The following is a small list of
dangers associated with tobacco !
Cancer
Laryngeal (Voice Box) Cancer
Over 90%
of laryngeal cancers are caused by smoking.
Lung Cancer: Smoking causes 87% of all
lung cancer cases.
Oral and Esophageal Cancer:
The picture is from a 77 year old patient
who had a 30 pack year history of smoking. He quite smoking 26
years ago. The picture shows a large pyriform sinus cancer.
The pyriform sinus is located in the hypopharyngeal between the throat
and the esophagus. The cancer can be seen eating into the
patient's voice box.
Stomach Cancer: It has been estimated
that 14 to 28% of stomach cancer deaths are caused by smoking.
Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, and Stroke. Nicotine,
the major drug in tobacco constricts blood vessels, increasing blood
pressure and the work of the heart. Constricting blood vessels
also decreases blood flow to the body's tissues, resulting in decreased
healing. These effects are exacerbated by diseases such as
diabetes.
Chronic Hoarseness and Laryngeal Polyps Chronic
smokers often develop a persistent hoarse voice with edema of the larynx and
formation of vocal cord polyps. Shown in the pictures below from left to
right is a normal larynx, a larynx with massive vocal cord polyps (in a heavy
smoker) and the same larynx after the polyps have been surgically removed.
Poor Sex Life: Smoking is a major factor
in impotence (
View Article ). It is also a
turnoff to the opposite sex. The following is a study taken in our
local high-school.
Question: Do You Want Your Boy or Girl friend
to Use Tobacco Products? A total of 23 current tobacco users and 23 non-tobacco users were
surveyed. No respondent answered "YES". There was no significant
difference between tobacco users and non-users.
Smoke
Chew
Yes
0
0
No
33
40
Don't Care
13
5
Smoking and Pregnancy: Smoking has been
implicated in the risk of diabetes, obesity (
View Article ) and mental
retardation (
View Article ) in the newborn.
Maternal smoking while pregnant also causes more miscarriages and
creates low-birth weight babies (3). Ref: (1) Montgomery SM, Ekborn A. Smoking during
pregnancy and diabetes mellitus in a British longitudinal birth cohort.
BMJ. 2002,324:26-27.
(2) CD Drews, CC Murphy, M
Yeargin-Allsopp and P Decoufle The
relationship between idiopathic mental retardation and maternal smoking
during pregnancy. Pediatrics. 1996,
97: 547-553.
(3) USMC National Health Naval
Research Center - San Diego, CA.
Emphysema:
This is a progressive wasting of the lungs which is
most commonly caused by chronic smoking. Patient's afflicted with emphysema
experience a slow loss of breath. If not caught early, many
patients must use home oxygen and experience a slow suffocating death.
Smokers have more training
injuries. Training injuries are the number one reason marine cadets
do not make the core. These injuries include: Tendonitis, stress
fractures, frostbite and more foot blisters. Nicotine is a
vasoconstrictor and decreases blood flow to tissues increasing their
susceptibility to injury and decreases their ability to heal.
Ref:
USMC National Health Naval Research Center - San
Diego, CA.
Smokers have less stamina
than non-smokers. They can not run as fast, have les muscular endurance
and there immune system is not as strong. Smokers get sicker more often
especially with bronchitis and take longer to recover. Non-smokers are
steadier and have better night vision. Smoking is not allowed in USMC
boot camp.
Ref:
USMC National Health Naval Research Center - San
Diego, CA.
Gum,
Dental and Mouth Disease To the right is a
picture of a hairy tongue caused by poor mouth hygiene and smoking.
Premature Wrinkling of Skin Tobacco use
has been associated with premature aging and skin wrinkling.
Before undergoing cosmetic surgery for wrinkles one should suspend
tobacco use. Yin L, Morita A, Tsuji T. Alterations of
extracellular matrix
induced by tobacco smoke extract. Arch Dermatol Res 2000 Apr;292(4):188-94
Aizen E, Gilhar A: Smoking effect on
skin wrinkling in the aged
population. Int J Dermatol. 2001
Jul;40(7):431-3.
Koh JS, Kang H, Choi SW, Kim HO: Cigarette
smoking
associated with premature facial wrinkling: Image analysis of facial
skin replicas. Int J Dermatol. 2002
Jan;41(1):21-7.
Ear Infections and URI's
Smoker's Rhinitis:
Tobacco smoke contains hundreds of chemicals
and at least forty of which have been implicated in cancer.
Smoking irritates the lining of the nose, increasing nasal secretions
and swelling. The increase in secretions are caused by goblet
cell hyperplasia ( See Brown & Williamson Research
Document ). The cilia (microscopic hair like structures
which transport fluids) in the nose has its function inhibited and the
nose becomes less able to cleanse itself and more susceptible to
allergens ( See British-American
Tobacco Co Research Document ). Thus if you smoke, treatments
for allergy are less likely to be effective because the nose has a
reduced ability to clean itself of the allergic particles that are
inhaled.
Shown
to the left, is a picture of a dry pale inside of a nose in a 100 pack/year
patient with smoker's rhinitis. In my (Dr. Kevin Kavanagh's) experience, decongestants, antihistamines and nasal
steroids are of little help. In my practice, I have not had a single allergic
patient who smokes improve with allergy shots. Some doctors will not even
allergy test patients that smoke, and for the most part I follow this
practice.
Unfortunately, most patients have caused irreversible damage to the lining of
their nose and quitting smoking does not improve their symptoms. Many patients
experience a worsening of their symptoms since goblet cell hypertrophy takes
place which increases nasal secretions. Because cillary function (micro hair
structures which clean the nose) is often permanently damaged, these secretions
are not cleared and the patient experiences worsening over many months of
his/her symptoms. The best treatment is to quit smoking and use hypertonic
saline nasal irrigations (over-the-counter buffered hypertonic nasal spray) in
combination with the use of nasal steroids. However, as with patients with
chronic lung disease from smoking, patients with smoker's rhinitis, seldom
return to a completely normal state.
