How can cigarettes affect your health

Smoking affects the health of your teeth and gums and can cause tooth loss. It can also cause age-related macular degeneration AMD.

AMD is damage to a small spot near the center of the retina, the part of the eye needed for central vision. Quitting and Reduced Risks. Quitting smoking is one of the most important actions people can take to improve their health. This is true regardless of their age or how long they have been smoking. Visit the Benefits of Quitting page for more information about how quitting smoking can improve your health. Department of Health and Human Services. Atlanta: U. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 08 ; Actual Causes of Death in the United States. Rockville MD : U. A Report of the Surgeon General external icon.

For Further Information. Fact Sheets. In COPD, damage to the small airways in the lungs makes it hard for the lungs to get oxygen to the rest of the body. Smoking is by far the most common cause of COPD. The risk goes up the more you smoke and the longer you smoke.

Some of the early signs and symptoms of COPD can include noises in the chest such as wheezing, rattling, or whistling , shortness of breath when active, and coughing up mucus phlegm. Over time, COPD can make it hard to breathe at rest as well, sometimes even when a person is getting oxygen through a mask or nasal tube. COPD tends to get worse over time, especially if a person continues to smoke. There is no cure for COPD, although some medicines might help with symptoms.

Chronic bronchitis is a common problem in people who smoke for a long time. In this disease, the airways make too much mucus, forcing the person to try to cough it out. The airways become inflamed swollen , and the cough becomes chronic long-lasting.

The symptoms can get better at times, but the cough keeps coming back. Over time, the airways can get blocked by scar tissue and mucus, which can lead to bad lung infections pneumonia. In emphysema, the walls between the tiny air sacs in the lungs break down, which creates larger but fewer sacs.

This lowers the amount of oxygen reaching the blood. Over time, these sacs can break down to the point where a person with emphysema might struggle to get enough air, even when at rest.

People with emphysema are at risk for many other problems linked to weak lung function, including pneumonia. In later stages of the disease, patients often need an oxygen mask or tube to help them breathe. Tobacco smoke has many chemicals and particles that can irritate the upper airways and the lungs. When a person inhales these substances, the body tries to get rid of them by making mucus and causing a cough.

The early morning cough common among people who smoke happens for many reasons. Normally, tiny hair-like structures called cilia in the airways help sweep harmful material out of the lungs. But tobacco smoke slows this sweeping action, so some of the mucus and particles in the smoke stay in the lungs and airways. Secondhand smoke comes from the tip of a lit cigarette and the smoke that the smoker breathes out. Breathing in secondhand smoke, also known as passive smoking, increases your risk of getting the same health conditions as smokers.

For example, if you have never smoked but you have a spouse who smokes, your risk of developing lung cancer increases by about a quarter. A child who's exposed to passive smoke is at increased risk of developing chest infections, meningitis , a persistent cough and, if they have asthma , their symptoms will get worse. They're also at increased risk of cot death and an ear infection called glue ear. Read more about passive smoking. If you smoke when you're pregnant, you put your unborn baby's health at risk, as well as your own.

Read more about stopping smoking in pregnancy. Your GP can give you information and advice on quitting smoking. You can also call the NHS Smokefree helpline on