Effects of quitting smoking

When you stop smoking, the loss of nicotine changes the levels of dopamine and noradrenaline. This can make you feel anxious, depressed and irritable. It’s normal to crave nicotine when you quit, as smoking provides an immediate fix to these problems. Source: http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/2278.aspx?CategoryID=53

How to avoid smoking and safe your money

Save money when you quit smoking Cigarettes cost money and the cost is increasing all the time. Have you considered how much money you could save by quitting smoking and being a non-smoker? Let's do the sums around the cost of smoking. If a packet-a-day smoker spends $12.50 on a packet of cigarettes then they spend: $87.50 a week. The cost of a nice meal at a good restaurant. $350 a month. The cost of a weekend away or some new clothes. $4,550 a year. The cost of a new lounge suite or top-level private health insurance for a whole family. $22,750 in 5 years. The cost of a holiday for two people to Europe, all expenses paid. $45,500 in 10 years. The cost of a house deposit or a significant mortgage repayment. Of course, these figures don't even take into account tobacco price increases that are happening all the time. Use the quit smoking savings calculator on the bottom left of our Home page to see how much money you are spending on tobacco. What would you do with all the extra money you're saving as a non-smoker? Some people like to save the money they would otherwise spend on smoking by placing the money in a jar or in a new bank account and watching it grow. Now that can be a great incentive and gift to yourself! Work out the cost of smoking and how you might enjoy the freedom and extra money that comes with quitting smoking. Source: http://www.icanquit.com.au/health/reasons-to-quit/money-saved

Why is it so hard to quit smoking

Smoking tobacco is both a physical addiction and a psychological habit. The nicotine from cigarettes provides a temporary, and addictive, high. Eliminating that regular fix of nicotine will cause your body to experience physical withdrawal symptoms and cravings. Because of nicotine’s “feel good” effect on the brain, you may also have become accustomed to smoking as a way of coping with stress, depression, anxiety, or even boredom. At the same time, the act of smoking is ingrained as a daily ritual. It may be an automatic response for you to smoke a cigarette with your morning coffee, while taking a break from work or school, or during your commute home at the end of a long day. Perhaps friends, family members, and colleagues smoke, and it has become part of the way you relate with them. To successfully quit smoking, you’ll need to address both the addiction and the habits and routines that go along with it. Source: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/quit_smoking_cessation.htm

Personal comments on smoking

Smoking May not be cool but it helps us to relief our stress level......when we smoke it helps us not think about some of the things we don't wish to remember according to experts smoking reduces your stamina and it's true and I was proven when we did our physical test then I felt that I could not run like I was out of breath very quickly....we do not recommend anyone to smoke because it's kills you slowly inside and it does not feel good so please do not smoke for those who don't at the moment but now for those who are smoking try to quit if not cut down smoking........

How regular do smokers smoke

Regulation of nicotine intake Smokers show a strong tendency to regulate their nicotine intakes from cigarettes within quite narrow limits. They avoid intakes that are either too low (provoking withdrawal) or too high (leading to unpleasant effects of nicotine overdose). Within individuals, nicotine preferences emerge early in the smoking career and seem to be stable over time. The phenomenon of nicotine titration is responsible for the failure of intakes to decline after switching to cigarettes with low tar and nicotine yields. Compensatory puffing and inhalation, operating at a subconscious level, ensure that nicotine intakes are maintained. As nicotine and tar delivery in smoke are closely coupled, compensatory smoking likewise maintains tar intake and defeats any potential health gain from lower tar cigarettes. Similar compensatory behaviour occurs after cutting down on the number of cigarettes smoked each day; hence this popular strategy fails to deliver any meaningful health benefits. Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC324461/

Physical and psychological effects of smoking

Absorption of cigarette smoke from the lung is rapid and complete, producing with each inhalation a high concentration arterial bolus of nicotine that reaches the brain within 10-16 seconds, faster than by intravenous injection. Nicotine has a distributional half life of 15-20 minutes and a terminal half life in blood of two hours. Smokers therefore experience a pattern of repetitive and transient high blood nicotine concentrations from each cigarette, with regular hourly cigarettes needed to maintain raised concentrations, and overnight blood levels dropping to close to those of non-smokers.​non-smokers. Nicotine has pervasive effects on brain neurochemistry. It activates nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAchRs), which are widely distributed in the brain, and induces the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. This effect is the same as that produced by other drugs of misuse (such as amphetamines and cocaine) and is thought to be a critical feature of brain addiction mechanisms. Nicotine is a psychomotor stimulant, and in new users it speeds simple reaction time and improves performance on tasks of sustained attention. However, tolerance to many of these effects soon develops, and chronic users probably do not continue to obtain absolute improvements in performance, cognitive processing, or mood. Smokers typically report that cigarettes calm them down when they are stressed and help them to concentrate and work more effectively, but little evidence exists that nicotine provides effective self medication for adverse mood states or for coping with stress. A plausible explanation for why smokers perceive cigarettes to be calming may come from a consideration of the effects of nicotine withdrawal. Smokers start to experience impairment of mood and performance within hours of their last cigarette, and certainly overnight. These effects are completely alleviated by smoking a cigarette. Smokers go through this process thousands of times over the course of their smoking career, and this may lead them to identify cigarettes as effective self medication, even if the effect is the negative one of withdrawal relief rather than any absolute improvement, ​improvement. Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC324461/

A persons social and behavioral aspects when smoking

The primary reinforcing properties of nicotine ultimately sustain smoking behaviour: in experimental models, if nicotine is removed from cigarette smoke, or nicotine's effects on the central nervous system are blocked pharmacologically, smoking eventually ceases. However, under normal conditions, the intimate coupling of behavioural rituals and sensory aspects of smoking with nicotine uptake gives ample opportunities for secondary conditioning. For a 20 a day smoker, “puff by puff” delivery of nicotine to the brain is linked to the sight of the packet, the smell of the smoke, and the scratch in the throat some 70 000 times each year. This no doubt accounts for smokers' widespread concern that if they stopped smoking they would not know what to do with their hands, and for the ability of smoking related cues to evoke strong cravings.​ Social influences also operate to modulate nicotine's effects. The direction of this influence can be to discourage smoking—as, for example, with the cultural disapproval of smoking in some communities, the expectation of non-smoking that has become the norm in professional groups, or the effects of smoke-free policies in workplaces. Other factors encourage smoking, such as being married to a smoker or being part of social networks in socially disadvantaged groups, among whom prevalence is so high as to constitute a norm. Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC324461/

Smoking is addictive

Cigarettes contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. Even if you want to quit smoking, you may find it difficult because you’re addicted to the effects of nicotine. Some research has suggested that nicotine can be more addictive than heroin. Source: http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/2278.aspx?CategoryID=53

Why do we start smoking

Experimenting with smoking usually occurs in the early teenage years and is driven predominantly by psychosocial motives. For a beginner, smoking a cigarette is a symbolic act conveying messages such as, in the words of the tobacco company Philip Morris, “I am no longer my mother's child,” and “I am tough.” Children who are attracted to this adolescent assertion of perceived adulthood or rebelliousness tend to come from backgrounds that favour smoking (for example, with high levels of smoking in parents, siblings, and peers; relatively deprived neighbourhoods; schools where smoking is common). They also tend not to be succeeding according to their own or society's terms (for example, they have low self esteem, have impaired psychological wellbeing, are overweight, or are poor achievers at school). The desired image is sufficient for the novice smoker to tolerate the aversion of the first few cigarettes, after which pharmacological factors assume much greater importance. Again in the words of Philip Morris, “as the force from the psychosocial symbolism subsides, the pharmacological effect takes over to sustain the habit.” Within a year or so of starting to smoke, children inhale the same amount of nicotine per cigarette as adults, experience craving for cigarettes when they cannot smoke, make attempts to quit, and report experiencing the whole range of nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC324461/

Why we smoke

For much of the 20th century, smoking was regarded as a socially learned habit and as a personal choice. It is only in the past decade or so that the fundamental role of nicotine in sustaining smoking behaviour has begun to be more widely accepted. It is now recognised that cigarette smoking is primarily a manifestation of nicotine addiction and that smokers have individually characteristic preferences for their level of nicotine intake. Smokers regulate the way they puff and inhale to achieve their desired nicotine dose. The link with nicotine addiction does not imply that pharmacological factors drive smoking behaviour in a simple way and to the exclusion of other influences. Social, economic, personal, and political influences all play an important part in determining patterns of smoking prevalence and cessation. Although drug effects underpin the behaviour, family and wider social influences are often critical in determining who starts smoking, who gives up, and who continues, ​continues. Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC324461/

What is smoking

Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them available for absorption through the lungs. It can also be done as a part of rituals, to induce trances and spiritual enlightenment. The most common method of smoking today is through cigarettes, primarily industrially manufactured but also hand-rolled from loose tobacco and rolling paper. Other smoking implements include pipes, cigars, bidis, hookahs, vaporizers, and bongs. It has been suggested that smoking-related disease kills one half of all long term smokers but these diseases may also be contracted by non-smokers. A 2007 report states that, each year, about 4.9 million people worldwide die as a result of smoking.[1] Smoking is one of the most common forms of recreational drug use. Tobacco smoking is today by far the most popular form of smoking and is practiced by over one billion people in the majority of all human societies. Less common drugs for smoking include cannabis and opium. Some of the substances are classified as hard narcotics, like heroin, but the use of these is very limited as they are often not commercially available. The history of smoking can be dated to as early as 5000 BC, and has been recorded in many different cultures across the world. Early smoking evolved in association with religious ceremonies; as offerings to deities, in cleansing rituals or to allow shamans and priests to alter their minds for purposes of divination or spiritual enlightenment. After the European exploration and conquest of the Americas, the practice of smoking tobacco quickly spread to the rest of the world. In regions like India and Subsaharan Africa, it merged with existing practices of smoking (mostly of cannabis). In Europe, it introduced a new type of social activity and a form of drug intake which previously had been unknown. Perception surrounding smoking has varied over time and from one place to another; holy and sinful, sophisticated and vulgar, a panacea and deadly health hazard. Only relatively recently, and primarily in industrialized Western countries, has smoking come to be viewed in a decidedly negative light. Today medical studies have proven that smoking tobacco is among the leading causes of many diseases such as lung cancer, heart attacks, COPD, erectile dysfunction and can also lead to birth defects. The inherent health hazards of smoking have caused many countries such as Singapore to institute high taxes on tobacco products and anti-smoking campaigns are launched every year in an attempt to curb tobacco smoking. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking

Get help to quit smoking

Quitline for Smoking: http://www.hpb.gov.sg/HOPPortal/faces/oracle/webcenter/portalapp/pages/AboutUs/AboutUsArticlePage/AboutUsArticleWhitListPage.jspx;jsessionid=NrycTlgZp5jyL3x8WzjT5Tv6qQCQGPBdFJBHTNGpqDkQKHRDMQnp!-698866059?articleTitle=QuitLine&articleFolder=/Contribution%20Folders/HPB%20Online/Services%20and%20Partnership/&topic=Services&_afrLoop=20701737876939907&_afrWindowMode=0&_afrWindowId=null#%40%3Ftopic%3DServices%26_afrWindowId%3Dnull%26articleFolder%3D%252FContribution%2BFolders%252FHPB%2BOnline%252FServices%2Band%2BPartnership%252F%26_afrLoop%3D20701737876939907%26articleTitle%3DQuitLine%26_afrWindowMode%3D0%26_adf.ctrl-state%3D7p97j6i4a_4 Links to good quit smoking websites: 1)http://www.wikihow.com/Quit-Smoking 2)http://www.rd.com/content/25-ways-to-stop-smoking-cigarettes/ 3)http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/quit-smoking/in-depth/nicotine-craving/art-20045454 4)http://www.menshealth.com.sg/health/quit-smoking-good 5)http://www.helpguide.org/mental/quit_smoking_cessation.htm

How to quit smoking

1)Your Personal Stop Smoking Plan While some smokers successfully quit by going cold turkey, most people do better with a plan to keep themselves on track. A good plan addresses both the short–term challenge of quitting smoking and the long–term challenge of preventing relapse. It should also be tailored to your specific needs and smoking habits. 2)Questions to ask yourself Take the time to think of what kind of smoker you are, which moments of your life call for a cigarette, and why. This will help you to identify which tips, techniques or therapies may be most beneficial for you. Do you feel the need to smoke at every meal? Are you more of a social smoker? Is it a very bad addiction (more than a pack a day)? Or would a simple nicotine patch do the job? Do you reach for cigarettes when you're feeling stressed or down? Are there certain activities, places, or people you associate with smoking? Is your cigarette smoking linked to other addictions, such as alcohol or gambling? Are you open to hypnotherapy and/or acupuncture? Are you someone who is open to talking about your addiction with a therapist or counselor? Are you interested in getting into a fitness program? Start your stop smoking plan with START S = Set a quit date. Choose a date within the next 2 weeks, so you have enough time to prepare without losing your motivation to quit. If you mainly smoke at work, quit on the weekend, so you have a few days to adjust to the change. T = Tell family, friends, and co-workers that you plan to quit. Let your friends and family in on your plan to quit smoking and tell them you need their support and encouragement to stop. Look for a quit buddy who wants to stop smoking as well. You can help each other get through the rough times. A = Anticipate and plan for the challenges you'll face while quitting. Most people who begin smoking again do so within the first 3 months. You can help yourself make it through by preparing ahead for common challenges, such as nicotine withdrawal and cigarette cravings. R = Remove cigarettes and other tobacco products from your home, car, and work. Throw away all of your cigarettes (no emergency pack!), lighters, ashtrays, and matches. Wash your clothes and freshen up anything that smells like smoke. Shampoo your car, clean your drapes and carpet, and steam your furniture. T = Talk to your doctor about getting help to quit. Your doctor can prescribe medication to help with withdrawal and suggest other alternatives. If you can't see a doctor, you can get many products over the counter at your local pharmacy or grocery store, including the nicotine patch, nicotine lozenges, and nicotine gum. How to quit smoking: Identify your smoking triggers One of the best things you can do to help yourself quit is to identify the things that make you want to smoke, including specific situations, activities, feelings, and people. 3)Keep a craving journal A craving journal can help you zero in on your patterns and triggers. For a week or so leading up to your quit date, keep a log of your smoking. Note the moments in each day when you crave a cigarette: 4)What time was it? How intense was the craving (on a scale of 1-10)? What were you doing? Who were you with? How were you feeling? How did you feel after smoking? Do you smoke to relieve unpleasant or overwhelming feelings? Managing unpleasant feelings such as stress, depression, loneliness, fear, and anxiety are some of the most common reasons why adults smoke. When you have a bad day, it can seem like cigarettes are your only friend. As much comfort as cigarettes provide, though, it's important to remember that there are healthier (and more effective) ways to keep unpleasant feelings in check. These may include exercising, meditating, using sensory relaxation strategies, and practicing simple breathing exercises. For many people, an important aspect of quitting smoking is to find alternate ways to handle these difficult feelings without smoking. Even when cigarettes are no longer a part of your life, the painful and unpleasant feelings that may have prompted you to smoke in the past will still remain. So, it's worth spending some time thinking about the different ways you intend to deal with stressful situations and the daily irritations that would normally have you reaching for a cigarette. 5)Tips for avoiding common smoking triggers Alcohol. Many people have a habit of smoking when they drink. TIP: switch to non-alcoholic drinks or drink only in places where smoking inside is prohibited. Alternatively, try snacking on nuts and chips, or chewing on a straw or cocktail stick. Other smokers. When friends, family, and co-workers smoke around you, it is doubly difficult to quit or avoid relapse. TIP: Your social circles need to know that you are changing your habits so talk about your decision to quit. Let them know they won't be able to smoke when you're in the car with them or taking a coffee break together. In your workplace, don't take all your coffee breaks with smokers only, do something else instead, or find non-smokers to have your breaks with. End of a meal. For some smokers, ending a meal means lighting up, and the prospect of giving that up may appear daunting. TIP: replace that moment after a meal with something such as a piece of fruit, a (healthy) dessert, a square of chocolate, or a stick of gum. 6)How to quit smoking: Coping with nicotine withdrawal symptoms Once you stop smoking, you will experience a number of physical symptoms as your body withdraws from nicotine. Nicotine withdrawal begins quickly, usually starting within thirty minutes to an hour of the last cigarette and peaking about 2 to 3 days later. Withdrawal symptoms can last for a few days to several weeks and differ from person to person. Common nicotine withdrawal symptoms include: Cigarette cravings Irritability, frustration, or anger Anxiety or nervousness Difficulty concentrating Restlessness Increased appetite Headaches Insomnia Tremors Increased coughing Fatigue Constipation or upset stomach Depression Decreased heart rate Unpleasant as these withdrawal symptoms may be, they are only temporary. They will get better in a few weeks as the toxins are flushed from your body. In the meantime, let your friends and family know that you won't be your usual self and ask for their understanding. Source: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/

Quitting reduces risk

Quitting and Reduced Risks Quitting smoking cuts cardiovascular risks. Just 1 year after quitting smoking, your risk for a heart attack drops sharply. Within 2 to 5 years after quitting smoking, your risk for stroke could fall to about the same as a nonsmoker’s. If you quit smoking, your risks for cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder drop by half within 5 years. Ten years after you quit smoking, your risk for lung cancer drops by half. Source: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking

Smoking is Expensive why

Let’s say you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. At $10 a pack, that means you’re blowing $10 a day, $70 a week and about $3,650 a year on smoking. A lot of money.

But you’re not the only one spending. In 1993 the World Bank estimated that tobacco cost the global economy $200 billion (US) each year—$70 billion of this in the developing world. In 2002, tobacco use cost the Canadian economy an estimated $17 billion, including $1.8 billion in Alberta. These figures include direct health-care costs, missed days at work, lower worker productivity, increased life insurance premiums, the costs for smoking areas at work, fire damages, residential care costs, disability and lost income from dying young.

It costs employers $2,565 more per year to employ someone who smokes than to employ someone who doesn't smoke. This cost includes increased sick days, breaks, life insurance premiums and smoking areas.

There’s no doubt about it. Smoking costs. A lot.

Quick facts

• A week of buying a pack of cigarettes per day is like buying three CDs or two brand-new DVDs or two tickets to a concert.
• A year of buying a pack of cigarettes per day is like buying a brand new, 50-inch widescreen flat-panel TV!
• In 2002, tobacco use cost Albertans about $1.8 billion, including $470.6 million in direct health-care costs.
• In 2002, tobacco use cost Canadians about $17 billion, including $4.4 billion in direct health-care costs.
• Tobacco use costs the global economy $200 billion (US) each year.
• http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/2570.asp

Benefits of quitting smoking

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/smoking/Pages/Betterlives.aspx

Better sex

Stopping smoking improves the body’s bloodflow, so improves sensitivity. Men who stop smoking may get better erections. Women may find that their orgasms improve and they become aroused more easily. It’s also been found that non-smokers are three times more apealling to prospective partners than smokers (one of the advantages, perhaps, of smelling fresh).

Find out more tips for having good sex.

Improved fertility

Non-smokers find it easier to get pregnant. Quitting smoking improves the lining of the womb and can make men’s sperm more potent. Becoming a non-smoker increases the possibility of conceiving through IVF and reduces the likelihood of having a miscarriage. Most importantly, it improves the chances of giving birth to a healthy baby.

Read more about how to protect your fertility.

Younger looking skin

Stopping smoking has been found to slow facial ageing and delay the appearance of wrinkles. The skin of a non-smoker gets more nutrients, including oxygen, and can reverse the sallow, lined complexion that smokers often have.

Watch this video to find out how smoking can ruin your looks.

Whiter teeth

Giving up tobacco stops teeth becoming stained, and you'll have fresher breath. Ex-smokers are less likely than smokers to get gum disease and lose their teeth prematurely.

Find out more about dental health.

Better breathing

People breathe more easily and cough less when they give up smoking because their lung capacity improves by up to 10% within nine months. In your 20s and 30s, the effect of smoking on your lung capacity may not be noticeable until you go for a run, but lung capacity naturally diminishes with age. In later years, having maximum lung capacity can mean the difference between having an active, healthy old age and wheezing when going for a walk or climbing the stairs.

Longer life

Half of all long-term smokers die early from smoking-related diseases, including heart disease, lung cancer and chronic bronchitis. Men who quit smoking by 30 add 10 years to their life. People who kick the habit at 60 add three years to their life. In other words, it’s never too late to benefit from stopping. Quitting not only adds years to your life, but it also greatly improves the chance of a disease-free, mobile, happier old age.

Less stress

Scientific studies show that people's stress levels are lower after they stop smoking. Nicotine addiction makes smokers stressed from the ‘withdrawal’ between cigarettes. The pleasant feeling of satisfying that craving is only temporary and is not a real cure for stress. Also, the improved levels of oxygen in the body means that ex-smokers can concentrate better and have increased mental wellbeing.

Read our top 10 stress-busters.

Improved smell and taste

Kicking the smoking habit gives your senses of smell and taste a boost. The body is recovering from being dulled by the hundreds of toxic chemicals found in cigarettes.

More energy

Within 2 to 12 weeks of stopping smoking, your circulation improves. This makes all physical activity, including walking and running, much easier.

Quitting also boosts your immune system, making it easier to fight off colds and flu. The increase in oxygen in the body makes ex-smokers less tired and less likely to have headaches.

Read these self-help tips to fight fatigue.

Healthier loved ones

By stopping smoking you'll be protecting the health of your non-smoking friends and family.

Passive smoking increases a non-smoker's risk of lung cancer, heart disease and stroke. Second-hand smoke makes children twice at risk of chest illnesses, including pneumonia, croup(swollen airways in the lungs) and bronchitis, plus more ear infections, wheezing and asthma. They also have three times the risk of getting lung cancer in later life compared with children who live with non-smokers.

Harmful chemicals in tobacco

 Tobacco smoke contains chemicals that are harmful to both smokers and nonsmokers. Breathing even a little tobacco smoke can be harmful (1–3).
Of the more than 7,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, at least 250 are known to be harmful, including hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, and ammonia (1, 4).
Among the 250 known harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke, at least 69 can cause cancer. These cancer-causing chemicals include the following (1, 4):

• Arsenic
• Benzene
• Beryllium (a toxic metal)
• 1,3–Butadiene (a hazardous gas)
• Cadmium (a toxic metal)
• Chromium (a metallic element)
• Ethylene oxide
• Nickel (a metallic element)
• Polonium-210 (a radioactive chemical element)
• Vinyl chloride

Other toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke are suspected to cause cancer, including the following (3) 

• Formaldehyde 
• Benzo[a]pyrene
• Toluene
• http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Tobacco/cessation

Disease and health problems caused by smoking

• Cancers of the lung, throat, mouth, tongue, nose, nasal sinus, voice box, oesophagus, pancreas, stomach, liver, kidney, bladder, ureter, bowel, ovary, cervix, and bone marrow (myeloid leukaemia). Smoking related cancers accounted for nearly 21% of all cancer deaths in 2005.
• Heart disease. Around a third of all cases of heart disease in those under 65 years are due to smoking.
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and small airways disease. Emphysema is rare in non-smokers.
• Stroke. Smokers under 65 years old are around three times more likely to have a stroke than non-smokers of the same age.
• Peripheral vascular disease is a narrowing of the leg arteries that can lead to blockage and, in some cases, amputation. Cigarette smoking is the main risk factor for this disease. 
• Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is the bursting of the lower part of the aorta leading from the heart. It often leads to sudden death. Cigarette smoking is the main risk factor for this disease.
• Peptic ulcer disease in persons who are Helicobater pylori positive.
• Eye diseases, such as macular degeneration and cataracts.
• Lower fertility in women.
• Low bone density in older women and hip fractures in both sexes.
• Periodontitis, a dental disease that affects the gum and bone that supports the teeth.
• Respiratory symptoms including shortness of breath, coughing, phlegm and wheezing. These symptoms occur in both child and adult smokers.
• Faster decline in lung function, which means smokers cannot breathe in as deeply, or breathe out as hard as they would if they didn't smoke.
• Impaired lung growth among child and adolescent smokers and early onset of lung function decline in late adolescence and early adulthood.
• Problems during pregnancy and childbirth including restricted foetal growth and low birth weight, complications that can lead to bleeding in pregnancy and the need for caesarean section delivery, and shortened time in the womb and preterm delivery (the baby is carried for less than 37 weeks). Smoking during pregnancy also causes death in early infancy (particularly from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and reduced lung function in infants.
• Childhood cancer (hepatoblastoma) where the father and/or mother smoked before and/or during pregnancy.
• Worsening asthma. Smokers with asthma have poorer asthma control, faster decline in lung function, more airway inflammation, and get less benefit from some asthma medications, compared to non-smokers with asthma.
• Complications during and after surgery, including delayed wound healing and increased risk of infection, drug interactions, lung complications and breathing difficulties.
• http://www.quit.org.au/resource-centre/fact-sheets/deaths-from-smoking