Please No Smoking! The Kool Effects

No matter how one labels it, smoking (cigarette, pipe, cigar, or the like) is the inhalation of burning tobacco(typically), into the respiratory space of the individual doing the smoking. Unfortunately, unlike all other forms of drug and alcohol use, it is the ONLY form of legal drug use that has greater negative effects for those not actively smoking than for the actual smoker. Despite the risk smokers take by actively inhaling this burning tobacco, plus a list of other carcinogenic compounds, the non-smoker who is forced to inhale this second-hand smoke, is also at great health risk!

 Think about it! If I choose to drink alcohol and over the next 20-30 years as a result, I am diagnosed with alcohol related liver damage such as cirrhosis or alcoholic fatty liver disease, then I am diagnosed with it. Neither my spouse, my children, my dog, nor my coworkers will be diagnosed with second hand cirrhosis. If I chose to use illicit drugs, such as heroin, it is I who becomes hooked, has track marks, or has the cardiac damage as a result. No one else gets these issues. However, if I am a smoker of tobacco products, EVERYONE ELSE, is at risk for lung cancer, asthma, COPD or any other form of illness related to second hand cigarette smoking. AND what’s more, the smoker, is able to get away with this, WITHOUT MY CONSENT!  Sure, the other situations are not without concern, risk, or harm in other ways however it is not a direct physical related illness.  Although all beings are subject to the negative impact of cigarette smoking, I would like to discuss the impact on women specifically!

Physical Health Consequences

A) Cancer - Lung cancer is the leading cause of death in women! Other forms of cancer that affect women are: cervical, breast, bladder, and pancreatic.

B) Cardiovascular disease: The beauty of estrogen in a woman’s body is that it is very cardioprotective making her risk for cardiac events PRIOR to menopause much lower, however when she begins the transition from being a menstruating female to a pre and post-menopausal female with her estrogen dropping, her risks of cardiac events can go up making her more likely to have a cardiac related event. Smoking is a vasoconstrictor, which means it is making our vessels narrower. Due to the ingredients in cigarettes, the scaring on the lumen of the vessel causes plaque to be laid down in the form of a band aid if you will. This results in the lumen becoming even smaller/narrower and when the blood can no longer get through, it results in a stroke, a heart attack, or peripheral vascular disease.

C) Respiratory disease: Cigarette smoking can destroy lung tissue. When we breath, we take in air which descends down into the lungs where a process of diffusion takes place at the site of the alveoli. These alveoli are small “air sacs” that are one cell thin and then lined with a vascular network. When oxygen molecules bind to the blood cell that then travels down to the capillaries of the lungs that oxygen molecule then diffuses into the alveoli. When we smoke, the chemicals, poison, carcinogens destroy this lining which makes it harder for oxygen to pass and thus harder to breathe in or out. Typically, with smoking it will cause a greater chest wall diameter which is indicative of a hyper inflated lung. Smoking will then more likely cause Obstructive Lung Disease or COPD which means people with such a condition, will have a harder time with inhalation and may require supplemental oxygen.

D) Weakened Bones:  Because smoking can cause an acidic environment, it can result in the breakdown of bone material to help normalize our systems pH environment. Doing so, the body will utilize calcium from our bones in order to do so. It will sacrifice one area to support another. However, as we get older, and with the menopausal changes that result in the drop-in estrogen(remember estrogen is protective) Caucasian and Asian women especially are at higher risk for osteoporotic bone changes. This paired with the loss of type II muscle fibers(muscles responsible for speed, power and quickness) and impaired balance are at greater risk of falls which can alter our life drastically.

E) Appearance – Unfortunately society still holds an assume of what a woman should look like and that looks are the only thing that matters. And although there is nothing wrong with enjoying the way you look. Liking what you see can give you a boost of confidence and typically is a by produced of one’s health. However, smoking does a number on our skin, nails, lips, hair, teeth and structures associated with a healthy collagen production. Smoking will rob us of that by aging us much faster with accelerating skin aging and wrinkles (“smoker’s face”), yellowed teeth, bad breath, and gum disease. Thinning hair and brittle nails.

Mental Health Consequences

A) Depression and anxiety: Because the smoking of nicotine has an effect on the release of dopamine, which is the “reward chemical”, smoking can make a person feel good in the moment and provide them a moment of elevated mood however due to the short half-life of nicotine, it is not uncommon for those who smoke to feel a little more irritable thus increasing the likelihood that they will smoke another cigarette to alleviate the depressed or anxious feelings. This can be a continual cycle. Why this is more pronounced in women plays in to the fact that as women tend to experience more anxiety than men which may be due in part to a normal ebb and flow or fluctuation in our sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone. During different times of a woman’s menstrual cycle, she will experience normal and natural fluctuations of these hormones which can play a role in how she experiences pain, pleasure, joy or interpretations of verbal and non-verbal cues and signs. Smoking may have a negative impact on this natural cycle.

Social, Economic, Financial Health Consequences:

A) Social:  Let’s face, you stink! There is nothing you can do to a cigarette to make you smell good. You can bathe in Pine Sol, you can eat all the mints you want and splash perfume on but what you end up with is a worse smelling freaky odor that will make most people want to run away. When I was growing up, I recall my grandparents smoked but I also noticed that they were pretty consistent to use ash trays. Now a days, I am not even sure if they sell ash trays, I see more people use coke bottles, then leave the bottle sitting outside. Worse, is when I see someone smoking next to a trash can and they can’t even put it in the trash can they are standing next to or when they flick them out of the car window driving down the freeways. I few concerns with this is that smoke buts are not biodegradable and when they are flicked into the gutter there is a chance they can get into the water system. When they are let to blow around the grasses, there is a risk that another animal like may eat it which could risk that animals’ life or even if the cigarette is still lit, it is still considered an open flame which could start some form of fire. It is 100% the smoker’s responsibility to dispose of them correctly as anyone one else is responsible for disposing of environmentally not friendly items.

B) Financial: For those who are looking to get ahead financially, spending money on cigarettes is just dumb. You might as well just burn your money! It literally makes you less healthy, poorer, and over your working years shortens your earning potential to make up time.

o   Let’s think about it this way:

§  The average cost of 1 pack ( or about a count of 20 cigarettes)  is about 10$. That is about 50 cents per cigarette.

§  Let’s say you smoke 1 pack a week.

·       10$ x 4 weeks=40$ month.

·       40$ x 12 months=480$/year.

·       480$ x 30-year habit = $14,400.00; if invested would be positively affected by compounding interest and would put a person on the path to being a millionaire.

o   Lifetime Cost per Smoker: Estimates vary, but one widely circulated analysis suggests that the average American smoker spends at least $1 million over their lifetime when factoring in direct costs, healthcare, lost earnings, higher insurance, and social stigma. TIME Another source cited an even higher estimate: up to $1.6 million, depending on the state (e.g., over $2.4 million in New York).

o   Even just isolating individual health costs, female smokers face up to $94,700 in lifetime healthcare expenses.