There is strong medical evidence that smoking tobacco is related to more than two dozen diseases and conditions. It has negative effects on nearly every organ of the body and reduces overall health. Smoking tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable death and has negative health impacts on people of all ages: unborn babies, infants, children, adolescents, adults, and seniors.

Smoking leads people to develop health problems like cancer, emphysema (breakdown of lung tissue), organ damage, and heart disease. These diseases limit a person's ability to be normally active - and can be fatal. Each time a smoker lights up, that single cigarette takes about 5 to 20 minutes off the person's life.

How Does Smoke Affect Cholesterol?

Smoking tobacco in any form, even cigars, will have the effect of increasing LDL cholesterol and decreasing HDL cholesterol. It also slightly increases triglycerides. This is a triple whammy because it negatively affects all your cholesterol levels. Cholesterol levels have a direct correlation with coronary artery disease also known as atherosclerosis.

Smoking Cause Heart Disease

The current data demonstrate that the ill effects of secondhand smoke result from many components of tobacco smoke. These include carbon monoxide, nicotine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and others.

The carbon monoxide produced by passive smoking competes with oxygen for binding sites on red blood cells. This reduces the blood's ability to deliver oxygen to the heart and compromises the heart muscle's ability to use oxygen to create adenosine triphosphate. The carbon monoxide also increases the amount of lactate in venous blood.

What about cigar and pipe smoking?

People who smoke cigars or pipes seem to have a higher risk of death from coronary heart disease (and possibly stroke), but their risk isn't as great as that of cigarette smokers. This is probably because they're less likely to inhale the smoke. Currently there's very little scientific information on cigar and pipe smoking and cardiovascular disease, especially among young men, who represent the vast majority of cigar users.

Smoking Cause Acne In Women

New findings link Acne in women who smoke. Italian researchers from the San Gallicano Dermatological Institute in Rome have found that smoking causes acne in human and affects women the most. They discovered a particular type of acne known as NIA (non inflammatory acne), which is common in smoker. This type of acne in smoker is characterised by blocked pores, large blackheads, which are less inflamed than normal acne.

Increased risk of illness. Studies show that smokers get more colds, flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia than nonsmokers. And people with certain health conditions, like asthma, become more sick if they smoke (and often if they're just around people who smoke). Because teens who smoke as a way to manage weight often light up instead of eating, their bodies lack the nutrients they need to grow, develop, and fight off illness properly.

The report concludes that smoking reduces the overall health of smokers, contributing to such conditions as hip fractures, complications from diabetes, increased wound infections following surgery, and a wide range of reproductive complications. For every premature death caused each year by smoking, there are at least 20 smokers living with a serious smoking-related illness.