Smoking Side Effects for Men and Women!

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There are a lot of smoking side effects either for men or for women. Cigarette smoking can be categorized into one of common causes that can lead to nicotine dependence, and this is very bad for your health. People with nicotine dependence are often linked to many health complications. They have much higher rates of developing some types of cancer, heart disease, and even stroke than do other individuals who don’t have nicotine dependence.

You might also be interested to read the previous posts about health benefits of quitting smoking timeline and about free-quit smoking patches, before continuing!

Cigarette smoking can generate physical effects & mood-altering effects in the brain that are usually temporarily pleasing. That’s why this unhealthy habit can make smokers want to use more & more tobacco continuously which then eventually will lead to dependence. 

The following are some common side effects of cigarette smoking in men and women!

Smoking and lung cancer /other types of lung disease

Smokers are more likely to have some forms of interstitial lung disease (a large group of disorders -- in many cases it is caused by a progressive scarring of lung tissue). Interstitial lung disease can lead to some serious health problems, such as problems associated with the mechanisms on how you breathe and poor volume of O2 (oxygen) in the bloodstream.

Cigarette smoking is also the top risk factor of lung cancer. Each time you inhale unfriendly chemical properties from tobacco smoke, your risk of developing lung cancer increase drastically. For smokers, quitting smoking as earlier as possible will be so useful to significantly decrease their risk of having lung cancer.

Furthermore, smoking also can put a smoker at high risk of having chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and other lung diseases. 

Smoking can make asthma worse!

Smoking and asthma don’t go so well together! When you have asthma and you are also a smoker, this bad habit can make the symptoms of your asthma worse -- quitting smoking can give a significantly contribution to prevent your asthma symptoms.

How this unhealthy habit can make asthma worse? When tobacco smoke is inhaled by the body, then there are some irritating substances that can settle in airway’s moist lining. And these substances can lead to an attack in individual with asthma. Furthermore, tobacco smoke also can affect the performance of cilia (hair-like structure in your airways). If cilia don’t work well, the mucus and dust can be easily accumulated in your airways.

The risk of heart disease

Inhaling tobacco smoke also can put someone at higher risk of getting heart diseases. In fact, from all deaths (both in men and women) due to heart disease in the U.S -- 20 percent of them are directly linked to cigarette smoking -- according to a published article on WebMD. 

The number of cigarettes that you smoke is equivalent to your risk of having heart attack and heart disease. In other words, you continue to higher your risk of these diseases if you continue to smoke. Moreover, the tobacco smoke not only affects the health of smoker itself, but also can affect other people around a smoker. You may also like to read effects of secondhand and third-hand smoke?!

How does this bad habit increase your risk of heart diseases? The tobacco smoke can bring a lot of unfriendly chemicals (like nicotine) in the body, which then can cause; 

1. Decreased level of oxygen in the heart, brain, and body.
2. Increased the level of blood pressure (can lead to hypertension problem).
3. Abnormally heart rate
4. Can cause more blood clotting (bad for the blood supply in the arteries).
5. And can cause problems associated with blood vessels!

The risk of stroke

One of common risk factors for stroke is cigarette smoking! Anyone has a chance of having stroke, but a study from the Canadian Stroke Congress in Ottawa found that stroke in smokers can come almost 10 years earlier than in non-smokers. In this study, stroke can occur in non-smoker participants when they were the age of 67 on average, while smoker participants were the age of 58 on average.

Participants who are smoker were 2-4 times more likely to experience a hemorrhagic stroke (a stroke that occurs due the ruptures of blood vessel in the brain), and 2 times more likely to have ischemic stroke (the most common type of stroke that occurs due to a blood clot in the arteries that line to the brain). Read also symptoms of stroke!

The risk of getting fertility problems

Smoking can affect men’s fertility and women’s fertility. Some studies have shown that smoking can decrease the sperm counts by about 16 percent in men, and can reduce the fertility by about 20 percent in women. Read also fertility herbs for men and women!

Smoking and women fertility

Women who inhale tobacco smoke are at risk of getting a toxic chemical accumulated in the inside mouse ovaries that is called PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) -- according to a research published 16 July 2001 of Nature Genetics. PAH can cause the creation of a dangerous gene ‘Bax’ which will be potential to cause the early death of mouse egg cells.

Furthermore, according to some British studies -- for women who don’t smoke but they have a smoker partner or if they get frequent secondhand smoke exposure, their chance of getting pregnant may also be affected.

Smoking and men fertility

Tobacco smoke can affect the quality of sperms, which then eventually will make a man become less fertile. Healthy sperms usually have protamin 1 & protamine 2 in perfectly balanced composition. But in men-smokers, the balance of both proteins is more likely to be impaired (the composition of protamine 2 is too little) -- according to a Germany study.

Smoking may also have a significantly contribution to cause erectile dysfunction in men. A survey in Australian that involved about 8,000 men (aged 16 - 59) found that erectile dysfunction was 24 percent more likely to develop in men who smoked up to 20 cigarettes /day, and this problem was also 40 percent more likely to develop in men who smoked 20 cigarettes or more /day -- compared to men who don’t smoke. Read also related article about erectile dysfunction in young men!

The risk of pregnancy complications in women

Smoking is not only bad for women’s fertility, but also can put women at higher likelihood of experiencing more pregnancy complications. Smoking during pregnancy is very dangerous, which can affect the mother’s health and baby’s health (either “before, during, or after the baby is born”)!

Babies born from smoker women (particularly smoking during pregnancy) are more likely to get certain birth defects! Some health problems associated with pregnancy that may occur due to tobacco smoke include:

1. The lack of oxygen supply for the mother and baby.
2. The baby’s heart rate that increases abnormally.
3. High risk of having miscarriage & stillbirth.
4. High risk of having SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).
5. High risk of having baby with lung problems.
6. High risk of having baby with low birth weight or/and born prematurely.

More cigarettes that are smoked by pregnant women, the greater risk for their baby to have these pregnancy complications! Always remember that the harmful chemicals (such as CO and nicotine) from tobacco smoke that are inhaled by pregnant women can be carried via the bloodstream, which then eventually also will go directly to the baby.

The risk of diabetes

Many studies have shown that diabetes (particularly type-2 diabetes) is also relatively more common in smokers than in non-smokers. Some experts believe that tobacco smoke may increase the risk of insulin resistance. 

Moreover, people with diabetes should not smoke, otherwise they will speed the progress of complications from their diabetes, such as health problems associated with vision and kidney.

Other smoking side effects in men and women

These may include:

1. Smoking may affect your senses (weakened senses). This can lead to lack of appetite. But don’t ever try using cigarette smoking for one of your weight loss diet options, because there are more disadvantages than advantages that you will get!  
2. People who smoke are more prone to get some respiratory infections (like bronchitis, flu, and colds) than non-smokers.
3. Smokers also have higher risk of having other types of cancer (such as cancers of mouth, throat, esophagus, etc) than non-smokers.
4. Smoking may also affect the density of bone which then will speed the progress of osteoporosis (read also best foods for healthy bones)! In many cases, smokers are more likely to have thinner body than non-smokers, but it can be caused from smoking or other factors. Furthermore, some studies found that women smokers are also more likely to experience an earlier menopause than women who don’t smoke.
5. The unfriendly chemicals from tobacco smoke also can speed the progress of aging. They also can affect your physical appearance (including the appearance of your skin, teeth, fingernails, and fingers).

So now, you have clearly understood about the serious health problems that can be generated by cigarette smoking. If you are a smoker and you seriously care to your health, you have to quit smoking as earlier as possible!

Fortunately, there are now available many ways to stop smoking, such as with Nicotine-Replacement Therapies “NRT” (this includes nicotine patches, gum, sprays, inhaler, and nicotine lozenges). Nicotine replacement products will help smokers minimize /reduce the attack of nicotine withdrawals by providing nicotine without involving nicotine tobacco.

Even for anyone who cannot afford nicotine replacement products, they can get these products for free! Contact a local health department for more in-depth information.

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Reference: WebMD and MayoClinic