So we’ve all seen the “Tips From Former Smokers” ads that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has been putting on television.  As the ad name suggests, people who have spent years smoking share some of the pitfalls and consequences of their choice to light up.  It even shares the story of secondhand smoke victims like Ellie, who in her mid-thirties, was diagnosed with asthma. Ellie never smoked but worked as a bartender in a bar that allowed smoking. Her asthma was brought on by breathing other people's cigarette smoke. 

The ads have now become common place, so I’m sure that if you watch more than an hour of television a week, you should be fairly familiar with them.  As Christians, smoking is often not discussed at length and the assumption is made that “Christians don’t smoke.”  We all have struggles and bad habits, some of which are especially hard to break.  For many people, including those who are serving Christ, smoking is one of them.

What’s in Cigarettes?

Cigarettes don’t simply contain tobacco.  There about 4,000 different components to be found in a cigarette.  According to the CDC, more than 200 of them are particularly devastating to our health.  Here are just a few that the American Heart Association has listed:

Tar: When we hear the word ‘tar,’ we think of strong-smelling stuff that’s used in the making of roads, roof work and wood protection.  With smoking, it leaves a brown, sticky residue on the lungs (and after a while, fingernails and teeth). 

Arsenic:  A metalloid element often used in wood preservation.  Can cause cancer and heart disease. 

Formaldehyde: Commonly known as embalming fluid.  It is one of the main ingredients in cigarettes that is connected to chronic lung disease.  Is also released in secondhand smoke. It’s a chemical used to kill bacteria and preserve human and animal remains.  It’s a known cause of cancer, one of the main substances linked to chronic lung disease and a very toxic ingredient in secondhand smoke.

Polonium-210:  A radioactive element.  Studies suggest that people who smoke about a pack and a half of cigarettes a day are being exposed to as much radiation as they would be if they had more than 300 X-rays a year

Nicotine:  The addictive element of cigarettes.  Increases blood pressure and heart rate, which over time, is damaging to arteries.  It can also cause some hardening of the coronary artery (the vessels around the heart that provide the heart muscle itself with blood) walls which can impede the flow of blood, causing a heart attack. 

How Can Smoking Harm You?

Most people are aware of the connection between smoking and cancers, namely lung cancer, and chronic lung diseases like COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; chronic emphysema and bronchitis), so I won’t go into detail about those.  Unfortunately, fewer people are aware that cigarette use can also lead to stroke and heart disease (atherosclerosis), as well as gum disease. 

Stroke and Heart Attack

According to the CDC and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, smoking can lead to atherosclerosis, a condition in which a waxy substance called plaque layers the inside of artery walls and then begins to harden, limiting the available space for the flow of blood.  As we know, our red blood cells are the vehicles that transport oxygen around the body.  Smoking can also lead to high blood pressure and heart rate.  As mentioned in the section about nicotine, these issues can be damaging to vessels.  When they’ve had to sustain an abnormally elevated pressure after for an extended period of time, they wear out and can “break."

If the brain’s supply of oxygen-rich blood is interrupted (whether because the arteries are clogged or because the wear-and-tear of high blood pressure has broken them), a person experiences a stroke.  The heart’s blood supply can be affected in the very same way.  If the heart muscle doesn’t get the oxygenated blood it needs, it stops working, and the muscle begins to die – a heart attack.                        

Gum Disease

According to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, smoking is one of the most significant risk factors associated with the development of gum disease. Smoking affects the attachment of the teeth to the soft tissue of our gums. Again, it affects blood flow and vessel health.  It can also inhibit the normal function of gum tissue cells.  Coupled, these attribute to poor gum healing as well as damaged gums.  Gum disease leads to the premature loss of teeth.  The NIDCR also says that, continued smoking can even impair the success of treatment for gum disease.

Still not convinced, here’s Felicita’s story of how – even after quitting – she developed gum disease.

Thankfully, if you are interested in breaking the habit, it can definitely be broken.  We’ll go into some detail about this is the next installment of Body+Soul.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, run them by your healthcare provider, and see what they s/he has to say. They are familiar with you and your medical history, and can provide great advice as to how to take the best possible care of your body.

Shari Grant is a Registered Nurse in South Florida, where she was raised in a (very!) Jamaican home. Some of the loves of her life are words (both reading and writing them) and missions work. She enjoys spending time with friends and family while living for a good laugh - one that makes her belly ache and her eyes water. Her bottom line goal in life is to make the Lord smile and maybe even serve Him up a chuckle from time to time, too.