Is it harmful to smoke occasionally?

In daily life, many people have the habit of smoking. Although everyone knows that smoking has serious effects on health, smoking has become addictive. Many people even smoke without eating. Of course, there are some people who don't smoke every day, but only smoke a cigarette occasionally. As long as they smoke, it will be harmful to their health. The most harmful part of smoking is the lungs.

Is occasional smoking harmful?

1. There are individual differences in the degree of smoking addiction. Since nicotine is highly addictive, approximately 80% to 95% of smokers will become addicted. Once they smoke the first cigarette, it is unlikely that they will smoke the last one. Maybe you feel that your desire for cigarettes is not as strong as others now, it’s just that you don’t smoke enough.

2. In the early stage of smoking or when the amount of smoking is small, it is mainly inflammation of the bronchial mucosa, which causes increased resistance of the small airways, and then chest tightness and shortness of breath. The appearance of these symptoms is not easy to attract the attention of smokers, but the harm of smoking to the human body is accumulated over time. Although the amount of smoke is small, if it is long-term and regular smoking, it will also cause harm to the body.

The dangers of smoking

Cause heart disease

Inhaling carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke reduces the blood's ability to absorb oxygen. Nicotine can increase the heart rate, blood pressure, weaken the heart's ability to withstand stress, myocardial hypoxia causing coronary artery infarction, and local cardiac ischemia (or angina pectoris) promotes the accumulation of atherosclerosis and the onset of many heart diseases. Between the ages of 30 and 49, smokers are five times more likely to have a heart attack than non-smokers. People who quit smoking find that their risk of heart disease drops by half after one year.

Brain damage

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.

Damage to the oral cavity

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. At the same time, 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 eventually leads to laryngeal cancer.

The most harmful lung disease

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. 90% of total mortality is caused by smoking. Early symptoms may go unnoticed until the cancerous cells spread to blood vessels and other organs. 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.