Smoking-related health consequences

NICOTINE

Nicotine causes activation of sympathetic nervous system, vegetative nervous system and adrenal glands (increasing flow of adrenaline and noradrenaline) and subsequent narrowing of blood vessels (vasoconstriction). After each cigarette, vasoconstriction continues for 30-45 minutes. The same mechanism causes an increase in heart rate, heart volume per minute and the need of the heart for oxygen and nutrients. It results in inadequate supply of oxygen and nutrients to affected tissues (brain, skin, subcutaneous tissues, heart, pelvis, backbone), that can cause e.g. failure to concentrate, gum inflammations combined with bad breath, erection and fertility disorders.

Nicotine paralyses physiological motion of the respiratory tract epithelium cilia. Gradually, cilia epithelium in lower respiratory tract disappears. Inadequate cleaning of lower respiratory tract from particles (dust) and fluids (mucus) results in more frequent infections that often become chronic.

CARBON MONOXIDE

Inhaled carbon monoxide (CO) binds with hemoglobin, thus decreasing its physiological capacity for oxygen transportation. Carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) is present up to 1 % in non-smokers blood, 2 % in weak smokers, and up to 12 % in heavy smokers. Physiological values become stabilised as late as 6-8 hours after smoking.

CARCINOGENES

Prevalence of about one hundred carcinogenes and mutagenes in cigarette smoke combined with chronic bronchial inflammation common in smokers mean an increased risk of lung carcinoma, which is by up to 95 % higher than in non-smokers.

Substances inhaled in smoke become metabolically activated in organism, resulting in free oxygen radicals that cause oxydative stress. The oxydative stress combined with repeated vasoconstriction are thought to be the main cause of degenerative changes (malignancy, aterosclerosis, cataracta) and ageing, more frequent in smokers than in non-smokers.