What are the effects of smoking on your body?

There are many harmful substances in tobacco smoke. Forty substances in cigarettes are carcinogenic. That means they can cause cancer. Cigarettes contain nicotine, which has an addictive effect. Nicotine gives a pleasant feeling by acting on the brains. The pleasant feeling leads to a feeling of longing for a new dose of nicotine and therefore for a new cigarette. This creates psychological dependence. The body also becomes accustomed to a certain amount of nicotine in the blood, this causes physical dependence. These two forms of dependence cause the addiction of smoking.

Smoking is addictive. Nicotine is the substance that creates the addiction. Nicotine enters the body by breathing in cigarette smoke through the lungs. In the lungs the nicotine is absorbed into the blood and through the blood it reaches the brains. This is a quick process. After inhaling the nicotine it reaches the brains within 10 seconds. In the brains the nicotine creates a pleasant effect. After smoking a cigarette, the nicotine is rapidly degraded. That is the reason why smokers are longing for another cigarette when they have not smoked for a while.

Cigarette smoke contains the following substances; nicotine, carbon monoxide (CO) and tar.
Nicotine causes the heart rate to rise. It leads to a higher blood pressure and damages the inner lining of blood vessels. Nicotine is an addictive substance.
Carbon monoxide binds to red blood cells in the blood instead of oxygen. Which means that less oxygen can be carried by the red blood cells. The body needs oxygen to generate muscle activity such as walking, cycling and sports.
Tar coveres the lungs on the inside and it causes the respiratory cilia to malfunction. The cilia normally clean the lungs and airways. Because of the tar, the cilia get stuck and can not perform their function. The cilia do not work anymore. The body tries to cough the lungs and airways clean, this is the (in)famous smokers cough.

Other harmful substances in tobacco smoke include:
cyanide (rat poison);
toluene (effective substance to glue sniffing);
cadmium (in batteries);
benzene (verfafbijtmiddel).
acetone (nail polish remover)
arsenic (used in pesticides)
butane (lighter fuel subcontractor)

Smoking can cause various diseases and disorders. Here are some of these diseases and conditions listed.
Cardiovascular Diseases: Smoking leads to changes in the arteries leading to atherosclerosis, the clogging of blood vessels. A completely clogged bloodvessel can no longer perfuse a part of the body. This is called an infarct. If this occurs in the brains or the heart, it leads to a heart attack or a stroke. Nicotine increases the blood pressure, this can lead to serious organ damage.
Lung Diseases: Smoking can cause cancer, a disease that can be fatal. In addition, many smokers get COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases), which is the collective term for chronic bronchitis and emphysema. This makes the smoker breathless. This can have disabling consequences.
Mouth Diseases: Smoking can cause mouth and throat cancer. In addition, smokers often suffer from poor oral hygiene and poorly healing foot wounds. Smoking slows wound healing.
Eye: Smokers are more likely to suffer from macular degeneration, glaucoma and cataracts than non-smokers.

There are also many other diseases and disorders where smoking plays a role (to a lesser extent).

Smoking also exhibits an interaction with some drugs, most of the time causing them to be less well absorbed by the body. As previously mentioned smoking worsens the wound healing. Smoking therefore also affects other pre-existing conditions. Non-smokers who undergo surgery recover better than smokers.