Is smoking 5 cigs a day really that harmful?
Question:
Answers:
you are right. 5 is better than 30. 30 is better than 40. None is the best. I smoked and then only had 1 cigarette in July each year. The mistake about it all is that unlike eating which you can't stop, smoking can be.
My doctor explained the problem as the effects of one cigarette might be to elevate your blood pressure by constricting your blood vessels. Not good if you have high blood pressure since the problems compound.
If 5 did no harm, how could 5 cigarettes taken 6 times a day hurt you? Leave them if you are strong enough and they don't control your life.. QUIT
Other Answers:
yes!
Any smoking is too much but 5 a day, as habits go, is not that harmful. Far better than 5 drinks a day.
yes! stop now! My mom smoked for a long time and now she has lung issues and was forced to stop. There are things she still can't do because of it.
Smoking is bad for you, it KILLS you, you don't want that to happen!!
uh, yeah.
Source(s):
family that died from smoking.
Better five than 30, but I suspect that it's still harmful.
even one cig a day is harmful
in my opinion no. but the doctors are big on not smoking. i had mouth surgery and was told that if i smoked id make things worse and have more problems. i smoked from leaveing the hospital till now, and had no problems
gee let me think.YES! but hey at least you're not smoking crack
depends.do u want to die when ur 60 or live to be a rasin!
it's never good to smoke
even 1 a day
Any will do that much harm. It's amazing how stupid and ignorant people can get. Didn't you pay attention to the D.A.R.E programs in school?
Any smoking can hurt you, and in the long run, it doesn't matter how many you smoke a day, you're going to eventually going to die from it. Maybe you'll just die slower.
Good luck
OK honey this is a no brainer! There are millions of people out there dying and on breathing machines and with other health problems because they smoked cigarettes. One is doing harm let alone five. I do not smoke but the second hand smoke from my mother and husband has made scar tissue in my lungs that will be there for the rest of my life. So think about what your doctor has told you and do as he says because he knows whats best for you .
Smoking PERIOD is harmful. It concerns me that your username has something with the word Mommy in it. Please tell me that you never smoke around your children (be it in the house, car, etc) and that they are NEVER exposed to your irresponsible habit and the second hand smoke it produces.
Smoking kills over 400,000 people a year -- more than one in six people in the United States -- making it more lethal than AIDS, automobile accidents, homicides, suicides, drug overdoses, and fires combined. It is estimated that the U.S. spends an astounding $50 billion each year on smoking-related health costs. Smoking may be even more dangerous now than 30 years ago, most likely because the lower tar and nicotine levels in most cigarette brands cause people to inhale more deeply. In one study only 42% of male lifelong smokers reached the age of 73 compared to 78% of nonsmokers.
People who are exposed to second-hand or side-stream smoke are also at risk. Smoke that is exhaled not only contains the same dangerous contaminants as inhaled smoke, but the exhaled smoke particles are smaller, so that they can reach distant sites in the lungs of involuntary or passive smokers and do great harm.
Smoking a cigarette raises the blood pressure by 5-10 mm Hg for about 30 minutes. If this is combined with drinking a cup of coffee, the effects are bigger and last longer.
Despite this, numerous epidemiological studies have found that people with hypertension are not more likely to be smokers than those with normal blood pressure, and conversely, that smokers are not more likely to be hypertensive than non-smokers. One possible explanation for this might be that smokers tend to weigh less than non-smokers, and that the effects of obesity and smoking on blood pressure cancel each other out. But even when smokers and non-smokers of the same body weight are compared their blood pressures are the same. This is probably because the blood pressure measurements are usually made when people are not smoking. If you smoke a pack a day, it will raise your average daytime pressure by about 5 mm Hg, even though your doctor may not detect this during an office visit.
The important thing about smoking is not what it does to your blood pressure, but that it greatly increases your risk of heart disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says cigarette smoking is responsible for 151,322 cancer deaths annually in the United States. Most of those -- 116,920 -- are from lung cancer. The CDC says men who smoke are 22 times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers. Women who smoke are 12 times more likely to die from the disease.
Statistical studies have long shown that people who don't smoke live longer than people who do, and scientists have seen statistically the correlation between smoking and incidences of lung cancer since the 1950s.
But a study earlier this year by Gerd Pfeifer of the Beckman Research Institute pinpointed specific carcinogens in cigarette smoke that target parts of a gene already known to be prominent in some cancers.
Pfeifer wrote in Science that cigarette smoke causes changes in the gene p53, which protects against cancer when normal but promotes cancer growth when mutated.
Another study, published by the American Cancer Society, said that low-tar cigarettes offered no relief from the potential of cancer, and in fact were responsible for a type of cancer that reaches deeper into lung tissue.
Other cancers are also affected by cigarette smoke. An American Cancer Society researcher reported earlier this year that smoking increased men's risk of dying of prostate cancer, while other studies have linked tobacco use to increased risk of other cancers, including throat, breast and bowel cancer.
Smoking also has been linked time and again to cardiovascular diseases. Among these, the biggest killer is heart disease: according to the CDC, smoking triples the risk of dying from heart disease among middle-aged men and women.
Studies also show an increased risk of death from stroke, aneurysms, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular illnesses.
Smoking is cited as a risk for dying of pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, or emphysema. The CDC says people who smoke increase their risk of death from bronchitis and emphysema by nearly 10 times.
A report recently published in the American Journal of Epidemiology suggested that smoking increased the risk of developing non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) by more than three times.
Studies have pointed to smoking as a risk in vision loss among older people, mental impairment later in life, Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.
The studies didn't just point to the ill effects of smoking on those who smoke -- non-smokers, too, are apparently affected by the smoke from their friends, family members and strangers who light up in their presence.
A steady stream of reports documented the statistical risks of contracting cancer or suffering from heart disease, even if you've never put a cigarette to your lips.
The American Heart Association last fall released a seven-year study showing that never-smoking spouses of smokers have more than a 20 percent greater chance of death from coronary heart disease than those who have never smoked who live with non-smokers. That study gave more impetus to the drive to make workplaces and other public areas smoke-free.
The effects of smoking are hard on the children of smokers as well, the studies say. Dr. Claude Hanet of the St. Luc University Hospital in Brussels, Belgium, said earlier this year that a baby born to a smoking mother "should be considered an ex-smoker."
Hanet's study cautioned that cigarette smoke was more detrimental with decreasing age.
And a University of Birmingham, England, study, published in the British Journal of Cancer showed a possible link between fathers who smoked and an increased incidence of cancers in their children, while studies in the U.S. showed a possible link between smoking and DNA damage.
Number of deaths per year attributed to tobacco in the United States: 400,000 *.
Number of deaths per hour: 45.
Number of deaths due to:
Cardiovascular disease: Almost 180,000. *
Obstructive lung disease (chronic bronchitis and emphysema: 65,000 *.
Risk for a smoker dying of lung cancer, compared to a never-smoker:
Male: 22 times
Female: 12 times
Number of scientific studies on the health effects of tobacco, approximate: 50,000.
Percentage of United States adults who smoked in 1993: 25 *
Percentage in 1965: 42 *
Number of years of life smoking costs the average smoker: 7 *
Number of identified carcinogens in tobacco smoke: 43
Estimated 1993 health care costs due to smoking, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: total $50 billion. This figure includes:
$26.9 billion for hospital costs
$15.5 billion for doctors
$4.9 billion in nursing home costs
$1.8 billion for prescription drugs
$900 million for home-health care expenditures
Number of times "addiction" is listed on compulsory cigarette warnings (in United States): 0.
Marketing and promotional budget of tobacco companies, (1993): $6 billion.
Number of cigarette advertisements this money bought that mention addiction, habituation, dependence or the difficulty most smokers experience in quitting: 0.
Revenues of the U.S. tobacco companies, 1991: $32 billion *.
Percentage of adult smokers who had tried cigarettes by 18th birthday: 80.
Percentage of smokers age 12 to 17, according to a 1992 Gallup poll, who want to quit: 66.
Percentage of NCAA baseball athletes who use "smokeless tobacco": 57 (source: "The marketing of nicotine addiction).
Smoking prohibits the body ability to heal itself. It affects the ammune system witch is why smokers get sick more often and stay sick longer than non smokers. I know how you feel about quiting. I had to quit myself. It was hard. I want to have a cigarette every day. But i'm soooooo much more healthier because i'm not smoking. I can work out more and not be so winded and out of breath. My skin started to look better, my fingernails changed color from a yellowish color to a healthy pink. I can take long deep breaths and I don't get anymore headaches.
It's best to quit. Try the gum or the patch. I commend you on cutting down from 30 to 5. It's a step in the right direction.
Good luck.
It is very important for your body to have a good oxygen level to promote heathy cells.
Not only is it not healty,,but when you pass by a person who is non smoker,,,,you smell like an old ashtray. I have a sensitve nose, and that is what people who smoke smell like. If they smoke in there house,,and you have had wallpaper up or something on the wall ,, go and take it down, and look how clean and bright it is underneath,,just htink,,, your lungs, your teeth,, everything gets stained!
So,, 5 is better, and I am sure smoking is really hard to stop,,because I am sure a lot of smokers would love to be able to stop smoking,, just like I would love to be able to say no to tempting foods.but I can't.. I LUV chocolate,,and if it is there,,, i am going to eat it!
It isn't a craving like cigaretts,,but still has a harmful effect on your body when a person is overweight,,it might not cause lung cancer or for you to smell.. (well? really, really overweight people who can't bathe..but )
obesity causes alot of other harmful things.
So, i hope u have a speedy recovery, and if u can cut it down to 5 maybe the next week cut it down to 4 a day,,then 3 then 2 and bam u did it!!~!
Smoking any amount is harmful.
More Questions and Answers
- How does the melanin in humans and the sun interact?
- my brother had a fit of belches the other day that smelled like he farted,what is that?
- What do I do with a sprained thumb?
- Surgeons, have you every had to get the textbook out again? during surgery?
- What medicine for atoothache?
- does anyone know why my hands may be hurting?
- how does a pain killer know which area to kill the pain??
- do you hate when people sneeze or cough and they dont cover their mouth?