1. Lung Cancer
More people die from lung cancer than any other type of cancer. Cigarette smoking is the number one risk factor for lung cancer; it's responsible for close to 90% of lung cancer cases. Your chance of still being alive five years after being diagnosed is about 1 in 5.
2. COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
About 85 to 90 percent of all COPD cases are caused by cigarette smoking. When a cigarette burns, it creates more than 7,000 chemicals, many of which are harmful. The toxins in cigarette smoke weaken your lungs' defense against infections, narrow air passages, cause swelling in air tubes and destroy air sacs.
3. Heart Disease
Smoking damages the heart and blood vessels. Over the time, fatty deposits (called plaque or atheroma) can build up inside one or more of the coronary arteries (a process called atherosclerosis). This narrowing of the arteries reduces the flow of blood to the heart and increases the risk of heart attack.
4. Stroke
The carbon monoxide reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood, and the nicotine makes your heart beat faster and raises your blood pressure. This increases your risk of a stroke. Smoking can also trigger an episode of atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that is a risk factor for stroke.
5. Asthma
Smoke irritates the airways, making them swollen, narrow, and filled with sticky mucus - the same things that happen during an asthma flare up. That's why smoking can cause asthma flare-ups or attacks to happen more often. They also might be more severe and harder to control, even with medicine.
6. Reproductive effects
Studies have shown that women who smoke are at an increased risk for a delay in becoming pregnant and for both primary and secondary infertility. Research has also shown that women who smoke during pregnancy risk complications.
7. Premature, Low Birth-Weight Babies
The effects of smoking not only impact mom's health, but also that of the baby. Smoking while pregnant can cause babies to be born prematurely or with a low birth weight. Babies born too early or too small have increased risk of health complications and even death.
8. Diabetes
You're more likely to get type 2 diabetes if you smoke. People who smoke cigarettes are 30% to 40% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people who don't smoke. Additionally, smoking increases the risk of complications once diagnosed with diabetes, such as heart and kidney disease, poor blood flow to legs and feet which leads to infections and possible amputation, blindness and nerve damage.
9. Blindness, Cataracts and Age Related Macular Degeneration
Smoking can make you go blind. It damages your eyes and can result in vision loss. Age-related macular degeneration is caused by smoking. It is the leading cause of blindness in adults ages 65 and older.
10. Over 10 Other Types of Cancer
Basically, all the cancers. For both cancer patients and survivors, those who smoke are more likely to develop a second primary cancer. And now we know that smoking causes at least a dozen cancers, including liver and colorectal, and reduces the survival rates for prostate cancer patients.
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