Introduction
More and more people become addicted to smoking every year. However, few of them are aware of the health damages all smokers may face in a long-term perspective. Smoking causes such incurable diseases as cancer, diabetes, asthma, or blindness. That is why many people nowadays substitute tobacco cigarettes with something they consider less damageable, for instance, electronic cigarettes or vapes. Although, there is almost no difference between smoking tobacco cigarettes and vapes or electronic cigarettes (Rofles et al., 2020). All of them are equally harmful to people’s health and may cause severe diseases. The primary purpose of the present speech is to inform the audience about the detrimental effects of smoking. The speech is divided into three parts. First, I will discuss the impact of tobacco on the cardiovascular system. Then I will proceed with the discussion of oral system diseases caused by smoking. Finally, I will finish the speech by speaking about the mental health problems that smoking causes.
The Impact of Smoking on Cardiovascular System
The first system of the human body that suffers from cigarettes is the cardiovascular system. Almost one-third of smoke-related deaths worldwide are caused by cardiovascular disease (Kondo et al., 2019). Even people who smoke not so often may face cardiovascular problems. However, they have significantly lower chances of suffering from cardio diseases than those who smoke from 5 to 20 cigarettes on a daily basis. Both active and passive cigarette-smokers consume such dangerous chemicals as nicotine or carbon monoxide that may cause high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, or atrial fibrillation. The diseases in question carry the risk of a sudden heart attack both for men and women leading to hospitalization or death.
Besides, excessive consumption of nicotine and carbon monoxide causes congestive heart failure. In that case, the heart is unable to send blood around the body at a proper speed. Cognitive heart failure is also called heart aging, which means that a 30-year-old smoker may have the heart of a 50 or 60-year-old. That is why it is hard sometimes for people who smoke to do some physical activities, as their hearts cannot endure high tension.
Tobacco cigarettes smoke is proven to behave like a toxin or even drug. Interestingly, if at least one toxic chemical that tobacco smoke contains is excluded, the smoke becomes less damageable for the cardiovascular system (Kondo et al., 2019). That is why many people substitute tobacco cigarettes with electronic cigarettes because the latest contain such toxic chemicals as carbon monoxide, reactive oxygen species, carbonyls, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons to a lower degree than tobacco cigarettes. However, the nicotine level of electronic cigarettes remains unreasonably high, and the toxin affects all body systems and elevates cardiovascular risks.
The Impact of Smoking on Oral System
However, smoking impacts not only the cardiovascular system of humans’ bodies. Now I am determined to discuss its influence on the oral system. The oral cavity system is the first one that meets toxic chemicals that cigarettes contain. Hence, it is logical to suppose that most of them remain on people’s teeth and tongues. However, mucosal cells of the oral cavity are susceptible to nicotine and other substances (Yu et al., 2017). That is why smokers often either do not notice some signs of oral cavity diseases or just do not relate them to smoking.
Apart from that, high temperature of cigarettes traumatizes the oral cavity. The temperature of smoldering tobacco is about 300°C and is higher than the average temperature of the oral cavity, so the smoke harms capillaries in the mouth.
Tobacco smoking causes changes in the pH of saliva (Yu et al., 2017). Cigarettes provoke oral dysbiosis and may become the reason for emerging unpleasant scents (, which may also be a consequence of dehydration of the oral cavity. The last often causes the loss of antibacterial and antiviral functions of saliva, which weakens oral mucosal immunity.
Refreshing toothpaste, mouthwash or chewing gum help to reduce unpleasant smells for some time, but they do not clean the oral cavity completely.
Weak oral immunity may also result in teeth disruption and discoloration. If not properly treated, these symptoms may cause parodontitis or complete teeth loss.
The Impact of Smoking on Mental Health
Now it is time to discuss what impact smoking has on mental health. Many people, especially the younger generation, see cigarettes as a means that helps to reduce stress and anxiety. It is true because nicotine, as one of the psychoactive substances stimulates adrenaline and dopamine release, provoking happiness and reducing stress (Chambers, 2017).
That is why people with mental disorders are more susceptible to smoking than anyone else. There are several reasons for that. First, people with mental illnesses seek all the possible ways to lessen stress, and smoking becomes for them the only source of dopamine. Second, culture itself associates depression and mental disorders in general with smoking, as in many books and movies, people suffering from mental illnesses are portrayed as smokers.
However, nicotine does not cause mental disorders. Cigarette addiction may be the result of depression or another mental illness. Nicotine, in that case, not only releases dopamine and adrenaline but also increases the risks of irrational behavior (Hefner et al., 2019). That is why many smokers are incredibly nervous and have trembling hands if they do not smoke at least for an hour. According to Hefner et al., nicotine addiction may be compared to alcohol addiction and cause far more damage.
It is necessary to remember that not only people with mental disorders may become addicted to smoking. For people who do not suffer from mental illnesses, nicotine addiction may shorten the attention span, cause problems with concentration and irrational behavior.
Conclusion
Many people nowadays are addicted to smoking. However, not all of them realize to which consequences it may lead. It is essential to assess all possible damages and be considerate of your health.
All the issues mentioned above compose only a tiny part of negative effects smoking causes on people’s health. It requires a lot of time and effort to number all of them. There were only three aspects of cigarettes’ harmful influence on people’s health discussed today, but there are far more of them. Concerning the present speech, it is possible to conclude that the harmful effects of smoking may not be noticeable when a person only starts doing it. However, in a long-term perspective, cigarettes pose a considerable threat to people’s physical and mental health.
References
Agarwal, N., Huq, S. M. & Dorji, C. (2018). The fatal link between tobacco smoking and cardiovascular diseases. The WHO South-Asia region.
Chambers, M. (Ed.). (2017). Psychiatric and mental health nursing: the craft of caring. Taylor & Francis.
Hefner, K.R., Sollazzo, A., Mullaney, S., Coker, K. L. & Sofuoglu, M. (2019). E-cigarettes, alcohol use, and mental health: Use and perceptions of e-cigarettes among college, by alcohol use and mental health status. Addict Behav. 91, 12-20.
Kondo, T., Nakano Y., Adachi , S. & Murohara, T. (2019). Effects of tobacco smoking on cardiovascular disease. Circulation Journal, 83, 1980-1985.
Naveed, A., Sohalib, A., Syed, N. B., Karobari, M. I., Anand, M., Charu, M., M., Pratibha, T., Pietro, M., Chan, Y., Y. & Scardina, G. A. (2021). Smoking a dangerous addiction: a systematic review on an underrated risk factor for oral diseases. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 18(21). Web.
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Yu, G., Philips, S., Gail, M. H., Goedert, J.J., Humphrys, M. S., Ravel, J., Ren, Y. & Caporaso, N. E. (2017). The effect of cigarette smoking on the oral and nasal microbiota. Microbiome, 5(3).