Risks to the individuals health and well-being.

Authors Avatar

risks to the individuals health and well-being.

There are several factors that negatively influence the health and well-being of my individual. The first one I am going to talk about is that he smokes. Many diseases and medical problems are caused by smoking and also causes lung cancer, throat and larynx cancer, kidney and bladder cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure. So what makes smoking so risky? Our bodies suffer the effects of nicotine, carbon monoxide and tar. The dangers are not only confined to the risk of the smoker. If we breathe in the smoke from someone cigarette we are also at risk. This is known as passive smoking and can increase our risk of getting diseases associated with smoking. When we smoke, the chemicals that are in cigarettes are absorbed into the blood. In our red blood cells is a substance called haemoglobin which carries oxygen around the body. Carbon monoxide is dangerous because it takes the place of oxygen and takes a long time to be removed. The lack of oxygen can slow body growth and affect heart function. It can also lead to fat being deposited on the artery walls, causing them to harden. This is known as coronary artery disease and the primary heart disease. Cigarettes also contain nicotine. This is a fast-acting brain stimulation that has an effect lasting about 7minutes. Nicotine is addictive and leads the smoker wanting more. This powerful drug causes some immediate effects such as increase in blood, constriction of small blood vessels, thickening of blood, and change in appetite. Cigarettes therefore can have a harmful effect on the heart, blood and circulation. When a cigarette burns it produces a product known as tar. This contains thousands of different chemicals, some of which are carcinogens. Carcinogenic chemicals have the ability to cause cancer. Tar also damages the small hairs (cilia) that help remove small particles from our lungs. This damage increases the risk of infection and is the reason why smokers are more likely to get chest and throat infections. It also makes conditions like asthma and bronchitis worse. Most people know that smoking can cause , but it can also cause many other cancers and illnesses. Smoking kills around 114,000 people in the UK each year. Of these deaths, about 42,800 are from smoking-related cancers, 30,600 from  and 29,100 die slowly from  and other chronic lung diseases. Cigarettes contain more than  and at least 400 toxic substances. When you inhale, a cigarette burns at 700°C at the tip and around 60°C in the core. This heat breaks down the tobacco to produce various toxins. As a cigarette burns, the residues are concentrated towards the butt. The products that are most damaging are tar, a carcinogen (substance that causes cancer), nicotine is addictive and increases cholesterol levels in your body, carbon monoxide reduces oxygen in the body, components of the gas and particulate phases cause  (COPD). The damage caused by smoking is influenced by: Research has shown that smoking reduces life expectancy by seven to eight years. Of the 300 people who die every day in the UK as a result of smoking, many are comparatively young smokers.
The number of people under the age of 70 who die from smoking-related diseases exceeds the total figure for deaths caused by breast cancer, AIDS, traffic accidents and drug addiction.
Non-smokers and ex-smokers can also look forward to a healthier old age than smokers. Major diseases caused by smoking Cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death due to smoking.
Hardening of the arteries is a process that develops over years, when cholesterol and other fats deposit in the arteries, leaving them narrow, blocked or rigid. When the arteries narrow (), blood clots are likely to form.
Smoking accelerates the hardening and narrowing process in your arteries: it starts earlier and blood clots are two to four times more likely.
Cardiovascular disease can take many forms depending on which blood vessels are involved, and all of them are more common in people who smoke. : a blood clot in the arteries supplying the heart, which can lead to a heart attack. Around 30 per cent are caused by smoking. : the vessels to the brain can become blocked, which can lead to collapse, stroke and paralysis. If the kidney arteries are affected, then high blood pressure or  results. Blockage to the vascular supply to the legs may lead to gangrene and amputation. Smokers tend to develop coronary thrombosis 10 years earlier than non-smokers, and make up 9 out of 10 heart bypass patients. Cancer
Smokers are more likely to get cancer than non-smokers. This is particularly true of lung cancer, throat cancer and mouth cancer, which hardly ever affect non-smokers.
The link between smoking and  is clear. Ninety percent of lung cancer cases are due to smoking. If no-one smoked, lung cancer would be a rare diagnosis - only 0.5 per cent of people who've never touched a cigarette develop lung cancer. One in ten moderate smokers and almost one in five heavy smokers (more than 15 cigarettes a day) will die of lung cancer. The more cigarettes you smoke in a day, and the longer you've smoked, the higher your risk of lung cancer. Similarly, the risk rises the deeper you inhale and the earlier in life you started smoking. For ex-smokers, it takes approximately 15 years before the risk of lung cancer drops to the same as that of a non-smoker.         If you smoke, the risk of contracting mouth cancer is four times higher than for a non-smoker. Cancer can start in many areas of the mouth, with the most common being on or underneath the tongue, or on the lips.
Other types of cancer that are more common in smokers are: ,  ,   

Join now!

COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is  a collective term for a group of conditions that block airflow and make breathing more difficult, such as: emphysema - breathlessness caused by damage to the air sacs (alveoli)chronic bronchitis - coughing with a lot of mucus that continues for at least three months. the number of cigarettes smoked whether the cigarette has a filter how the tobacco has been prepared. Smoking affects how long you live. Short-term effects are strokes, addiction, wrinkles, tooth decay, gum disease, stained fingers, throat cancer, lung cancer, lung disease, heart disease, heart attack, liver cancer, stomach ulcers, kidney cancer, constricts ...

This is a preview of the whole essay