Nov 25, 2024
Nov 25, 2024
Smoke from cigarette, cigars, and pipes contains toxic chemicals, such as tar, carbon monoxide, and nicotine. The tar coats the lining of your lungs and the carbon monoxide makes it harder for your red blood cells to carry oxygen.
It binds to the hemoglobin hundreds of more easily than oxygen does; carbon monoxide from smoking reduces more than an estimated 8 percent of the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. As a result cardiovascular system has to work harder to deliver the oxygen the cells need, and heart muscle cells do not receive adequate oxygen.
One of the effects of nicotine is to stimulate the release of adrenaline, which causes blood pressure to rise.
Smoking also causes fatty deposits in the lining of the arteries, which narrows them, increasing the risk of angina and heart attack.
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Here is an interesting information of relevance: The injurious agent in cigarettes comes principally from the burning paper wrapper. The substance thereby formed is called “acrolein.” It has a violent action on the nerve centers, producing degeneration of the cells of the brain, which is quite rapid among boys. Unlike most narcotics, this degeneration is permanent and uncontrollable. I employ no person who smokes cigarettes. [From the Laboratory of Thomas A. Edison, Orange, N.J., April 26, 1914.] Edison was aware of the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes almost 100 years ago. More importantly he recognized it as a social evil and did not allow any smoker in his labs! |