The negative effect of tobacco

Tobacco

Was in use long before European settlers arrived and introduced it to Europe, often uses for  sacred ceremonial practices among the American tribes it is of no surprise that tobacco did not take long to become popular in Europe soon after its introduction.

Tobacco is a product created from dried leaves of a plant called genus Nicotiana, most commonly used as a drug tobacco can also be used as a pesticide.

The consumption of Tobacco by chewing, smoking or any other way has been known to cause certain negative effects and is consider to be the single greatest cause of preventable death worldwide, the use of tobacco often leads to diseases to heart, lungs and liver.

Smoking is the most popular way of consuming tobacco and smoking has been known to increase the risk factor for:

Heart Attacks

Strokes

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(copd)

Lung cancer, 
Cancers of the larynx 
Pancreatic cancer

Also a cause of vascular disease

Hypertension

Smokers tend to have a High cholesterol , high Triglycerides and high LDL and lower HDL cholesterol when compared to non-smokers.

The smoke caused by smoking has several products that bind to a person’s DNA and cause genetic mutations, tobacco also contains Nicotine which is highly addictive, making it extremely difficult for most people to stop smoking but considering the damage it causes the concept of quit smoking is far more interesting than just a way to reduce your cholesterol levels.

However we cannot ignore the fact that to quit smoking will improve your cholesterol levels and your blood lipid profile will improve greatly, HDL and LDL ratio and triglycerides will benefit if you succeed making this probably one of the few effects from smoking that are reverse-able if you can stop smoking in time.

The dose and time period a person smokes before he quit smoking often determines the change for any of the above. Even standing next to a person who is smoking can be enough to cause adverse effects in people for all ages

The world health organization made a estimated of over 100million deaths in the course of the 20^th century alone caused by the use of smoking  the total since it became available in Europe is likely to be much higher. Here is a study that is worth reading  published as early as 1989.

Cigarette smoking and serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations: an analysis of published data.

To examine the association between the use of smoking cigarettes in adults humans and serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations from the results of 54 different studies that have been published by then show a remarkable difference in serum cholesterol, people that where smoking had a  higher cholesterol, higher LDL a much higher VLDL and higher Triglycerides, while HDL was lower  compared to non-smokers.

 The numbers are:

Nonsmoker                       Light smoker                  Heavy smoker

Cholesterol

0                                             +1.8/4.3%                          +4.3%

Triglycerides

0                                             +10.7/11.5%                      +18.0%

VLDL

0                                             +7.2/44.4%                        +39%

LDL

0                                             -1.1/+1.4%                         +11%

HDL

0                                             -4.6/-6.3%                          -8.9%

Apo lipoprotein AI

0                                             -3.7%                                    -5.7%

When combined with the present study the conclusion was that smokers as a group face an average overall excess risk of coronary artery disease of +70%, estimated that cholesterol in smokers may account for at least 9% of that excess risk. It also shows that the increase in risk is dose-dependent. 

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