Healthy Life Blog

Posts Tagged ‘smoking’

Passive smoking or Second Hand Smoke (SHS) causes more harm even though it is an involuntary inhalation of smoke caused by tobacco or cigarette smoking by others. This involuntary smoking happens when some one smokes in public places spreading the smoke (pollution) into the air. Regular exposure to tobacco smoking causes more injurious effects when compared to that of actual smoking.

As a cigarette smoke is a combination of several harmful chemicals identified to be nearly 4000 highly toxin that are more harmful to ones health. It is important to keep away form second hand smoking as they may cause various psychological distress and future emotional illness on a long run.

Passive Smoking effects

Tobacco smoke exposure causes quicker effects on blood vessels that affects the rate of increasing the heart attacks and respiratory tracks at once. The risks of passive smoking towards acquisition of heart diseases are 24% more for non-smokers than that of regular smokers.

In children
Children get affects to passive smoking than that of the adults as the immune system is low in resistive power. Tobacco effects are more dangerous that affects the lungs and the respiratory track all together. Some of the problems faced by children are Asthma, Allergy, respiratory infection affecting throat and Lung, pneumonia and Bronchitis. Children whose parents smoke have a prolonged exposure to passive smoking from the younger age.

In fetus
Both active and passive smoking are harmful to fetus in the pregnant and expecting mothers. They lead to infections such as Premature Birth, Low weight birth of babies, Lack of milk secretion in mothers and risks of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). As it is the developmental stage the fetus are very sensitive to get infected via smoke.

In adults
Adults with good immune power are less affected by the passive smoking with Common Cough with soreness of throat, headache and infection in eyes, nose and ears. Long term passive smoking effects are more dangerous causing some of the serious problems like Lung Cancer, Pneumonia, Asthma, Bronchitis, Tuberculosis and Hypertension. It wholly affects the blood circulation that carries oxygen to various parts of the body. Brain tumors, Heart diseases and Lung and respiratory cancer are more common when exposed over long time, exceeding the limits of tolerance.

Measures to keep-off passive smoking
Motivating the chain smokers to quit cigarette and tobacco smoking by explaining the smoking facts and effects caused to healthy living can do well. Smoke addiction can be improved with the helps of certain programs that work upon how to quit smoking habits with various recovery techniques.

Research has shown that smoking may triple your chances of not being able to conceive. If your partner smokes, he needs to give up as well. Smoking can damage his sperm as well as exposing you to passive smoking. In addition, smoking robs the body of vitamins, especially vitamins B and C, and can cause a build-up of free radicals in the body.

Free radicals are molecules that can damage blood vessels, such as those supplying the placenta, thus reducing the supply of nutrients for the developing baby. Smoking is a powerful addiction and so can be very difficult to stop. However, if you do stop smoking, your fertility will go back to normal. So it is important to stop smoking prior to pregnancy. If your partner also smokes, it would be best if you gave up together.

If you drink heavily, this can affect your fertility. Alcohol can upset the production of eggs from the ovary. A Danish study conducted in 1998 found that women drinking four or fewer units of alcohol a week were twice as likely to conceive as those drinking 10 or more units a week. If your partner drinks heavily, this can affect his fertility by upsetting the function of his testicles and their production of both the male hormone testosterone and sperm.

Moderate alcohol intake does not seem to cause male fertility problems, but there are some reports that if the father drinks regularly before conception this is associated with a lower birth weight in the baby. The ideal is that you both give up alcohol while you are tying to conceive, or keep your alcohol intake very moderate, as no one knows what the ‘safe’ level of alcohol is.