Hmrecovery.org - Health Care Information

Smoking is as detrimental to the health of women, as it is to the health of men. The health risks for women remain similar to that of men, but with a few differences.

The risk of suffering from cancer
All women who smoke put themselves at the risk of suffering from lung cancer. The cancer of the lung has left breast cancer far behind as the leading cause of death related to cancer. A large percentage of the lung cancer deaths are a result of smoking. Women are not just at risk of suffering from lung cancer, but may also suffer from cancer of the mouth, lips, oesophagus, bladder, stomach, cervix, throat, voice box and kidney. All these cancers may result from smoking.

The risk of suffering from heart disease and lung damage
A woman, who smokes, increases her chances of suffering from heart disease. The risk of suffering from heart disease is directly proportional to the amount of cigarettes smoked, throughout the duration of her life as a smoker. There is also no doubt that the lungs are damaged as a result of smoking. The smoke that you inhale has a number of toxic substances that all come together to wreak havoc on the airways and small air sacs that are a part of the lungs.

Smoking affects the reproductive health of a woman
A woman who is addicted to smoking might not be able to get pregnant. She may also face serious problems during her pregnancy. The problems include growth of placenta near the uterine opening, early separation of placenta from the uterus and membrane ruptures. Other problems include premature delivery and bleeding.

Smoking can also affect the baby
It’s not just the mothers who are affected by the negative effects of smoking. Even their baby’s health can be affected by smoking. Women who smoke throughout the duration of their pregnancy are at the risk of delivering their child prematurely, which can result in infant death. Babies are also at risk of suffering from what is known a Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

You can see that women who smoke not only put themselves at risk but their infants as well.

Second hand smoking is also known as passive smoking. It’s the kind of smoking, wherein you don’t smoke but breathe in other peoples smoke. This could be cigarette smoke or even environmental tobacco smoke. If you think that second hand smoking is not detrimental to your health, you are dead wrong. And ‘dead’ is the right word here, as second hand smoking poses serious health risks to your body also.

Second hand smoking can harm you

Causes cancer
Second hand smoke is a cancer causing agent. It’s estimated that there are over 4000 compounds that are a part of tobacco smoke and around 60 of them are carcinogens. Cancer, as a result of smoking or passive smoking, is one of the leading causes of death across the world.

Smoking harms the newborn
Mothers are asked not to smoke as the foetus or the new born infant is affected by her smoking. This is the kind of passive smoking that leads to birth defects in the baby. The infant passively takes in the cigarette smoke from the mother, leading to serous health risks.

Other health problems
You are not just at risk for cancer because of second hand smoke. Your body becomes susceptible to heart disease, lung infections like pneumonia and bronchitis. There are increased cases of children who suffer from asthma as a result of passive smoking.

Avoiding second hand smoke
Because of its harmful effects it becomes very important that you avoid passive smoking. But, is it really possible for you to avoid passive smoking? Let’s just say that it’s difficult. The best thing you can do is to avoid smokers and not frequent places that are frequented by smokers. And whenever possible make a non-smoker out of a smoker.

Second hand smoke has first rate harmful effects. You will do well to stay away from it as far as possible.

Smoking is one of the most harmful activities a person can adopt. It affects all aspects of a person’s life such as health, fitness, social status and even family relations. Excessive smoking over long period of time can even kill you due to a smoking related disease.

There are more than 4,000 chemicals in the human body including tobacco, tar, carbon monoxide, metals, nitrogen oxides, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide and radioactive compounds. Smoking may cause you life threatening diseases such as various types of cancers, lung diseases and heart ailment. Pregnant women who smoke are likely to deliver low birth weight or even still born babies.

Further, smoking affects your kids and other family members as second hand smoking is considered equally bad. For this reason your friends and family members may also avoid you. Smoking makes you get tired easily and may also cause erectile dysfunction. Besides smoking affects your taste buds and makes your breath and clothes smell bad.

Smoking Cessation Treatment
Smoking is easier to start but very hard to quit as it is an addictive habit. Nicotine starts controlling your brain, so that if you do not get the used to dose of nicotine your brain starts giving you painful nicotine withdrawal symptoms. For this reason many smokers are scared to even make an attempt to quit and many who do dare to quit cold turkey often fail in their smoking cessation attempt.

To help people get rid of their smoking habit successfully, a number of smoking cessation treatment methods are available. Some popular smoking cessation treatment methods include –

• Use of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) – These attempt to provide the body with nicotine minus other harmful products in the cigarette through nicotine patches, nicotine gums etc. Since NRT contains nicotine a certain risk of re-addiction is involved.
• Use of nicotine–free Quit Smoking Medication – These are the novel and most effective smoking cessation treatment method. These do not contain nicotine and hence are not addictive. Popular quit smoking medications include Champix (Varenicline) and Zyban (Buproprion).

Champix to quit smoking
Developed by Pfizer, Champix is the newest and most successful smoking cessation treatment medication. The reason why Champix is rated better than other smoking cessation treatment medication is that it offers two-way actions to help smokers quit smoking. Its active ingredient Varenicline provides relief from nicotine withdrawal symptoms and also makes smoking less pleasurable. Research has shown that Champix quadruples your odds of quitting as compared to a placebo.