How much do you really know about smoking - its harmful effects on your health and those around you? Consider the number of deaths attributable to tobacco use today.
How many lives do smoking take every year?
It's scary to think that tobacco is responsible for more deaths than AIDS and a number of other diseases we thought we were really afraid of. Today, tobacco remains the only legally traded consumer good that kills people when used for its intended purpose!
✔ Smoking-related mortality: Smoking kills more than 6 million people worldwide each year. And that's just the data being reported. Since we don't have statistics on smoking in the Third World, it's easy to assume that the actual number is much higher.
✔ Smoking-related fires: 620 people die every year worldwide as a result of fires that can be caused by smoking.
✔ Smoking-related illness: Every 6 seconds, a person dies from a tobacco-related illness.
✔ Smoking-related lung cancer: 353 people die from smoking-related lung cancer worldwide every day.
Global death toll: tobacco will claim 1 billion lives globally in the 21st century if current trends continue
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It is estimated that nearly one third of young adult smokers will die from tobacco-related illnesses. But that is not the worst. Tobacco is the leading cause of cancer and many other diseases that can have a debilitating impact on quality of life.
Facts about smoking: health risks from tobacco use
Tobacco abuse affects every organ in the body. Your heart and lungs are in immediate danger, but your nervous system is as threatened as your eyes.
Tobacco is known to cause cataracts, which are eye diseases considered the leading cause of blindness worldwide.
Statistics of diseases associated with cigarette smoking
✔ Heart disease: Smokers are 2 to 4 times more likely to get heart disease or stroke than non-smokers. Both conditions can lead to serious complications and death.
✔ Lung cancer: The risk of developing lung cancer from smoking is 25 times higher in both men and women.
✔ Heart failure: Smoking causes blood vessels to thicken. This makes pumping blood to the heart difficult and can result in fatal heart failure. The condition is noticeable even in smokers who smoke fewer than five cigarettes a day.
✔ Blood clot: Because smoking significantly worsens blood circulation, blood clots are more likely to develop - these clots can seriously damage limbs and lead to amputations. Diabetics are a particularly vulnerable group.
✔ Cancer: Tobacco use has been found to cause cancer in most major organs and systems of the human body, from the cervix to the soft palate.
✔ Pregnancy: Smoking makes it harder for women to get pregnant. It also increases the risk of preterm birth, stillbirth, ectopic pregnancy, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also known as ectopic death.
✔ Diabetes: Active smokers are 40% more likely to develop diabetes. Heavy smoking also makes controlling and managing the disease difficult.
✔ Gingival disease: Smoking leads to gingival disease and can contribute to tooth loss.
The list goes on. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 3 cancer-related deaths could have been avoided if there had been no tobacco. Cancer kills around 8 million people every year — more than 2.5 million people would live if tobacco were eradicated.
These facts about smoking-related mortality and health are frightening. But there are other tobacco-related figures that are equally frightening, and that show how closely intertwined the industry is with a range of disturbing consequences that occur to both people and the environment.
Facts about the composition of cigarettes
It is incomprehensible to the mind what is in the composition of a cigarette or its smokeless alternative. From rat poison to rocket fuel, smokers consume substances that were never intended for human consumption.
✔ Carcinogens: Cadmium, chromium, arsenic, polonium-210, benzene and beryllium are just a few of the carcinogens that can be found in tobacco smoke. The interesting thing is that we have no idea what brands use them.- / z pages
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- Bad breath in smokers (halitosis)
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- Alcohol disorders and their treatment
- Drugs as dangerous synthetic opioids
✔ Cyanide: Hydrogen cyanide is a powerful poison that the disinsector regularly uses to kill colonies of mice. Smokers can find it in their favorite cigarette brands.
✔ Nicotine: Nicotine, a substance that makes you physically want to smoke a cigarette or other tobacco products, is ??as addictive as heroin. ✔ Toluene: Toluene is regularly added to tobacco products. It is also used in the manufacture of explosives.
Do you think you're too old to quit smoking?
Smoking cessation in middle age: why it is not too late to develop good habits
Smoking cessation is one of the lifestyle options that can benefit older people. But when trying to get rid of this habit and develop better habits, it is easy to succumb to the long-held proverb that old dogs cannot learn new tricks. However, this is not true.
Some might even think that it makes no sense to quit, because it is too late, and the damage has already been done. However, it is noted that quitting smoking can increase life expectancy by up to ten years. And as this article will explain to you, no matter how old you are or how difficult the journey is, quitting smoking paves the way for a longer and healthier life.
What does medical research say about quitting smoking?
Like other bad habits, smoking cessation in old age may not eliminate the harms accumulated over the years. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t end up being pointless to abandon the habit. Regardless of age, history and smoking intensity, quitting prevents your health from deteriorating, allowing you to make the most of your last years.
Dramatic improvements in your health also become more apparent when quantified.
According to the federal government's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk of lung cancer is halved in the 10-15 years after quitting smoking. Meanwhile, the risk of coronary artery disease falls dramatically within one to two years of quitting, and then slowly decreases over time. Think about the healthy life years you get by simply minimizing these risks, given that lung cancer and heart disease are by far the leading causes of premature death among men and women in the US.
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- Alcohol disorders and their treatment
- Drugs as dangerous synthetic opioids
Recent research adds that quitting is good not only for the heart and lungs, but also for the brain. In light of the fact that middle-aged smokers report a higher likelihood of memory loss than non-smokers, a 2022 study published in Journal of Alzheimer's Disease found that quitting between the ages of 45 and 59 was associated with better cognitive outcomes. So, in addition to living longer, you can also improve your overall quality of life as you age by preserving your memory and thinking skills.
How to quit smoking and develop the best habits
Not only smokers but also health care providers can be biased against smoking cessation in middle age. A study by Yong et al., published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, found that older smokers are less likely to receive prescription cessation drugs.
However, there are nicotine replacement products (NZTs) that can be bought over the counter and that can help with smoking cravings and withdrawal. Nicotine is a drug that can cause symptoms if it is no longer used until it leaves your body.
Nicotine replacement therapy
NZT options include nicotine bags and patches. The bags directly deliver low doses of nicotine through oral absorption. You just put one between the gum and the upper lip. These bags are widely available in stores and online, with online retailers offering a wider range of options.
Nicotine bags available at Prilla.com are produced by ZYN, On!, Rogue and Velo and have a variety of flavors including mint, citrus and coffee. Smokeless bags are not only simple and convenient to use, their tobacco-free properties also ensure that you do not put your health at risk.
NZT combination can also increase smoking cessation success rates by up to 25% compared with individual use, according to the Cochrane Systematic Review by Lindson et al. on combination therapy using fast-acting products such as gum and pouches, and slower-release transdermal patches.
Documentation on the quit plan
It is also strongly recommended that smokers of all ages develop a quit plan as a way to prepare for and track their quitting journey. In addition to choosing a quit date and determining the motivation for quitting.
When documenting the process, it’s important not just to list your milestones, but also to reflect on the challenges you’ve overcome in quitting smoking. It will make you proud of how far you have come, and at the same time remind you that you can do much more for your health — and for the people around you. Remember, age is just a number.
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- Smoking
- Smoking is Death for Organs
- Girls and Smoking
- Vaping - electronic cigarette
- Effects of smoking on humans
- Evali (ewali), a smoker’s lung disease
- Bad breath in smokers (halitosis)
- Alcohol disorders and their treatment
- Drugs as dangerous synthetic opioids