According to the Surgeon General, of all of the preventable causes of death in the United States, smoking is the leader. People are dying every day because of the health consequences of smoking. People often try to quit smoking, only to come right back to their smoking habit. Most people, smokers and nonsmokers alike, know that smoking is unhealthy, but perhaps those who are having so much trouble trying to quit smoking do not realize just how dangerous the habit is. Results of the 2004 Surgeon General Report In the early 2000s the Surgeon General collaborated with 19 of the nation's best medical experts to discover all of the dangerous health effects of smoking. The study was reported in 2004. As a result of this study, we now know that smoking is even more dangerous than once thought. Besides smoking related diseases, like emphysema and lung cancer, cigarette smoking causes many other health problems. According to the study, every organ and system in the body is affected by smoking. Many cancers, such as cervical cancer, bone marrow cancer, and kidney cancer, that were not related to smoking now are. The report also showed that frequent bladder infections are often a result of habitual smoking. The study also focused on the dangers of secondhand smoke, emphasizing the fact that smoking affects everyone around the smoker, even if they are nonsmokers. Smoking Is Deadly All smokers, both male smokers and female smokers, need to know that smoking is deadly. According to the American Red Cross, 390,000 Americans will die this year from smoking and smoking related diseases. Those who smoke are twice as likely to have a heart attack than those who do not. Female smokers who become pregnant have a higher likelihood of losing their babies to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Smoking Takes Your Breath Away Some of the most common types of problems associated with cigarette smoking are problems with breathing. People who smoke are more likely to develop emphysema, a condition characterized by a chronic cough and fatigue. People with emphysema have difficulty exhaling because the air sacs in the lungs become too stretched to function properly. This makes breathing very difficult, which interferes with almost every area of life. Smoking causes this condition because the tobacco smoke temporarily shuts down the cilia lining the bronchial tubes. These cilia are designed to brush all of the irritants out of the lungs, so when they don't function, the irritants stay in the lungs, eventually damaging the tissue. Lung cancer, of course, is another common condition affecting both male smokers and female smokers. Cancer in the lung can often grow into the airway, making it difficult, if not impossible, to breathe. While surgery can help, lung cancer is usually not found until it has grown to dangerous proportions, and it is often fatal. The sad fact about lung cancer is that cigarette smoking causes 90% of all cases, and this is completely preventable. The dangers of cigarette smoking are very real, and smokers need to count the cost before they continue their smoking habit.
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