5 ways smoking kills

At age 23, Sarah* has been smoking for 11 years. Two years after she began to smoke heavily, she noticed a decrease in her athletic ability. “I went from being first string basketball to second string basketball,” says Sarah, whose symptoms continue to progress. “In terms of cardio capacity, the times I’ve tried to get in shape it’s a lot harder—I sound awful. I start hacking and wheezing.”

Unfortunately, if Sarah doesn’t quit, there are dozens of conditions that she may develop as early as 30 years old. Here are five cigarette side effects that would make anyone think twice about lighting up:

1. Smoking can make you blind.
According to studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association, smokers and ex-smokers are two to three times more likely to develop macular degeneration, which is an irreversible form of blindness. Countless other studies confirm that smoking affects eyesight. Researchers say that smoking restricts blood flow to the eyes and can cause not only macular degeneration, but also cataracts (clouding of the lenses).

2. Smoking can destroy your smile.
We don’t mean because your teeth will get stained (although that will happen, along with bad breath and wrinkled skin). We’re talking about tooth loss. Cigarette smoke damages your gums, potentially causing gum disease and eventual tooth loss. Smoking can also give you oral cancers, so you might lose other parts of your mouth, including your tongue and lips. But you may not have to live long with half a face; Health Canada statistics show that in 1994, 1,319 smokers over the age of 34 died from oral and esophageal cancers.

3. Smoking can make you infertile.
If having children is part of your future plans, be warned – male and female smokers are more likely to be infertile. A study published in the Journal of Biosocial Science also states that women who smoke take significantly longer to become pregnant than women who never smoke or who stop smoking a year before trying to conceive.

4. Smoking can lead to permanently broken bones.
Bones tend to thin with smoking, which eventually causes osteoporosis. The American Council on Science and Health states that the bone minerals that are lost with osteoporosis can never be fully recovered. Osteoporosis leads to easily broken bones that often don’t heal.

5. Smoking can take your breath away.
Smoking is the single largest cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which, according to the Canadian Lung Association, is the fifth most common cause of death in North America. This disease is a combination of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, which means that you not only can suffer from bronchitis for years at a time, but your airways are narrowed, making it hard to breathe. COPD affects smokers as young as 40 years of age and cannot be cured. Ironically, one of the main treatments for each of these diseases is quitting smoking, so you will most likely be forced to break her habit at some point. The bottom line is simple: If you don’t smoke, don’t start. And if you do smoke, talk to your doctor about quitting. Quitting isn’t easy and may take several tries, but dealing with a severe or fatal condition before reaching middle age will be much harder.

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