The Effects of Smoking on Aging

Increasing evidence is mounting to indicate that smoking has devastating effects on those who partake. Some recent findings may surprise you:

• The risk of facial wrinkling is two to three times greater in cigarette smokers than in never smokers
• Three million people die each year from smoking. The number of people alive today who will eventually be killed by tobacco is _ billion. Smoking kills more Americans each year than died in battle in World War II and Vietnam put together
• Health care costs attributable to smoking were estimated to exceed $17 billion in 1984. If lost work and productivity is included, the costs exceed $65 billion per year
• Medical expenses and loss of earnings attributable to a two-pack-per-day habit for a smoker younger than 50 years exceeds $34,000
• The weight gain usually expected with cessation is between 3.0 and 5.0 pounds; not enough to increase any health risks and not enough to be an excuse
• Smoking causes higher risk of chronic lung disease and lung cancer, it also causes increased risk of: emphysema, bronchitis, asthma, bacterial pneumonia, tuberculosis pneumonia, coronary disease, hypertension, aortic aneurysm, arterial thrombosis, stroke, peptic ulcer, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, and periodontal (gum) disease
• In women who are pregnant there is increased risk of: growth retardation, abortion, fetal/neonatal death, placenta problems, bleeding, premature membrane rupture, pre-term labor, pre-eclampsia, sudden infant death syndrome, and congenital malformation
• In addition to increased risk of throat and lung cancer, smokers have double the risk of the following cancers: mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, bladder, uterine, cervix, breast, brain, and leukemia
• Cigarette smoking meets the criteria for drug addiction by the Surgeon General, the World Health Organization, and the American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders"
• Active smokers have a significantly higher risk of wound complications in the post-operative period, delayed healing of duodenal ulcers, and protracted healing of long bone fractures
• Light cigarettes have no effect on blood nicotine levels since studies show that smokers compensate by puffing more, inhaling deeper, and smoking down to the filter
• Each year secondhand smoke accounts for 300,000 serious respiratory ailments in children less than 18 months of age, 26,000 new cases of asthma, and makes one million asthmatic children worse
• When doctors urge smokers to quit, they are up to 10 times more likely to quit than those whose physicians have not.