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| STUB IT OR SNUFF IT ! By: Rozalind A Gruben Prof; H.L.C., A.H.S.I., R.S.A. Copyright Rozalind A Gruben November 2002. All rights reserved. There is more to creating or destroying health than diet. If you are still smoking tobacco, or are concerned about a loved one who is then read on. Even if you are a noon-smoker or x-smoker remember the rule of polluted air – if you can smell it you are inhaling it. According to the Health Education Authority in the UK, if smoking trends continue, by the 2020’s there will be 10 million deaths per year as a direct consequence of smoke inhalation. This figure is undoubtedly conservative and probably represents less than half of the true number once the general debilitating effects of tobacco are taken into consideration. In the U.K. alone 13 people die every hour as a direct result of having smoked! The lethal effects of tobacco use have been known for decades. Back in march 1938, in an article entitled ‘Tobacco Smoking and Longevity’ Dr Raymond Pearl of John Hopkins University states ‘Statistics show that a heavy smoker pays from his life span 34.6 minutes for each cigarette he smokes’ Consider the price you are paying next time you reach for this deadly weed or “passively” inhale the smoke of others. SMOKING AND YOUR HEALTH So important is your heart to the life of your entire organism that it only needs to stop for a few moments and death will occur. The heart itself needs large amounts of oxygen to function and anything that reduces its supply is going to have a detrimental effect upon the health of your entire body. As we inhale air is drawn down deep into the lungs ending up within millions of tiny air sacs known as ‘alveoli’. Surrounding each alveolus is wrapped a network of tiny blood vessels called ‘capillaries’ through which blood is transported. Contained within the blood is the iron rich compound hemoglobin to which oxygen is highly attracted. As the walls of both the alveoli and capillaries are gas permeable (gasses can pass through them) oxygen is able to leave the lungs and enter the blood stream, whereupon it attracts itself onto the hemoglobin. Once in the blood oxygen is then transported and delivered throughout the organism to feed and nourish the body’s cells. Tobacco smoke contains a deadly toxic gas called ‘carbon monoxide’, which is also highly attracted to hemoglobin. When this gas is inhaled into the lungs it effectively steals oxygen’s’ vital transport medium by permeating through into the blood stream and hijacking the hemoglobin. All smokers are oxygen starved in this way with around 20% of their red blood cells saturated with carbon monoxide. Once in the circulation carbon monoxide has access to every cell in the body where it wreaks havoc by poisoning, perverting and paralyzing the healthy functioning of everything it touches. It is, therefore, profoundly erroneous to think that tobacco smoking only effects lung tissue. It destroys the health of the entire organism, including the heart. Heart disease is the most prolific killer in the western world claiming a life every 35 seconds. Smoking is a primary cause of heart disease by effecting its function in a number of ways. Apart from the destructive effects to the heart muscle itself by carbon monoxide poisoning, as described above, this lethal gas also severely damages the coronary arteries that deliver the hearts own blood supply. Carbon monoxide is so caustic to the delicate membranes of the body that the linings of all the blood vessels become inflamed by its presence in the circulation. Once inflamed the artery walls are predisposed to the adherence of fatty deposits and cholesterol, which accumulate to impede, and eventually block, the flow of blood. If starved of its blood supply the heart muscle can no longer function and a heart attack is the result. 50% of first heart attacks are fatal
The Bronchi contain glands that produce mucus, a specially designed
substance for carrying toxic matter out of the body. The irritants
in smoke cause these glands to become enlarged and produce copious
amounts of mucus in an effort to remove the poisons from the system.
The passage of mucus out of the body is largely dependent upon tiny
hair-like cells known as ‘Cilia’. Due to the clogging
up of the Cilia, by the tars in tobacco, the process is thwarted
and large amounts of toxic mucus accumulate in the lungs leading
to secondary infections and further damage to the Bronchi. The crippling effects of carbon monoxide, and other poisonous gasses
found in tobacco smoke, cause the Alveoli to lose their elastic
quality, rendering them unable to properly inflate. Emphysema describes
this severely debilitating state of disease, which is characterised
by rapid shallow breathing as the sufferer literally fights for
their breath. Lung Cancer has a very low survival rate with less than 10% of diagnosed patients surviving longer than 5 years. You only need smoke 1 cigarette per day to increase the likelihood
of you dying from Lung Cancer by 800%. Inhalation of tobacco destroys vast quantities of your body’s
vital nutrients and cripples the overall nutritional functioning
of the organism. If you smoke you are malnourished regardless of
your dietary habits. Tobacco smoking creates a highly acidic internal environment leading to calcium being drawn out of the bones in order to negate it. As bones lose their calcium they begin to disintegrate becoming fragile and prone to fracture. Smoking also inhibits the absorption of calcium, further depriving
the bones of their basic constituent. In 1988 the Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health, an advisory body to the government, examined all the scientific data available on the effects of passive smoking and concluded that side stream inhalation did significantly increase the risk of lung cancer. The committee estimated that passive smoking may be responsible for hundreds of lung cancer deaths per year in the U.K. A report by the Health Education Authority compiled in 1991 listed
the following symptoms of disease associated with environmental
tobacco inhalation;
SMOKING AND YOUR UNBORN CHILD Smoking also interferes with the flow of nutrition to the baby
and can result in both physical and mental retardation or even miscarriage. The number of years you have been smoking for, and how much you
smoked each day, will have an impact on your potential to regain
health. If you eat a healthy diet, get ample sleep, exercise regularly
and otherwise generally take care of your health recovery will be
that much sooner.
Hello to pure air also means hello to –
And for you non-smokers and X smokers – I remind you again; if you can smell it you are inhaling it. I encourage you to be assertive about your right to breathe clean
air and by doing so play your part in helping the collective consciousness
to shift towards global health. THE ABOVE REPRESENTS ONLY A SAMPLE OF THE EXTENSIVE
REFERENCES USED. A FULL LIST IS AVAILABLE UPON REQUST FROM THE AUTHOR. |
All rights reserved copyright 2006