Smoking  starts off as a habit of pleasure for a person  and it eventually grows into a habit that has a long lasting  bad effect on a person. It is a not so silent killer capable of causing grave damage to the human body.

What is smoking?

Smoking is the inhalation of smoke from a burning plant or substance. The plant usually burnt and inhaled is the tobacco plant. This tobaccos plant contains the stimulant nicotine. Nicotine, is a stimulant drug that works by offering temporary relief, pleasure and moral as the case may be. These seemingly pleasurable effects are the beginning of long term damage to the body system.

What happens after you smoke

When you inhale the smoke from the burnt cigarette, it travels through your nostrils into the alveoli.

From the alveoli, it travels to the blood stream through the capillaries. Once in the blood stream, the nicotine substance moves to the brain. In the brain, it activates receptors tha release the hormones; dopamine, serotonin, endorphin. These hormones are called the feel good hormones. They elicit the pleasurable and satisfying effect you feel after you smoke.

Nicotine is processed by the liver after some time and the waste product is released in the urine. In this time, the feeling from the nicotine has faded and your system begins to crave the feeling that the nicotine gave. You may begin to experience things like depression, anxiety, irritability, insomnia. This would lead you back to the cigarette till your body becomes nicotine dependent.

Effects of smoking

Smoking has different effects on different parts of the body. Some of the body parts affected include:

1. The Lungs

The Lungs are the first recipient of the smoke inhaled.S moking does a number of things to the lungs some of which include:

- It can lead to a chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease called emphysema.

- It increases the risk of Lung cancer in a person  because the cigars carries some carcinogens capable of damaging the DNA thereby leading to lung cancer.

2. The heart and blood vessels 

When you take a puff of cigarette, it pass through your alveoli and the carbon monoxide in the smoke moves into your blood through the capillaries. These carbon monoxide can cause:

-  Coronary heart disease: This happens due to the blood vessels damaged by smoking .

- An  increase of the risk of a heart attack.

- An increase of the risk of a stroke which can also lead to brain damage.

-Peripheral Arterial disease .

3. On the bones

There is a reduction in calcium absorption by the bones and this leads to bone brittleness.

4. On the eyes

Vision loss, macular degeneration and cataract may arise due to a lack of oxygen and the effect of the chemicals in the cigarette on the eye.

5. On the immune system

Smokin causes weakness to the immune system and this makes room for auto immune diseases like Rhuematoid arthritis.

6. On the Skin

It alters your skin appearance by causing skin dehydration, poor blood circulation, reduced amounts of collagen and elastin, skin wrinkles which cause the person to look older than his or her peers.

What can be done

1. Nicotine Replacement Therapy: 

This method involves the use of products like nicotine patches, lozenges, gums and nasal sprays to manage the withdrawal symptoms.

2. Behavioral therapy:

Incorporating a life style change and counseling can help the individual with coping strategies to deal with effects of withdrawal.

3. Medication prescription:

Medications like bupropion can be prescribed to help the individual reduce cravings.

4. Support groups:

A support group provides psychological support as well as a medium of accountability for the individual.

Conclusion

There are no positive effects to smoking. Your lungs and airways can start healing after you stop smoking.Your nasal cilia begins to regenerate. The speed of this process is dependent on how long you have spent smoking. A short term smoker has a faster recovery rate than a longer term smoker. Breaking free from smoking guarantees a better health overall and reduces risk of cancers. Have you had experience from smoking and healing, kindly share in the comments let us learn also from your experience.