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Overview

Lung cancer is a type of cancer that begins in the lungs. Your lungs are two spongy organs in your chest that take in oxygen when you inhale and release carbon dioxide when you exhale.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide.

People who smoke have the greatest risk of lung cancer, though lung cancer can also occur in people who have never smoked. The risk of lung cancer increases with the length of time and number of cigarettes you've smoked. If you quit smoking, even after smoking for many years, you can significantly reduce your chances of developing lung cancer.

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Symptoms

Lung cancer typically doesn't cause signs and symptoms in its earliest stages. Signs and symptoms of lung cancer typically occur when the disease is advanced.

Signs and symptoms of lung cancer may include:

A new cough that doesn't go away

Coughing up blood, even a small amount

Shortness of breath

Chest pain

Hoarseness

Losing weight without trying

Bone pain

Headache

When to see a doctor

Make an appointment with your doctor if you have any persistent signs or symptoms that worry you.

If you smoke and have been unable to quit, make an appointment with your doctor. Your doctor can recommend strategies for quitting smoking, such as counseling, medications and nicotine replacement products.

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Causes

Smoking causes the majority of lung cancers - both in smokers and in people exposed to secondhand smoke. But lung cancer also occurs in people who never smoked and in those who never had prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke. In these cases, there may be no clear cause of lung cancer.

How smoking causes lung cancer

Doctors believe smoking causes lung cancer by damaging the cells that line the lungs. When you inhale cigarette smoke, which is full of cancer-causing substances (carcinogens), changes in the lung tissue begin almost immediately.

At first your body may be able to repair this damage. But with each repeated exposure, normal cells that line your lungs are increasingly damaged. Over time, the damage causes cells to act abnormally and eventually cancer may develop.

Types of lung cancer

Doctors divide lung cancer into two major types based on the appearance of lung cancer cells under the microscope. Your doctor makes treatment decisions based on which major type of lung cancer you have.

The two general types of lung cancer include:

Small cell lung cancer. Small cell lung cancer occurs almost exclusively in heavy smokers and is less common than non-small cell lung cancer.

Non-small cell lung cancer. Non-small cell lung cancer is an umbrella term for several types of lung cancers. Non-small cell lung cancers include squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma and large cell carcinoma.

Risk factors

A number of factors may increase your risk of lung cancer. Some risk factors can be controlled, for instance, by quitting smoking. And other factors can't be controlled, such as your family history.

Risk factors for lung cancer include:

Smoking. Your risk of lung cancer increases with the number of cigarettes you smoke each day and the number of years you have smoked. Quitting at any age can significantly lower your risk of developing lung cancer.

Exposure to secondhand smoke. Even if you don't smoke, your risk of lung cancer increases if you're exposed to secondhand smoke.

Previous radiation therapy. If you've undergone radiation therapy to the chest for another type of cancer, you may have an increased risk of developing lung cancer.

Exposure to radon gas. Radon is produced by the natural breakdown of uranium in soil, rock and water that eventually becomes part of the air you breathe. Unsafe levels of radon can accumulate in any building, including homes.

Exposure to asbestos and other carcinogens. Workplace exposure to asbestos and other substances known to cause cancer - such as arsenic, chromium and nickel - can increase your risk of developing lung cancer, especially if you're a smoker.

Family history of lung cancer. People with a parent, sibling or child with lung cancer have an increased risk of the disease.

Complications

Lung cancer can cause complications, such as:

Shortness of breath. People with lung cancer can experience shortness of breath if cancer grows to block the major airways. Lung cancer can also cause fluid to accumulate around the lungs, making it harder for the affected lung to expand fully when you inhale.

Coughing up blood. Lung cancer can cause bleeding in the airway, which can cause you to cough up blood (hemoptysis). Sometimes bleeding can become severe. Treatments are available to control bleeding.

Pain. Advanced lung cancer that spreads to the lining of a lung or to another area of the body, such as a bone, can cause pain. Tell your doctor if you experience pain, as many treatments are available to control pain.

Fluid in the chest (pleural effusion). Lung cancer can cause fluid to accumulate in the space that surrounds the affected lung in the chest cavity (pleural space).

Fluid accumulating in the chest can cause shortness of breath. Treatments are available to drain the fluid from your chest and reduce the risk that pleural effusion will occur again.

Cancer that spreads to other parts of the body (metastasis). Lung cancer often spreads (metastasizes) to other parts of the body, such as the brain and the bones.

Cancer that spreads can cause pain, nausea, headaches, or other signs and symptoms depending on what organ is affected. Once lung cancer has spread beyond the lungs, it's generally not curable. Treatments are available to decrease signs and symptoms and to help you live longer.

Prevention

There's no sure way to prevent lung cancer, but you can reduce your risk if you:

Don't smoke. If you've never smoked, don't start. Talk to your children about not smoking so that they can understand how to avoid this major risk factor for lung cancer. Begin conversations about the dangers of smoking with your children early so that they know how to react to peer pressure.

Stop smoking. Stop smoking now. Quitting reduces your risk of lung cancer, even if you've smoked for years. Talk to your doctor about strategies and stop-smoking aids that can help you quit. Options include nicotine replacement products, medications and support groups.

Avoid secondhand smoke. If you live or work with a smoker, urge him or her to quit. At the very least, ask him or her to smoke outside. Avoid areas where people smoke, such as bars and restaurants, and seek out smoke-free options.

Test your home for radon. Have the radon levels in your home checked, especially if you live in an area where radon is known to be a problem. High radon levels can be remedied to make your home safer. For information on radon testing, contact your local department of public health or a local chapter of the American Lung Association.

Avoid carcinogens at work. Take precautions to protect yourself from exposure to toxic chemicals at work. Follow your employer's precautions. For instance, if you're given a face mask for protection, always wear it. Ask your doctor what more you can do to protect yourself at work. Your risk of lung damage from workplace carcinogens increases if you smoke.

Eat a diet full of fruits and vegetables. Choose a healthy diet with a variety of fruits and vegetables. Food sources of vitamins and nutrients are best. Avoid taking large doses of vitamins in pill form, as they may be harmful. For instance, researchers hoping to reduce the risk of lung cancer in heavy smokers gave them beta carotene supplements. Results showed the supplements actually increased the risk of cancer in smokers.

Exercise most days of the week. If you don't exercise regularly, start out slowly. Try to exercise most days of the week.

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Learn about the approaches doctors take to treating this deadly form of cancer, including minimally invasive surgery, targeted therapy and immunotherapy.

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5 reasons why smoking should be stopped.

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recent research on smoking causing pancreatic cancer

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Smoking causes pancreatic cancer, researchers say

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Researchers say smokers have more than a 1 in 5 chance of developing the deadly disease.

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Some people think that smoking is beneficial

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The WHO calls tobacco "the single most preventable cause of death in the world" -but cigarettes may also provide a handful of paradoxical, if pyrrhic, health benefits: Smoking will probably take years off your life, but certain things in tobacco smoke may actually do the body good. Here's what science has to say about the smoker's paradox.

Smoking Alleviates Ulcerative Colitis but Inflames Crohn's Disease

Broadly speaking, smoking worsens your health. But for some people who suffer from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), smoking seems to relieve their worst symptoms.

IBD refers to a handful of chronic gut diseases. Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, the two most-common forms of IBD, both result when a person's immune system mistakenly attacks that person's own gut. But while smoking cigarettes has exacerbates Crohn's disease, it seems to alleviate ulcerative colitis.

At a recent conference on IBD in San Francisco, IBD expert Stephen Hanauerspeculated that everything from our diets to tylenol to colder climates might be to blame for the recent rise in IBD diagnoses, especially in developed countries. But cigarette smoking, which is largely a 20th Century phenomenon, doesn't gel with theories about IBD being a consequence of modern lifestyles, because it can actually ward off ulcerative colitis.

Hanauer is one of many IBD doctors who has noticed over the years that his Crohn's patients are often smokers, while his ulcerative colitis patients are often ex-smokers. Cigarette smokers suffer from worse bouts, or "flares," of Crohn's disease than non-smokers, so doctors are happy to encourage Crohn's disease patients to quit smoking. But when former smokers with ulcerative colitis relapse into their tobacco addictions, they are often rewarded with relief from their symptoms.What gives?

At the conference, Hanauer was careful to avoid stating outright that smoking could cure ulcerative colitis, but he couldn't deny that something in cigarette smoke was benefitting some of his patients. A handful of small studies has shown that nicotine might be a useful therapy for ulcerative colitis, though it remains unclear how it helps. Also puzzling: Nicotine therapy seems to alleviate one type of Crohn's disease (in an unpublished study of a dozen patients), while smoking itself exacerbates Crohn's disease. This observation would suggest that non-nicotine substances in cigarette smoke, of which there are many, may stoke and/or soothe the symptoms of Crohn's and ulcerative colitis, respectively.

Smoking Increases the Risk of Dementia, but Protects Against Parkinson's Disease

The same toxic compounds in cigarette smoke that damage the heart and lungs also damage blood vessels and neurons in the brain. Amongst smokers who don't succumb early to lung cancer, emphysema, or heart attacks, smoking has been linked to an increased likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease, and dementia in general, later in life. What's bad for the body, it seems, is also bad for the brain.

And yet, studies have observed that the more people smoke, the less likely they are to develop Parkinson's disease. This inverse correlation was first observed in the 1960s, by epidemiologist Harold Kahn. When he analyzed the health insurance records of nearly 300,000 veterans, Kahn noticed that smokers who had served in the US military between 1917 and 1940 were three-times less likely than non-smokers to have later died of Parkinson's disease, even though they were over ten times more likely to have died of lung cancer or emphysema than non-smokers. This finding has since been bolstered by numerous studies.

In cases of Parkinson's disease, dopamine producing neurons in the midbrain degenerate and die. But nicotine appears to protect these neurons, at least in rodent models of the disease. Clinical trials using nicotine to treat Parkinson's disease in humans are currently underway, but doctors still do not recommend using nicotine (like nicotine patches) unless you're actually trying to quit cigarettes.

Nicotine does improve certain aspects of human cognition, and it is being explored not only to treat Parkinson's, but other dementias, and even everyday inattention. But the relationship between Parkinson's and smoking probably involves more than just nicotine, which, again, is but one component of cigarette smoke. While the latter is believed to increase one's risk of developing dementia, the former may be useful in treating it.

The Fickle Relationship Between Obesity and Smoking

Cigarette ads have long touted the appetite-suppressing qualities of tobacco. Even today, much of the public believes that cigarettes can be used to lose weight. Indeed, people do eat less when they smoke, and quitting smoking can cause a temporary spike in weight gain. Four years ago, scientists finally identified how nicotine curbs the appetite via a hunger circuit in the brain, lending an explanation for decades of studies that broadly correlated smoking with lower body weight.

Bruce Henschel, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

But the devil is in the details of this correlation. Some people smoke multiple packs a day, while others smoke only with their friends over the weekend, and it's only on average that smokers weigh less than non-smokers. Recent studies that examined the medical records of hundreds of thousands of people have found that heavy smoking (40+ cigarettes per day) is strongly associated with an increased risk of obesity, while light smoking (on the order of a dozen cigarettes per day) has the opposite effect. Moreover, younger smokers do not appear to benefit from the general association of smoking and lower body weight.

Why do hardcore cigarette addicts and young people miss out on the appetite-suppressing, weight-controlling effects of smoking? It turns out that other obesity risk factors, like low levels of physical activity, and poor diet, are associated with smoking more cigarettes. Add it all up, and the weight-loss effects of smoking are quickly negated by television and fast food. It's impossible to draw causal conclusions from these types of studies, which often rely on people's self-reports of their own behavior, but clearly, smoking is no panacea for obesity.

False Promises: Some "Smoker's Paradoxes" May Not Exist at All

Some smoker's paradoxes may not be paradoxes at all. The phrase itself, "smoker's paradox," originally referred to the observation that smokers seem to have better short-term health outcomes than non-smokers following hospitalization for heart attacks. But this "paradox" may have a straightforward explanation: Smokers are notorious for having heart attacks earlier in life than non-smokers, when their bodies are generally more resilient.

Science bears this idea out. Smokers are hospitalized for heart attacks eleven years earlier, on average, than non-smokers, and this age gap "generally accounted" for the formers' more favorable outcomes. Of note, most studies claiming this smoking/heart attack paradox are over 20 years old, and some doctors have argued that the age-dependency of the smoker's paradox has been rendered irrelevant in the face of modern therapies for heart attack victims.

Other doctors continue to debate the merits of this paradox. A recent meta-analysis of 26 studies, encompassing the medical records of over 700,000 patients, concluded that smokers do benefit from reduced mortality after a heart attack, but only for one month after being hospitalized. But the authors also note that their study couldn't possibly account for people who never made it to the hospital in the first place, stating: "Thus, the 'smoker's paradox' may be largely explained by a greater case fatality before admission to hospital in smokers." Compared to non-smokers, smokers are much more likely to die immediately following a heart attack; less likely to die within 30 days if they are admitted to the hospital; and just as likely to die further in the future after a heart attack.

Studies on the "smoker's paradox" highlight the risk of another paradox: Simpson's paradox, which occurs when an apparent result (in this case, smokers recovering more quickly from heart attacks than non-smokers) is actually a better reflection of some unacknowledged third factor (like age, exclusion of pre-hospital admission deaths). Simpson's paradox has even led scientists to mistakenly conclude that smoking could save lives.

Jane Mejdahl, CC BY-SA 2.0

A few other purported smoker's paradoxes are worth mentioning. This study found that smokers were less likely to need knee replacement surgery than non-smokers, while other studies have shown that complications and failures of joint replacements are much higher in smokers. Another study intriguingly found that trauma patients were less likely to die in the hospital if they were smokers, but the study only looked at patients under the age of 65 and did not follow up on mortality following release from the hospital (nor could it account for trauma-related death prior to hospitalization). Perhaps there is something to these findings, but it will take some time for these paradoxes to be bolstered by further research.

One smoker's paradox that almost certainly does not hold water is the "observation" that smoking prevents Alzheimer's disease. It turns out that most of the underlying studies to arrive at this conclusion were funded by the tobacco industry. In 2010, a group from UCSF compared 43 studies on smoking and Alzheimer's disease and found one-quarter of them were funded by tobacco groups. Those industry-funded studies demonstrated a protective effect of smoking against Alzheimer's; independently-funded studies, on the other hand, clearly showed that smoking increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease. Why wasn't this caught sooner? The affiliations of many of the involved doctors and scientists had been hidden for years: "To determine if study authors had connections to the tobacco industry, the UCSF team analyzed 877 previously secret tobacco industry documents," UCSF News Center reported.

It's not easy to study human health, let alone the potential benefits of one of our deadliest recreations. Maybe someday we'll have nicotine-based therapies for our ailments, but the smoker's paradox is best chewed on by doctors, statisticians, and amateur health science enthusiasts, not the average person who lights up. Doctors today are unanimous in their opposition to smoking, even as some smokers dodge Parkinson's disease, ulcerative colitis, and Saturday night desserts while playing the ultimate game of chicken with their hearts and lungs.

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Here Are The Ways Smoking May Actually Be "Good" For You

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The WHO calls tobacco "the single most preventable cause of death in the world"-but cigarettes may also provide a handful of paradoxical, if pyrrhic,

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many people disapprove of smokers

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A video on the killer known as smoking.

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A short flipbook animation about smoking

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smoking should be stopped

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This video explains how smoking affects a smoker's heart.

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A website about smoking and why you shouldn't smoke.

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Find information, resources, and support to help you get ready to quit tobacco and successfully stop smoking.

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This shows statistics about smoking.

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Smoking-related diseases killed 14,900 Australians in the financial year 2004-05. That's 40 preventable deaths every day. In the same period, smoking resulted in over 750,000 days spent in hospital and cost $670 million in hospital costs.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, most deaths resulting from tobacco smoking occurred in people aged 65 years or more. However, around one in five deaths occurred in the 35-64 years age group.

Smoking killed more men than women in the year 2004-05 (9,700 men compared to 5,200 women). Cancer was the number one cause of tobacco-related death in men (57 per cent) and women (51 per cent). Lung cancer accounted for around 75 per cent of cancers in men and 72 per cent of cancers in women. Lung cancer currently causes the most cancer deaths in Australia and this is due mainly to smoking.

The major tobacco-related diseases include cancer, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (lung disease).

Smoking behaviours

In 2016, around 14 per cent of people aged 18 years and over smoked. Of particular concern is the smoking rate among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, which in 2014-15 was reported to be 42 per cent among people aged 15 years and over - more than double that of the wider community.

Selected statistics from the 2016 National Drug Strategy Household Survey include:

In 2016, the male smoking rate was 16 per cent and the female smoking rate was 12 per cent (where current smoking included people who smoked daily and weekly).

Male smoking rates were higher in all adult age groups.

People aged 25-29 years and 40-49 years had higher smoking rates than other age groups, with a smoking rate of 18 per cent in both age groups.

People aged 70 years and over were least likely to smoke (6 per cent).

Daily smoking rates for Australians aged 18 and over have dropped from 20 per cent in 2001 to 13 percent in 2016.

People who have quit smoking outnumber people who currently smoke: in 2016, just over 24 per cent of Australians had quit smoking during their lifetime.

By 2016, 61 per cent of people who had ever smoked had quit.

Smoking in Victoria

The Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer estimates that in 2015, 14.1 per cent of Victorian adults aged 18 and over smoked regularly (on a daily or weekly basis). Also:

The smoking rate for men (16.5 per cent) was higher than for women (11.9 per cent).

People who had quit smoking greatly outnumbered people who currently smoked: 28.4 per cent of men and 23.7 per cent of women had quit smoking in Victoria.

Smoking rates were higher among people with lower education: 21.7 per cent of persons who had not completed year 12, compared to 12.7 per cent of people who had completed year 12 or tertiary education.

The 2014 survey of Victorian secondary school students estimated that 3 per cent of male and 4 per cent of female 12-15 year old students currently smoked. Among 16-17 year old students, 10 per cent of males and 12 per cent of females had smoked in the week before the survey. Alarmingly, the average age of adolescents taking up smoking is around 16 years old.

Comparative death rates for people who smoke

Smoking kills more Victorians every year than road accidents, alcohol and other drugs combined. Deaths due to tobacco use account for 89 per cent of all drug-caused deaths and around 11 per cent of deaths from all causes.

Death rates from tobacco-caused disease are higher among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and they are more likely to die from these diseases at a younger age.

The benefits of quitting smoking

Quitting smoking has immediate health benefits and dramatically reduces the risk of smoking-related diseases, whatever the person's age. Statistics include:

Quitting before 30 years of age reduces your risk of lung cancer by 90 per cent, compared to someone who continues to smoke throughout their life.

After 15 years of not smoking, your risk of stroke has reduced to close to that of a person who has never smoked.

Within two to five years of quitting, there is a large drop in your risk of heart attack and stroke.

Where to get help

Content Partner

This page has been produced in consultation with and approved by: Quit

Content on this website is provided for information purposes only. Information about a therapy, service, product or treatment does not in any way endorse or support such therapy, service, product or treatment and is not intended to replace advice from your doctor or other registered health professional. The information and materials contained on this website are not intended to constitute a comprehensive guide concerning all aspects of the therapy, product or treatment described on the website. All users are urged to always seek advice from a registered health care professional for diagnosis and answers to their medical questions and to ascertain whether the particular therapy, service, product or treatment described on the website is suitable in their circumstances. The State of Victoria and the Department of Health & Human Services shall not bear any liability for reliance by any user on the materials contained on this website.

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Smoking-related diseases killed 14,900 Australians in the financial year 2004-05. That's 40 preventable deaths every day. In the same period, smoking resulted in over 750,000 days spent in hospital and cost $670 million in hospital costs. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, most deaths resulting from tobacco smoking occurred in people aged 65 years or more.

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Facts about smoking from a government website.

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Read through a Fast Facts fact sheet that discusses diseases and death, costs and expenditures, cigarette smoking in the US, and the impact of smoking and tobacco use.

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50 reasons why people shouldn't smoke.

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Each year in the United States, there are more than 480,000 deaths caused by cigarette smoking. This is nearly one in five deaths. Find out some common and unknown facts about smoking and your health.

Negative Effects of Cigarette Smoking

1. Can Cause Lung Cancer

Smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer. Smokers are up to 30 times more likely to develop lung cancer. The longer you smoke, the higher your risk.

2. Can Cause Heart Disease

One out of every five heart disease deaths is directly related to smoking. The risk of developing this disease increases by two to four times for smokers.

3. Can Cause Diabetes

Smoking causes type 2 diabetes. People who smoke are 30 to 40 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than nonsmokers. For those who have diabetes, smoking makes this disease even harder to control.

4. Increases Risk of Liver Cancer

Smoking increases your risk of developing liver cancer. While not directly related, smoking accompanied with other disorders like hepatitis C or B dramatically increases the risk in people with the same conditions who don't smoke.

5. Can Cause Erectile Dysfunction

Smoking builds up plaque in the arteries and obstructs blood flow. This, in turn, makes getting blood from one place to another more complicated. Both men and women can suffer from this complication making sexual relations more difficult.

6. Can Cause Ectopic Pregnancy

An ectopic pregnancy is a pregnancy that occurs somewhere other than the womb. Most commonly, it happens when an egg is fertilized in the fallopian tube. This happens in about 1 in 100 pregnancies. Around 11 percent of these types of pregnancies can be directly associated to smoking.

7. Increases Risk of Vision Loss

Studies have shown that smoking increases the risk of cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and Dry Eye Syndrome.

8. Increases Risk of Tuberculosis

If you have been treated for tuberculosis in the past, smoking doubles your chance of getting tuberculosis again, studies have shown. This condition is called recurrent TB.

9. Increases Likelihood of Developing Rheumatoid Arthritis

Smoking increases your likelihood of developing rheumatoid arthritis. In those who are already at a risk for developing this disease, smoking makes it even higher.

10. Increases Fatality Rate of Colorectal Cancer

Those who smoke are more likely to die from colorectal cancer.

11. Secondhand Smoke Causes Thousands of Deaths

Secondhand smoke is classified as a cancer causing agent by the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Each year in the United States, secondhand smoke causes 42,000 deaths from heart disease, 3,400 deaths from lung cancer, worsening asthma and between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections.

12. Increases Medical Care Expenses

It was reported that $289 billion dollars was spent on medical care and other economic costs for smokers in one year in the U.S. alone.

13. Loss of Years of Life

People who smoke lose more than 10 years off of their life expectancy. Studies have shown that every cigarette takes 11 minutes off of your life.

14. Can Cause Stroke

Smoking makes the blood thicker and more likely to clot, increases the buildup of plaque and can damage blood vessels in the brain causing strokes. Secondhand smoke causes strokes in nonsmokers.

15. Increases Risk of Bladder Cancer

The number one risk factor for bladder cancer is smoking. It causes half of all bladder cancers. People who smoke are three times more likely to develop bladder cancer.

16. Increases Risk of Cervical Cancer

The risk of developing cervical cancer doubles in women who smoke. Smoking also harms the immune system and decreases the body's ability to fight off HPV.

17. Weakens Immune System

Smoking depresses antibodies and cells in the body that are supposed to help fight off invaders.

18. Can Cause Cleft Palates

Smoking during pregnancy increases the likelihood of having a baby with a cleft palate.

19. Decreases Effectiveness of Cancer Treatment

Smoking increases the chances that a cancer treatment will fail. The longer the period between quitting smoking and starting cancer treatment, the better the treatment works.

20. Increased Illness

Smoking increases your chances of picking up common illnesses. The symptoms for these illnesses are more severe if you are a smoker.

21. Visibly Ages You

Smoking makes your skin look older and more haggard. It also discolors your fingernails and teeth.

22. It's Expensive

Buying cigarettes costs money. No longer having to purchase cigarettes will let you spend the money on other things or save it. If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, and you buy them for the average price of $5.31 a pack, you will save $159.30 in one month. After one year, you will have saved $1,938.15. After 20 years, it's estimated that you will have saved over $71,000.

23. Lost Time

Smoking breaks take time away from other activities. Quitting alleviates the worry about when you will be able to smoke next and how long you will be absent from work, family or social events to smoke.

24. Causes Constant, Smoky Smell

Right now, everything in your life likely smells smoky. Quitting will make your clothes, kids, car and house smell better. Your sense of smell will also get better. Soon, you will be able to really smell things like flowers and food.

25. Negatively Impacts Family Health

Secondhand smoke is dangerous. It has been proven to cause many illnesses and diseases. Quitting will keep your family healthy in the long run. You don't want to be the reason a family member becomes sick.

26. Uses Animal Testing

Animals were used to test the dangers of smoking in the U.S. The animals tested include mice, dogs and monkeys.

27. Causes Poor Sleep Quality

Smoking keeps you from falling into a deep sleep. Studies have shown that smokers feel unrested in the morning.

28. Weakens Bone Strength

Studies have shown that smoking increases the risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures.

29. Increases Risk of Hearing Loss

People who smoke are 70 percent more likely to suffer from hearing loss.

30. Banned in Some Countries

England, France, New Zealand and Puerto Rico now only offer smoke-free bars and restaurants.

31. Increases Risk of Psoriasis

Smoking can increase the risk of developing psoriasis. For those who have psoriasis, smoking can often make the symptoms worse.

32. Can Cause Poor Circulation

Poor circulation is another symptom of smoking. Poor circulation can cause cold hands and feet. If you quit smoking, your body will feel warmer as circulation returns to normal.

33. Reduces Effect of Caffeine

When you smoke, your body requires almost twice as much caffeine as when you don't smoke. The caffeine levels in nonsmokers lasted for 6 hours while the levels in smokers only lasted for 3.5 hours according to a study.

34. Can Cause Complications from Oral Contraceptives

Smoking while taking some forms of contraceptives increases a woman's risk of cardiovascular side effects. Women who smoke can also experience pain in the stomach, side or abdomen as well as yellowing of the eyes and skin.

35. Increases Risk of Crohn's Disease

People who smoke have a higher risk of developing Crohn's Disease. Those who already deal with this disease will have more severe complications and a higher risk of surgery due to smoking.

36. Can Cause Acid Reflux

Smoking can cause more frequent heartburn. Smokers who have tried to reduce acid reflux with medications should consider quitting smoking.

37. Abnormally Increases Appetite

Studies have shown that smoking makes you eat more. Smokers tend to eat foods with more saturated fat and cholesterol and consume more alcohol. They also didn't have much fiber, vitamin C or vitamin E in their diets.

38. Causes Stains in Home

Nicotine and tar from cigarette smoke creates yellow stains on the walls of a smoker's home. These stains are often extremely hard to remove.

39. Can Cause Premature Baldness

Smoking can cause premature baldness and lower the age at which hair begins to turn gray.

40. Harmful to Pets

Not only can secondhand smoke harm your family and kids, but it can also hurt your pets. Studies have shown that secondhand smoke can cause oral cancer and lymphoma in cats, lung and nasal cancer in dogs, and lung cancer in birds.

41. More Expensive Life Insurance

Life insurance rates are 20-30% lower for nonsmokers.

42. Slower Healing Wounds

Smoking causes wounds to heal slower because it reduces the blood flow to the skin.

43. Increases Risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

The cancer causing chemicals in secondhand cigarette smoke also affect infants, damaging their lungs, hearts and brains.

44. Increased Side Effects from Menopause

Women who smoke have more hot flashes as they proceed through menopause. Other research has linked early menopause and worse symptoms to smoking.

45. Decreases Sperm Count

Smoking damages sperm and makes them less able to fertilize an egg.

46. Less Desirable in Relationships

Many dating sites have taken polls about whether or not people would date a smoker. A discovered that nearly 9 out of 10 (89 percent) of their of site's users would prefer not to date a person who smoked.

47. Increases Risk of Dementia

Smoking is a significant factor for vascular dementia.

48. Reduces Fertility

Women who smoke face a faster loss rate for their fertile eggs when they smoke.

49. Increases Risk of Onset Alzheimer's Disease

The mental decline in elderly smokers is five time faster than in elderly nonsmokers. Researchers have also found that tobacco can speed up the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

50. Increases Risk of Lupus

Studies have shown that smoking increases the risk of developing lupus, also known as lupus erythematosus. Quitting was shown to eliminate the risk.

Find Support to Stop Smoking Today

More than 16 million Americans live with a disease caused by smoking. Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of disease, death, and disability in the United States, according to the CDC. Quitting smoking is one of the most impactful steps you can take for your health and well-being. From reducing your risk of serious diseases to improving your quality of life and saving money, the benefits are undeniable. If you're ready to take the first step toward a smoke-free life, UnityPoint Health is here to support you every step of the way. Call your primary care provider or use the MyUnityPoint patient portal to get started today.

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Each year in the United States, there are more than 480,000 deaths caused by cigarette smoking. This is nearly one in five deaths. Find out some common and unknown facts about smoking and your health.

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11 facts about smoking

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Smoking is the cause of 1 in 5 deaths in the U.S. annually.

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facts about how smoking affects your health.

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Check out the top statistics about how tobacco and smoking cigarettes can seriously harm your health:

General Health Effect Facts

1. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death. ¹

2. Smoking leads to disease and disability. ¹

3. Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. ¹

4. Smoking can affect bone health. ⁵

5. Smoking causes negative effects on the body, including inflammation (swelling) and decreased immune function (your body's protection system). ⁵

6. Smoking affects the health of your teeth and gums and can cause tooth loss. ⁵

7. Smoking damages blood vessels and can make them thicken and grow narrower. ⁵

8. Smoking makes your heart beat faster and your blood pressure go up. ⁵

Men's Health
9. Smoking can affect men's sperm, which can reduce fertility and increase risks for birth defects and miscarriage (pregnancy loss). ⁵

10. Men with prostate cancer who smoke may be more likely to die from the disease than nonsmokers. ²

Women's Health
11. Women past childbearing years who smoke have weaker bones and are at greater risk for broken bones than women who never smoked. ⁵

Effects on Lifespan
12. Life expectancy for smokers is at least 10 years shorter than for nonsmokers. ⁷

13. Quitting smoking lowers your risk for smoking-related diseases and can add years to your life. ⁵

14. Quitting smoking before the age of 40 reduces the risk of dying from smoking-related disease by about 90%. ⁷

Statistics About Diseases Caused By Smoking

15. More than 16 million people already have at least one disease from smoking. ²

16. Smoking increases a person's risk of getting tuberculosis (a type of lung disease) and dying from it. ²

17. Smokers are 30% - 40% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than nonsmokers. ²

18. Smoking can increase your risk for cataracts (a type of eye disease). ⁵

19. Smoking can cause age-related macular degeneration (a type of eye disease). ⁵

20. Smoking is a cause of rheumatoid arthritis (joint swelling). ⁵

21. Smoking increases the risk for stroke, heart attack, vascular disease and aneurysm. ³

22. Smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to develop heart disease, stroke and lung cancer. ⁵

23. Even people who smoke fewer than five cigarettes a day can have early signs of cardiovascular disease (disease in the heart and blood vessels). ⁵

24. Estimates show smoking increases the risk of: ⁵

Coronary heart disease by 2-4 times

Stroke by 2-4 times

Developing lung cancer by 25 times

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) -a group of lung diseases that make it hard to breathe.
25. Nearly 8 out of 10 COPD deaths are a result of smoking. ²

26. Women smokers are up to 40 times more likely to develop COPD than women who have never smoked. ²

27. Smokers are 12-13 times more likely to die from COPD than nonsmokers. ⁵

Tobacco and Cancer Facts
28. Smoking can cause cancer almost anywhere in your body. ⁵

29. Tobacco use is linked with cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, cervix, kidney, ureter, bladder and bone marrow (leukemia). ³

30. Smoking causes many other types of cancer, including cancers of the throat, mouth, nasal cavity, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder and cervix, as well as acute myeloid leukemia. ²

31. Smokeless tobacco causes cancer of the mouth, esophagus and pancreas. ⁶

32. Cigarette smoking can be blamed for about one-third of all cancer deaths. ³

Lung Cancer
33. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the United States. ²

34. Smoking causes about 90% of all lung cancer deaths. ⁵

35. More women die from lung cancer each year than from breast cancer. ⁵

Tobacco Related Death Facts

36. Cigarette smoking kills more than 480,000 Americans each year. ⁴

37. Since 1964, more than 20 million Americans have died because of smoking. ²

38. Cigarette smoking increases risk for death from all causes in men and women. ⁵

39. Smoking is the leading cause of fire-related deaths-more than 600 deaths each year. ³

40. Smoking causes more deaths each year than the following causes combined: ⁵

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

Illegal drug use

Alcohol use

Motor vehicle injuries

Firearm-related incidents

41. More than 10 times as many U.S. citizens have died prematurely from cigarette smoking than have died in all the wars fought by the United States. ⁵

42. The risk of dying from cigarette smoking has increased over the last 50 years in the U.S. ⁵

Benefits of Quitting

The good news is that the benefits of quitting start right away. 8

After quitting:

Your heart rate drops back to normal within 20 minutes.

Lung function improves and risk of heart attack drops within 2-3 months.

Your risk of coronary heart disease is half of a smoker's within 1 year.

Your risk of having a stroke is reduced to that of a smoker's and risk of getting mouth, throat and esophageal cancer is half of a smoker's within 5-15 years.

Your risk of dying from lung cancer and getting bladder cancer is half of a smoker's within 10 years.

Your risk of coronary heart disease becomes the same as a nonsmoker's within 15 years.

Sources

1. "Fast Facts and Fact Sheets." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 9 February 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/ Accessed 20 May 2017.

2. "Tobacco Facts and Figures." BeTobaccoFree.gov. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. https://betobaccofree.hhs.gov/about-tobacco/facts-figures/ Accessed 20 May 2017.

3. "Tobacco, Nicotine and E-Cigarettes." NIDA For Teens. National Institute on Drug Abuse, 14 May 2017. https://teens.drugabuse.gov/drug-facts/tobacco-nicotine-e-cigarettes Accessed 20 May 2017.

4. "Burden of Tobacco Use in the U.S." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 11 April 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/data/cigarette-smoking-in-united-states.html Accessed 20 May 2017.

5. "Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 15 May 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/index.htm Accessed 20 May 2017.

6. "Smokeless Tobacco: Health Effects." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 1 December 2016. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/smokeless/health_effects/index.htm Accessed 20 May 2017.

7. "Tobacco-Related Mortality." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 1 December 2016. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality/index.htm Accessed 20 May 2017.

8. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2004.

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42 Facts About How Smoking Affects Your Health

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Check out the top statistics about how tobacco and smoking cigarettes can seriously harm your health: 1. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death. 1 2. Smoking leads to disease and disability. 1 3. Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. 1 4. Smoking can affect bone health.