Picture Courtesy: telegraph.co.uk Smoking is the practice in which a substance is burned and smoke is tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly used substance is dry leaves of tobacco plants. Tobacco contain nicotine, which is mostly consumed in the form of cigarettes.

Nicotine is a drug that is naturally present in tobacco and is responsible for a person’s addiction to tobacco. The addiction to cigarettes and other tobacco products that contain nicotine is similar to addiction produced by using drugs such as heroine & cocaine. Tobacco smokes contain many harmful chemicals like carbon monoxide, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide & others.

Cigarette contain 600 ingredients. When they burn they generates more than 7000 chemicals. Among them 250 are known to be harmful. Out of which many chemicals are poisonous & at least 69 of them causes cancer. Cigarettes contain high level of carcinogen (cancer causing gene) & toxic substances.

Some of the effects of cigarette smoking are:

• Tobacco contains nicotine, which alters the mood. When nicotine reaches to brain, it damages the central nervous system (CNS) & decreases memory power & concentration.
• Nicotine damages the lungs. Lungs lose their ability to filter harmful chemicals. And thus cigarette smokers have higher risk of lung cancer.
• Children whose parents smoke are at higher risk of coughing, wheezing, asthma, pneumonia & bronchitis, than those whose parents do not smoke.
• Smoke damages the entire cardiovascular system. When nicotine enters insides the body, blood sugar level becomes high. Smoke dis-balances cholesterol level and causes high blood pressure.
• Nicotine tightens the blood vessels & restrict the flow of blood. Long term smoker are at higher risk of blood cancer (leukemia), coronary heart disease & heart attack.
• Chemicals found in tobacco smoke change the structure of skin. Smoking cause skin dis-coloration, wrinkles, yellow staining on fingers nail & skin. Smokers usually have yellow or brown stains on their teeth.
• Smokers are at higher risk of oral problem, gum inflammation (gingivitis) which leads to tooth decay, tooth loss and bad breath.
• Smoking also increases the risk of cancer of mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, stomach, colon & rectum.
• Women who smokes before or after the pregnancy have higher risk of infertility, complication of pregnancy including miscarriage problem, per-mature delivery, low weight baby & increases her infants to death. Woman who smoke has higher risk of cervical cancer.
• Men who smoke are at greater risk of erectile dysfunction.

Smoking is very harmful to health which affects the different parts of human body. Smoking cause heart disease, chronic pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis, diabetics, tuberculosis, cancer, osteoporosis, rheumatism, arthritis, asthma, low vision & many other dangerous diseases.