Many harms of smoking keep coming up but do you know what effects smoking just one cigarette can have on the body? If you don’t know, know that using just one cigarette a day causes changes in the body that are enough to increase the risk of life-threatening diseases. Yes, just one cigarette changes everything from the respiratory system to the digestive system, which is harmful to health. A cigarette has the following effects on the body.
Changes in the Respiratory System
Smoking actually triggers asthma symptoms in people who do not suffer from the disorder. One of the main symptoms of asthma is the narrowing of the airways, which causes the airways to narrow, causing shortness of breath and coughing. Inhaled smoke can wreak havoc, but even one cigarette is enough to discolor the lungs and close the airways where smoke and other toxins are trapped.
Difficulty in Working of the Heart
When a cigarette is lit, the heartbeat becomes faster while the work of blood supply to the heart becomes difficult. If the level of cholesterol in the body is high, more damage is done while the level of beneficial cholesterol is low. Nicotine reduces the ability to break down harmful cholesterol and allows fats to circulate more freely in the blood, which accumulate in the arteries and eventually lead to heart attacks. Smoking also increases heart rate immediately, and this rapid fatigue over time increases the risk of sudden death, even if you are young.
Effects on the Stomach
Smoking immediately increases the acidity in the stomach and nicotine lowers the protective barrier of the stomach. The stomach needs acid to digest food, but the protective layer prevents it from becoming harmful to health. In smokers, nicotine and smoke are factors that damage the protective layer that causes acid in the stomach, the acid to reach the esophagus causing the protective layer to fail. , while this habit also reduces the absorption of vitamins C, E and folic acid, which increases the possibility of physical weakness and other disorders.
Nose & Ears
The tiny hairs in the nose keep the lungs clear of mucus, smoking also affects them and as soon as the smoke reaches the nose, these hairs stop working and the material starts to collect which can lead to infection and swelling. It makes the body weak. Similarly, headaches and sense of smell also have negative effects on short and long term basis. Smoking also prevents the ears from cleaning themselves naturally.
Effects on the Brain
Well, smokers claim that this habit helps them to calm down, but according to medical research reports, it has completely different effects on the brain. Nicotine reaches the brain very quickly and relaxes the parts that control emotions, sense of direction and planning. But the effect of this addiction lasts only for a few seconds and after that the feeling of mental restlessness starts to arise. With each cigarette, a neurochemical called dopamine begins to die.