Does smoking affect lung capacity?

Many people have the habit of smoking. Smoking generally does not affect lung capacity, but it will damage physical health, especially the health of the lungs, and may cause lung cancer. Therefore, for the sake of good health, try not to smoke. Smoking is very harmful to human health. If you smoke regularly, you will also expose people around you to secondhand smoke, and the harm of secondhand smoke is no less than that of smoking.

The dangers of smoking

1. Lung cancer

Smoking can cause the cilia of bronchial epithelial cells to become shorter and irregular, as well as movement disorders, reducing local resistance and making it easier to get infected. Smoking causes lung cancer. Early symptoms may go unnoticed until the cancerous cells spread to blood vessels and other organs.

2. Emphysema

Smoking can also cause emphysema. The toxic substances accumulated in the bronchi of the lungs will hinder the normal exhalation of the air inhaled by the human body, causing the lung cells to swell or burst, resulting in difficulty breathing for the patient.

3. Heart disease

Between the ages of 30 and 49, smokers are five times more likely to have a heart attack than non-smokers. Because inhaling carbon monoxide in cigarettes reduces the blood's ability to absorb oxygen, causing the heart rate to accelerate, blood pressure to rise, the heart's ability to withstand stress to weaken, myocardial hypoxia to cause coronary artery infarction, and local ischemia of the heart (or angina pectoris) to promote atherosclerosis.

4. Stomach disease

For people with gastrointestinal diseases, smoking can make the disease worse.

For people with gastric ulcer or duodenal ulcer, the healing of the ulcer will be slowed down and may even develop into a chronic disease.

Smoking can stimulate the nervous system, accelerate the secretion of saliva and gastric juice, make the gastrointestinal tract often in a state of tension, and cause smokers to lose their appetite.

Nicotine can cause the blood vessels in the gastrointestinal mucosa to constrict and also reduce appetite.

5. Liver disease

Smoking puts more strain on the liver. Frequent smoking affects the lipid metabolism of the liver, increasing the fat in the blood, reducing benign cholesterol and increasing malignant cholesterol. This reason puts an increased burden on the liver's detoxification function.

6. Stroke

Smoking can cause a variety of brain diseases, reduce the oxygen and blood circulation in the brain, cause bleeding and blockage of brain blood vessels, and lead to paralysis, mental decline and stroke. The cause of stroke is that smoking causes spasm of blood vessels in the brain, making the blood more likely to clot. Smokers are twice as likely to have a stroke as non-smokers.

7. Oral cancer

Smoking can cause mouth and throat cancer. The tar in cigarettes and the heat from the smoke can inflame the salivary glands, damage the taste buds, and greatly reduce the ability to taste and smell. Next, it is easy to develop oral cancer. About 2/3 of patients can still survive with difficulty after being diagnosed with oral cancer.

8. Laryngeal cancer

Smoke can increase the temperature in the throat from 37°C to 42°C, causing micro-burns to the mucous membrane inside and producing chronic thermal trauma, which can eventually lead to laryngeal cancer.

9. Pelvic inflammation and back pain

Smoking can cause disc herniation and back pain because it reduces blood flow to the disc, causing the disc to degenerate prematurely.

10. Arthritis

Smoking can cause arthritis. Smoking a pack of cigarettes a day will increase the risk of disease by 50%. Smoking causes faster bone loss. Smoking interferes with estrogen, an important hormone for bone development.

11. Colon cancer

Smoking causes colon cancer. The chance of developing this cancer is directly proportional to the amount of tobacco smoked. Although stopping smoking can reduce the chances of other diseases, such as heart disease and lung cancer, the risk of developing colon cancer is still very high.

12. Impotence

Smoking has an inhibitory effect on the nerve center of the spinal cord, which weakens the sexual desire of men who smoke. Smoking can also cause blood vessels to contract and spasm, causing peripheral blood circulation disorders. Smoking is the leading cause of impotence.