The Cost Of Smoking

It has also been found that smoking can have effects on men and women’s fertility and sexual function in men. Whilst they are craving the cigarette, the become stressed and this only stops once they have had a cigarette, and so many smokers see this as calming them, but they would not be stressed if they were non smokers. Nicotine reaches the brain within ten seconds of the inhalation of tobacco smoke, and begins to on certain neurons, the working cells of the brain.

Children are specifically vulnerable to the effects of passive smoking, as their bronchial tubes are smaller and their immune systems are less developed and they are more likely to develop respiratory and ear infections due to passive smoking.

Smoking accounts for seventeen percent of the UK’s deaths from CHD, which is around 26,000 people per year. The nicotine from the tobacco smoke causes the brain to release two other substances that act as stimulants. A woman who continues smoking during pregnancy is more likely to experience difficulties than a non-smoker or a woman who quits smoking before pregnancy.

All of the chemicals in cigarette smoke pass through the umbilical cord from the mother to the foetus, and because of this there is less oxygen getting to the unborn child, and this makes the child’s heart beat faster and could also make the child grow more slowly. Some of these are carcinogens, capable of causing cancer independently and others are co carcinogens, which react with other substances in tobacco smoke to cause cancer. Tobacco smoke can increase the risk of having a miscarriage, bleeding during pregnancy, the child being born with an infection, having a premature birth and having an ectopic pregnancy. Lung cancer is the most common form of cancer. Nicotine stimulates the brain to release a substance called dopamine, which is related to pleasant feelings.

Cancer is a disease caused by a malignant growth or tumour caused by an abnormal and uncontrolled division of body cells.