Prolonged Effects Of Smoking

3 Pages 687 Words

The Prolonged Effects of Smoking Cigarettes

Smoking cigarettes can change one’s life greatly. It is like opening the door to death, and can cause many different cancers, and other problems or defects. A few of the cancers smoking can cause are cancer of the lungs, heart, larynx, and mouth. It also causes discoloration of the fingers and teeth and, and steals money right out of one’s pockets.
To begin, there are many different cancers smoking can cause. The most well known and basic is lung cancer. When you inhale a puff of smoke your lungs are exposed to very poisonous toxins. Lung cancer starts with the everlasting irritation of smoke on the lining of the bronchi, which are the two tubes forming the lower end of the trachea. The cilia, which filters air, disappear from the lining and a mucous takes its place. Gradually, there is less and less cilia and cancerous cells are formed. If a smoker is able to quit before these cancerous cells appear the bronchial lining can repair itself. Otherwise the cancer cells will spread and will be taken by the lymph nodes to other parts of the body.
Another form of cancer formed by smoking is heart cancer. Hemoglobin, a substance in red blood cells, carries oxygen to cells and tissues in our bodies. It hooks itself to carbon monoxide much more quickly than oxygen and since smoking produces carbon monoxide the hemoglobin is not able to carry as much oxygen to the rest of the body. This means the heart is having to work very hard, which causes heart attacks and other heart problems.
The other cancer caused by smoking is cancer of the larynx. This is also known as cancer of the throat. When one has this it can be treated by surgery, or x-ray surgery. When one has surgery, he or she will lose part or all of the larynx. When this happens, severe speech problems occur. Most people either relearn to speak and breath or, if they can’t do this a tissue is put back into the ...