Smoking is injurious to health and hundreds of similar quotes we hear every day. Despite huge anti-smoking campaigns, the trend of smoking is still here. No matter either you smoke because for stress relief or consider it a perfect pleasure for you, the adverse effects of smoking are not leaving for your convenience.
No matter how you smoke it, tobacco is dangerous to your health. There are no safe substances in any tobacco products, from acetone and tar to nicotine and carbon monoxide. Not only cigarette smoking, but people also consume tobacco in many different forms by chewing and sniffing.
Recently, vaping is offered as a less harmful alternative to smoking but vaping side effects are no exception. Whether you consume tobacco as mishri tobacco or zarda tobacco, the fact is you are intoxicating your bodies with this toxic substance.
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Key stats on tobacco consumption
- According to World Health Organization, tobacco consumption is resulting in nearly 7 million deaths annually.
- If the global smoking pattern remains unchanged, annual deaths from tobacco will surpass the huge number of 8 million, said the World Health Organization.
- According to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 5 deaths is occurring due to tobacco.
How tobacco consumption affects our health?
31 May is celebrated as the World No-Tobacco Day across the globe to draw attention to the tobacco epidemic.
Talking about bad health habits, smoking is the worst of all doing a number on nearly every organ of your body. Here is how smoking is adversely affecting your health.
1- Poor respiratory health
Your lungs are the first organs that get affected by cigarette smoke. Inhalation of smoke leads to many lung health problems including;
- Increased risk of lungs infection
- Emphysema- air sacs in your lungs are destroyed reducing the amount of oxygen that reaches your bloodstream.
- Bronchitis- Inflammation of bronchial tubes linings that results in coughing, wheezing, difficult breathing and chest pain.
- Lung cancer- Smoking increases the risk of lung cancer that could be a life-threatening condition.
2- Bad cardiac health
Our cardiac health is the key to our overall health and smoking is a habit that could damage your cardiovascular system. Smoking results in an increase in blood pressure, blood clot formation and thickening of blood vessels.
3- Increases risk of cancer
Cancer is frightening of all diseases and depending upon the location of cancer in the body hundreds of different types of cancer exist. Tobacco consumption increases your risk of nearly all different types of cancer including;
- Oral cancer (esophagus, oropharynx)
- Lung cancer
- Liver Cancer
- Cervical cancer
- Blood cancer
4- Reproductive health
Other than increasing the risk of different diseases, smoking affects reproductive health in both males and females. In females, smoking can cause difficulty getting pregnant, increased risk of birth defects in children, premature birth, low weight of baby at the time of birth, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth etc.
In males, smoking affects the quality of sperms resulting in poor sperm quality which is responsible for masculine fertility.
5- Other side effects
Other than the problems mentioned above, smoking increases your risk of non-communicable diseases. Moreover smoking results in poor bone health and other health disadvantages.
Smokeless Tobacco- An emerging smoker’s trend
In Pakistan, millions of people are habitual of smoking putting their own and others health at risk. However, in recent years we have seen a change in the smoking trend. Previously, cigarette smoking and shisha (water pipe) smoking were popular smoking practices.
Recently, other than cigarette smoking, many other forms of smoking are becoming prevalent in the Pakistani population. Among these trends, we are seeing a huge shift from conventional cigarette smoking to smokeless tobacco alternatives including vaping.
Talking about the types of smokeless tobacco, there are many different types of smokeless tobacco available in the market, including;
- Chewing tobacco (loose or braided tobacco leaves or even compressed leaves, mawa)
- Snuff tobacco (sniffing of tobacco is dried form, naswar is an example)
- Dissolvable tobacco (different shapes of pressed powdered tobacco)
- Snus (moist oral tobacco product)
Vaping vs Smoking
Vapes are commonly available as ‘e-cigs’, ‘vape mods’, ‘vape pens’, ‘tank systems’, ‘starter kits’, ‘e-juices’ etc.
Other than all these forms of smokeless tobacco, vaping is an emerging trend in Pakistan. Vaping emerged as a fashion trend but following the fashion many people opted for this as an alternative to cigarette smoking, assuming it a harmless alternative.
No matter which way you slice it, the fact that a large population proportion is gravitating towards it and more and more people are switching to vaping. The situation is alarming because youngsters are most attracted to this odd and the number is increasing every single day.
But is vaping as harmless as it’s claimed? Well, this is merely an outright lie you’re trying to tell yourself!
Here’s what you need to know about vaping vs smoking.
Cigarette smoke burns tobacco which contains many harmful chemicals along with heat and ash. In contrast, vaping doesn’t burn tobacco instead it heats the tobacco that doesn’t create smoke and releases fewer harmful components. Moreover, vaping is much cheaper than smoking despite a high upfront cost.
Vaping Side effects
Vaping is referred to as the less harmful alternative to smoking but here are a few things your need to know about the vaping side effects.
1- Vaping exposes you to toxic chemicals. The number of harmful chemical chemicals vaping exposes you is less than those present in a cigarette but there is more research required on those.
2- Nicotine, the active component of both cigarette smoke and vape.
3- There is no difference when it comes to the addiction to cigarettes and vape.
4- Vaping is also linked to long-term side effects on human health.
Bottom Line!
Vaping is an emerging smoker’s trend in Pakistan. Despite all the claims that vaping is a harmless alternative to smoking, the vaping side effects can’t be put aside. Pakistani population, in particular, the youngsters are becoming addicted to vaping which is raising concern. No matter smoking or vaping, both are dangerous for our health posing long-term and short-term side effects.
If you are also suffering from health complications due to smoking or looking for ways to quit smoking, you can get the help from the top certified health specialist at Healthwire.pk.
