* Although the negative health effects of cigarette smoking cannot be debated, it remains the single most common cause of preventable deaths.

* Cigarettes contain over 19 known cancer-causing chemicals in addition to nicotine.

* Long-term smokers have a much higher risk of developing a host of life threatening diseases. Just about any cancer you can think of, including cancer of the lung, mouth, nose, voice box, lip, tongue, nasal sinus, esophagus, throat, pancreas, bone marrow, kidney, cervix, liver, bladder and stomach can result from smoking.

How Smoking Affects Your Body?

 There's hardly a part of the human body that's not affected by the chemicals in the cigarettes you smoke.

 Let's take a tour of your body to look at how smoking affects it:

Starting at the Top

As a smoker, you're at risk for cancer of the mouth. Tobacco smoke can also cause gum disease, tooth decay and bad breath.
The teeth become unsightly and yellow.
Smokers may experience frequent headaches.
And lack of oxygen and narrowed blood vessels to the brain can lead to strokes.

Lungs and Bronchi

Moving down to your chest, smoke passes through the bronchi, or breathing tubes.

Hydrogen cyanide and other chemicals in the smoke attack the lining of the bronchi, inflaming them and causing that chronic smoker's cough. Because the bronchi are weakened, you're more likely to get bronchial infections.
Mucus secretion in your lungs is impaired, also leading to chronic coughing.

Smokers are 10 times as likely to get lung cancer and emphysema as nonsmokers.

Smoking and the Heart
The effects of smoking on your heart are devastating.
Nicotine raises blood pressure and makes the blood clot more easily.
Carbon monoxide robs the blood of oxygen and leads to the development of cholesterol deposits on the artery walls.
All of these effects a dd up to an increased risk of heart attack. In addition, the poor circulation resulting from cholesterol deposits can cause strokes, loss of circulation in fingers and toes and impotence.

Smoking and the Body's Organs
The digestive system is also affected. The tars in smoke can trigger cancer of the esophagus and throat. Smoking causes increased stomach acid secretion, leading to heartburn and ulcers. Smokers have higher rates of deadly pancreatic cancer.
Many of the carcinogens from cigarettes are excreted in the urine where their presence can cause bladder cancer, which is often fatal.
High blood pressure from smoking can damage the kidneys.

Smoking Damages Other Systems
Smoker’s immune systems are impaired, leaving the smoker vulnerable to a host of minor infections.
A smoker needs more time to recover from infections than a non-smoker. Coupled with diminished circulation, a smoker’s risk of infection from minor cuts or abrasions to the arms or legs skyrockets.
Cigarette smoking decreases bone density, promoting osteoporosis.
Skin becomes dry and loses its elasticity as a result of poor circulation. Premature wrinkling is common.
Even more serious are the risks to an unborn child if the mother smokes.
Miscarriage is more common in women who smoke.
Infants of smoking mothers are at increased risk of low birth weight, prematurity, cleft lip and palate, infections and SIDS.

Smoking and impotence
For men in their 30s and 40s, smoking increases the risk of erectile dysfunction (ED) by about 50 per cent.
Erection can't occur unless blood can flow freely into the penis, so these blood vessels have to be in good condition. Smoking can damage the blood vessels and cause them to degenerate: nicotine narrows the arteries that lead to the penis, reducing blood flow and the pressure of blood in the penis. This narrowing effect increases over time, so if you haven't got problems now, things could change later.
Erection problems in smokers may be an early warning signal that cigarettes are already damaging other areas of the body - such as the blood vessels that supply the heart.

How Smoking Affects Others Bodies?

There are many health-related reasons to give up cigarettes - not just for smokers, but to protect those around you.
Babies born to mothers who smoke during pregnancy are twice as likely to be born prematurely and with a low birth weight.

Passive smoking
The 'side-stream' smoke that comes off a cigarette between puffs carries a higher risk than directly inhaled smoke.
Children who grow up in a home where one or both of their parents smoke have twice the risk of getting asthma and asthmatic bronchitis. They also have a higher risk of developing allergies.
Infants under two years old are more prone to severe respiratory infections and cot death.
For adults, passive smoking seems to increase the risk of lung cancer, but the evidence for an increased risk of heart disease is not yet conclusive.

Results
The health effects of smoking have results we can measure. Forty percent of men who are heavy smokers will die before they reach retirement age, as compared to only 18 percent of nonsmokers.
Women who smoke face an increased risk of cervical cancer, and pregnant women who smoke take a chance with the health of their unborn babies.

But

The good news is that you have the chance to repair your body by quitting now.
Giving up smoking can reduce the risk of developing many smoking related illnesses.
Those who wait until cancer or emphysema has set in aren't so lucky—these conditions are usually fatal.

It's time to take the big step and
Qut Smoking