How Alcohol, Tobacco and Smoking affects your health?

ABSTRACT

I am very serious about no alcohol, no drugs, Life is too beautiful”, these are the words of famous Canadian-American actor Jim Carey. Various kinds of drugs, tobacco, and alcohol affect your body in different ways and the effects associated with narcotic abuse vary from person to person. Narcotic abuse can have long term and short term effects. These effects can be psychological, physical and also include dependency. Narcotic dependence can fastly begin to affect your physical health and social life. It is important to take into consideration that there is no safe level of narcotic abuse. Let’s discuss about How Alcohol, Tobacco and Smoking affects your health.

INTRODUCTION

You may feel differently, think differently and act differently. If you have taken drugs, alcohol etc. You may scuffle to regulate your thoughts and actions. The moment when you take your first sip of alcohol, influence on your body starts. Over consumption of alcohol can slow down your reflexes, throw off your balance and alter your mood. It can also weaken the heart, brain and many other organs of the body. Smoking results in a wide variety of problems in the body and also causes long term effects on our body system. No matter the quantity you smoke it. Tobacco is injurious to health. There are 600 ingredients present in cigarettes. After burning, these ingredients produce more than 5000 chemicals. More than 50 of those chemicals may be directly linked to cancer.

Effects of Smoking and Tobacco on our health

1. Effect on Respiratory system

During smoking, you have gasp substances that can damage your lungs with increase in time, this damage leads to a variety of problems. People who smoke at higher rate are at higher risk for chronic Non-reversible lungs conditions

• Chronic Bronchitis
• Emphysema
• Lung cancer
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

2. Effect on Cardiovascular system

Smoking harms your whole cardiovascular system. Due to tightening of Blood vessels, blood flow is restricted. “Nicotine” is responsible for the tightness of blood vessels. With increase in time, blood vessels are damaged, resulting in Peripheral artery diseases. Tobacco also enhances blood pressure, blood clots that increase the risk of stroke, heart diseases, heart attack.

3. Effect on Digestive System

Smoking may cause throat, esophagus, larynx, and mouth cancer. It also increases the risk of pancreatic cancer. Smoking leads to several kinds of disorders such as,

• Gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD)
• Peptic ulcers
• Heartburn
• Crohn’s disease

4. Effect on hair, skin and nails

The clear sign of smoking includes skin changes. Ingredients present in tobacco smoke literally change the shape of your skin. It delays wound healing and also increases the risk of infection as well as a number of skin disorders, psoriasis, hidradenitis suppurativa etc. Smoking also results in fungal infection in nails. Tobacco smoke may also cause different types of hair disease such as balding, graying, hair loss etc.

5. Effect on Reproductive System

Nicotine retards the flow of blood to the genital area of both women and men. Smoking is responsible for the reduction of sex hormones. Smoking can reduce the fertility of men. During pregnancy, Smoking may cause ectopic pregnancy.

6. Effect on Central nervous system

Substance in tobacco aggravates White Blood Cells in the Central Nervous System to strike healthy cells and results in Neurological damage. There is a direct link between smoking and damage. Nicotine is the major ingredient of tobacco which is tremendously habit forming.

Effect of Alcohol on our Health

1. Effect on liver

Liver is responsible for the removal of toxic substances including alcohol. Excessive use of alcohol interferes with this process. This results in inflammation and several kinds of liver disorders

• Cirrhosis
• Fibrosis
• Steatosis
• Alcoholic hepatitis

2. Effect on Digestive System

Drinking damages the tissue present in your digestive tract. It prevents your intestine from absorbing vitamins, nutrients and digestive food, resulting in Malnutrition. Excess drinking can also lead to:

• Bloating
• Gassiness
• Diarrhea or painful stools

Heavy drinking can also lead to developing cancer in the throat, mouth, colon, liver and esophagus. Drinking also accelerates the function of the pancreas that results in Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar level).

3. Effect on Circulatory System

Drinking a lot over a long time can affect your lungs and heart. Causing problems includes

• Heart failure
• Heart attack
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Irregular heartbeat
• Rise in blood pressure and heart rate

4. Effect on immune system

Excess drinking can disable the normal functions of the immune system, it increases the risk of several types of diseases. Such as Tuberculosis, Pneumonia and several types of cancer including Breast, Colon and mouth.

5. Effect on reproductive system

In males, heavy use of alcohol may cause erectile dysfunction, infertility. It can also affect the production and secretion of testosterone. Women, who drink too much during pregnancy, increased the risk of premature delivery, miscarriage or stillbirth. This may lead to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorders (FASD). It includes:

• Long term health issues
• Learning difficulties
• Physical abnormalities

6. Effect on muscle and skeletal system

Level of Parathyroid hormones, chemicals and cortisol is increased with increase in use of alcohol. It boosts bone breakdown and slows down bone formation. Drinking alcohol also results in muscle cramping, weakness etc.

7. Effect on Central Nervous System

Different parts of Brain are affected by alcohol. Alcohol destroys brain cells, contact brain tissues. It also depresses the Central Nervous System. Consumption of Alcohol also disrupts the Brain’s communication passageway.

8. Dependency

Heavy use of alcohol may cause emotional and physical dependency. It is quite tough to break an alcohol addiction. Medical Detoxification is the safest way to break the addiction. When the heavy drinker immediately reduces or stops the alcohol intake it leads to Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome.

Symptoms of Alcoholic Withdrawal Syndrome are

• Heavy sweating
• Nausea
• Anxiety
• Nervousness
• Increase in Blood pressure
• Irregular heartbeat

Conclusion

In this article we discussed that Alcohol, Smoking and Tobacco can cause different types of diseases in the body. These are the habits that drain your money and kill you slowly. These habits also reduce the happiness, motivation and satisfaction with life whereas it also increases the level of depression.