stimulation smoking sensation to satisfy a person’s cravings. It is used when a person is ready to give up smoking but hardly to do so because of addiction. Usage of e-cig can decrease traditional cigarette smoking.

Tobacco and how does it Delivers its Effects

In every puff of a cigarette smoke, pulls the nicotine and the other harmful substances going into the lungs, wherein it is being absorbed into the bloodstream. In just eight seconds, the nicotine hits the brain. This nicotine happens to be similar in shape like acetylcholine, a natural brain chemical. Acetylcholine is a chemical called neurotransmitters which carry the messages between the brain cells. The neurons or the brain cells have receptors which are specialized proteins; this is where the specific neurotransmitter can fit. It is like a key that fits into a lock. This nicotine is being locked into the acetylcholine receptors, which rapidly causes changes in the body and brain.

Nicotine is also being attached to acetylcholine receptors on the neurons that release a neurotransmitter known as dopamine. This is normally released when one experiences pleasurable feelings like eating a good food, doing an activity, or being with special people. However, cigarette smoking causes the neurons to release an excess amount of dopamine which gives the feeling of pleasure. But this effect actually wears off rapidly, which causes the smokers to have the urge of lighting up again to experience that feel “good” sensation.

Smoking Effects: Immediate and Adverse

Cigarette smoking is the act of burning dried tobacco leaves and inhaling the smoke. As stated by the World Health Organization (WHO), one-third of the total population of the male in the world smokes. On the other hand, non-smoking women are exposed to passive smoking or secondhand smoke. This is basically the inhalation of the smoke exhaled from a person’s cigarette. Smoking comes with a variety of reasons, according to the needs or perhaps the social status of a person. The fact is that smokers come from all walks of life. There are people who smoke for pleasure; others think that doing so would make them look cool. Those who start smoking at an early age can be due to the influence of their friends or family members. However, the danger is when one starts smoking it often ends up being a habit without thinking about the effects.

Every time a person smokes, the heart rate temporarily increases due to the smoke that has a mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide. It then results to the straining of the blood vessels and the heart, which leads to hypertension. In addition, smoking is the cause of the fat deposition in the blood vessels and it narrows them which are the cause of stroke and heart attack. In some instance, there are cases of paralysis of hands and feet as a result of a lack of oxygen and reduced blood supply. When it comes to deaths of heart disease, 30% of it is due to smoking.

Properly Dealing With the Smoking Cravings

After realizing the dangers of smoking upon understanding its content, you decided to change for the better. However, this change is not an easy feat; quitting smoking requires unrelenting determination and discipline to reach your goals. Withdrawal symptoms are not that easy to fight with, and there always lurks that possibility that you will be tempted to be back in that bad habit. Will you not accept the challenge of quitting because of its difficulties; or, will you find ways to get out of the bondage of addiction in exchange for a healthier, better life?

The two choices above require a tough decision for a smoker to make a change in his or her life. Nicotine is a very addictive drug, and without the daily dose smokers got used to, they may suffer the troubles of nicotine withdrawal. Smoking does not only affect the mind, because it is already a part of your daily routine, it is not the easy to kick it out of your system. If you made the decision to quit, and you feel like you are giving in to the temptation, think twice, there is a thin line between your freedom and your destruction. Do not lose hope, because your willingness to change is your ticket to succeed.

The Anatomy of Cigarette Addiction

When did start smoking? Perhaps in your teens? Or after graduation? By the time you started doing so, you were into oblivion of its effects and you were thinking that you can always quit, or maybe you never even thought that you’d be addicted to it. The very first puff that you had might have been vile yet there was a kick to it. Your pulse started to race and you have been catapulted into the elite group of people who dared to be on the edge when it comes to lifestyle. And as time went by, smoking became a natural thing, just like breathing.

Now, decades have passed and you have grown to be an older and wiser person that you have realized the bad effects of smoking to your health. Then you start getting desperate about quitting as you begin to worry about your health and of your loved ones. Before this realization, what to those times that you have spent with your cigarette? Basically, a combination of seductive advertising and peer pressure have lured you into smoking. After then, nicotine took its course. Nicotine is known to be a psychoactive drug. In simple words, it affects the chemistry of the brain. In fact, it can surge into the brain lesser than ten seconds right after you have drawn the tobacco in your lungs. Then, it sets the neurotransmitters in the brain. There are more than 200 different chemicals that include serotonin, beta-endorphins, and dopamine that has been released that give a boost in the mood.

Cigarette Smoking: What Do You Get When You Quit the Habit?

It has been widely acknowledged that smoking is bad for the health, in fact, it kills people. And there are so many advocacies to quit smoking. We see different kinds of them in almost all sorts of media, may it be television, radio, print, and the internet. Added to such are campaigns of people who are against smoking by raising the awareness of people about the dangers of cigarette smoking by holding different activities and programs. A lot of people participate considering the benefits they can get from such. On the other hand, some are hesitant for lacking awareness of what they could actually get from it. Thus, the question is, what do we really get when we quit smoking?

Longer Life
Half of people who are long term smokers die from smoking-related diseases like heart disease, chronic bronchitis, and lung cancer. Those men who quit at the age of 30 can add 10 more years to their life. Those who kick the bad habit at the age of 60 add 3 more years. As the bottom line, it is never too late to quit and to benefit from quitting. It does not only add more years to life but it greatly improves the chance of a person to have a disease-free and happier old age.