Head and Face
- Smoking causes problems in the mouth such as mouth sores, ulcers and gum disease. Cavities and lose your teeth at a younger age. You are also more likely to get cancers of the mouth and throat.
- Smoking also causes smokers face which is when your skin becomes dry and loses elasticity, leading to wrinkles and stretch marks. Your skin tone may become dull and grayish.
- Nicotine from cigarettes is as addictive as heroin. Nicotine addiction is hard to beat because it changes your brain by developing extra nicotine receptors to accommodate the large doses of nicotine from tobacco. When the brain stops getting the nicotine it’s used to, the result is nicotine withdrawal. Symptoms occur such as being anxious, being irritable, and have strong cravings for nicotine.
Lungs
- Smoking causes inflammation in the small airways and tissues of your lungs. This can make your chest feel tight or cause you to wheeze or feel short of breath. Continued inflammation builds up scar tissue, which leads to physical changes to your lungs and airways that can make breathing hard. Years of lung irritation can give you a chronic cough with mucus.
- Smoking causes the alveoli in the lugs to be destroyed which causes emphysema to develop. Emphysema causes severe shortness of breath and can lead to death.
- smoking can paralyze and even kill the cilia in the lungs. since cilia cleans the mucus and dirt out of the killing them causes smokers to get sick more often.
Heart
- Smoking raises your blood pressure and puts stress on your heart. Over time, stress on the heart can weaken it, making it less able to pump blood to other parts of your body. This increases the risk of heart disease, including heart attacks.
- Smoking increases the cholesterol and unhealthy fats circulating in the blood, leading to unhealthy fatty deposits. Over time, cholesterol, fats, and other debris build up on the walls of your arteries which narrows the arteries and blocks normal blood flow to the heart, brain, and legs. Blocked blood flow to the heart or brain can cause a heart attack or stroke. Blockage in the blood vessels of your legs could result in the amputation of your toes or feet.
Immune System
- Cigarette smoke contains high levels of tar and other chemicals, which can make your immune system less effective at fighting off infections. Continued weakening of the immune system can make you more vulnerable to autoimmune diseases.
- Smoking causes the number of white blood cells to stays high. This is a sign that your body is under stress—constantly fighting against the inflammation and damage caused by tobacco. White blood cell counts that stay elevated for a long time are linked with an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.
- Smoking causes damage to your DNA. When DNA is damaged, the cell can begin growing out of control and create a cancer tumor. The body tries to repair the damage to your DNA, but over time, smoking can wear down this repair system and lead to cancer. One-third of all cancer deaths are caused by tobacco.
- Smoking lowers a female’s level of estrogen. Low estrogen levels can cause dry skin, thinning hair, and memory problems. Women who smoke have a harder time getting pregnant and having a healthy baby. Smoking can also lead to early menopause, which increases your risk of developing certain diseases.
- The body is less able to form healthy new bone tissue, and it breaks down existing bone tissue more rapidly. Over time, smoking leads to a thinning of bone tissue and loss of bone density. This causes bones to become weak and brittle.