Harmful Effects of Smoking Cigarettes

Harmful Effects of Cigarettes Smoking

How Cigarettes Damage your Health and More

The effects of smoking cigarettes can be catastrophic on the human body, and most now know of the risks of smoking. However, the dangers aren’t just limited to the smoker’s own body, they can also affect the health of others, as well as personal finances. In recent years, many people have turned to vaping with vape kits, reusable vapes, and vape pods as a potentially less harmful alternative, but cigarettes remain a leading cause of preventable illness.

What are the Effects of Smoking cigarettes on the Human Body

The most obvious and dramatic damage caused by cigarettes is to the human body. In the UK alone, 78,000 people die from smoking every year. This causes a massive strain on the health service and illustrates just how dangerous smoking is. Below are some of the biggest ways cigarettes can destroy your health and why many smokers are exploring options like disposable and refillable vape devices or the best vape starter kits to quit.

Smoking Effects on Lungs and Breathing

Smoking cigarettes involves inhaling harmful smoke into your lungs, so it makes sense that some of the largest damage done is in this vital organ. Smoking can lead to serious health conditions by causing terrible damage to airways and the alveoli in your lungs. Alveoli are the small air sacs that help pass oxygen to your blood and are very vulnerable to smoke damage.

Smoking also causes your lungs to take on tar, a substance found in smoke. This oily brown residue coats the lungs and makes it harder to breathe, while also increasing the risk of cancer. Shockingly, ⅔ of tar inhaled with smoke will remain in your lungs with every puff.

The damage caused by smoke can cause a wide range of respiratory diseases. Smoking can bring on emphysema and chronic bronchitis, diseases that belong to a group of illnesses known as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). In fact smoking accounts for more than 8 out of 10 deaths from COPD.

According to the NHS, smoking can also cause illnesses related to breathing, such as asthma, to be more severe or prolonged. Cigarettes can even cause smokers to be more vulnerable to simple illness such as the common cold.

Lastly, cigarette smoke contains a range of carcinogens; these are cancer causing chemicals that greatly increase the risk of lung cancer. In fact, a massive 70% of lung cancer cases are thought to be directly caused by smoking, according to information from the NHS.

Smoking Effects on Heart and Blood Circulation

Smoking greatly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which includes coronary heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes. The British Heart Foundation notes that cigarette chemicals cause arteries to become sticky, allowing fat and cholesterol to build up and narrowing blood vessels. This reduces oxygen supply to vital areas of the body.

Nicotine, found in cigarettes and also used in nicotine salts for vaping, raises heart rate and blood pressure—adding further risk. Even light smokers face increased danger, which is why switching to lower-risk nicotine delivery methods, such as vape pods or best vape kits designed for beginners, is growing in popularity.

Smoking Effects on Mouth and Throat

The mouth and throat are the first to come into contact with smoke, making them highly vulnerable. Smoking can cause gum disease, tooth loss, and cancers of the mouth and throat, which can spread to other organs.

Cosmetic effects include yellowed teeth and stubborn brown stains that may require costly cleaning. Many smokers now choose reusable vape kits or disposable vapes in various flavours to avoid some of these oral health risks.

Smoking Effects on Brain

The primary risks to the brain from smoking are strokes and cancer. As mentioned above, the effects smoking has on blood vessels greatly increases the chance of a stroke, which is when blood supply to part of the brain is cut off.

However, that is not the only risk to the brain; worryingly, smoking can actually cause the brain to age faster, according to Age UK. Studies show that smokers have a thinner cerebral cortex than people who otherwise don’t smoke. The cerebral cortex is the section of the brain responsible for memory and learning, and the thinning of it can undermine these functions.

Smoking Effects on Stomach and Digestion

Even though smoking does not seem like it should affect the digestive system, unfortunately it does. Based on research, smokers are more susceptible to a variety of ailments including heartburn, stomach ulcers and even Crohn's disease.

Smoking can even contribute to liver disease, as it inhibits the liver’s ability to filter blood efficiently. This is made even worse when combined with drinking. And, like in the respiratory system, smoking can increase the likelihood of cancers throughout the digestive system. This includes pancreatic, colon and stomach cancers to name a few.

The Dangers of Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand smoke contains around 7,000 chemicals, many of which are harmful. It can cause respiratory issues such as bronchitis and pneumonia, worsen asthma, and put children at risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Pets are also at risk from nicotine and other cigarette toxins.

This danger to others is one reason why some smokers are switching to vape products, where vapour dissipates quickly and contains fewer harmful chemicals compared to cigarette smoke.

Secondhand smoking

What are the Financial Effects of Smoking?

The health effects of smoking are well documented, but the financial hit from smoking is also a big deal these days. Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is to work out how much the average smoker spends per year on cigarettes. Shockingly, the average spend is £3,285 per year, and that's just on average!

However, like the health risks of smoking, the financial toll isn’t that simple. Smoking can cause issues elsewhere, and one big one is how smoking affects property value. As more people are seeing property as an investment, there are growing concerns about the value of smoker’s homes. Interestingly, homes that have seen heavy smoking are worth a whopping 40% less!

Cigarettes smoking financial loss


What are the Best ways to Quit Smoking?

Luckily, there are many ways to help quit smoking. Aside from willpower and simple will to quit, NRT (nicotine replacement therapy) can help to alleviate the withdrawal symptoms from nicotine addiction. There are many different types of NRT including:

  1. E-cigarettes
  2. Nicotine chewing gum
  3. Nicotine patches
  4. Inhalators
  5. Tablets, lozenges and strips
  6. Mouth and nasal nicotine spray
  7. Hypnotherapy services

By using one or more of these, you give yourself a far better chance of kicking the habit for good. One of the most effective of these therapies is vaping with e-cigarettes. According to the NHS, you are twice as likely to quit smoking for good by switching to vaping compared to other NRT methods!