There is strong medical evidence that smoking tobacco is related to more than two dozen diseases and conditions. It has negative effects on nearly every organ of the body and reduces overall health. Smoking tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable death and has negative health impacts on people of all ages: unborn babies, infants, children, adolescents, adults, and seniors.
Short-term effects of smoking include a significant increase in heart rate and a drop in skin temperature. Respiration rate is also increased. In novice smokers, diarrhea and vomiting may occur. Although the central nervous system is, in fact, stimulated by smoking, smokers usually feel it relaxes them.
Long-term effects are mainly on the bronchopulmonary and cardiovascular systems. Smoking is the main cause of lung cancer (related to 90% of all lung cancer cases). Other factors - notably industrial carcinogens (e.g. asbestos) - may be involved, especially among smokers. An average smoker is 10 times more likely to get lung cancer than a non-smoker.
Smoking is estimated to be responsible for 30% of all cancer deaths. It is also associated with cancers of the mouth, throat, colon, pancreas, bladder, kidneys, stomach, and cervix, and related to 75% of chronic bronchitis cases and 80% of emphysema cases.
Tobacco also affects the digestive system - gastric and duodenal ulcers are twice as common and twice as likely to cause death in smokers as in non-smokers. Skin wounds may heal less quickly in smokers, partly because smoking depletes the body of vitamin C. Smokers may also have less effective immune systems than non-smokers.
Tobacco use is associated with 25% to 30% of all cardiovascular disease. Smokers have a 70% higher rate of coronary heart disease than non-smokers (it is the major smoking-related cause of death), nearly twice the risk of heart attack, and five times the risk of stroke.
The damaging effects of smoking are often increased by other factors: for example, the heavy use of such other drugs as alcohol with tobacco increases the risk of both tobacco-related cancer and other diseases of the heart and blood vessels.
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