Being young, wild and free is what youth live for. In the process, habits are picked up and we tend to grow with them. Smoking for one, I understand that most young smokers do not even know why they started smoking, while some still blame it friendships and trying to fit in. Truth be told, smoking will always be bad no matter how one looks at it. Once upon a time you could do just fine without a smoke, for that unfortunately there is not a happy ending. Smoking is a slow painful death.
1. Bad Skin Tone
Smoking chronically deprives the skin of oxygen and nutrients. So some smokers appear pale, while others develop uneven colouring. These changes can begin at a young age.
2. Lines Around The Lips
Smoking delivers a one-two punch to the area around your mouth. First, you have the smoker’s pucker. Smokers use certain muscles around their lips that cause them to have dynamic wrinkles that non-smokers do not. Second, you have the loss of elasticity. Together, these factors can lead to deep lines around the lips.
3. Sagging Of Skin And Breasts
There are more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, and many of them trigger the destruction of collagen and elastin. These are the fibres that give your skin its strength and elasticity. Smoking or even being around second-hand smoke degrades the building blocks of the skin. The consequences include sagging skin and deeper wrinkles.
4. Damaged Teeth And Gums
Yellow teeth are one of the most notorious effects of long-term smoking, but the dental damage doesn’t stop there. People who smoke tend to develop gum disease, persistent bad breath, and other oral hygiene problems. Smokers are twice as likely to lose teeth as non-smokers.
5. Stained Fingers
Think your hand looks sexy with a cigarette perched between your fingers? If you’ve been smoking for a while, take a good look at your fingernails and the skin of your hands. Tobacco can actually stain the skin and nails, as well as the teeth. The good news is these stains tend to fade when you quit smoking.
6. Reproductive Problems
Women who smoke have a tougher time getting pregnant and giving birth to a healthy baby. Cigarettes have been linked to fertility problems. And smoking during pregnancy raises the odds of having a miscarriage, premature birth, or delivering a low-birth-weight infant.
7. Cigarette Stench
Quitting gets rid of the lingering smell of tobacco in your breath, hair, and clothes. The toxic odor is a turnoff to non-smokers and can even harm people around you, especially small children.
8. Erectile Dysfunction
If you have been finding it difficult to maintain an erection of late, it’s probable your cigarettes are to blame. The chemicals present in cigarettes also alter the way the blood vessels around your penis expand and can lead to the formation of blocks in the arteries lowering the amount of blood that rushes to the penis when aroused. Moreover, nicotine is known to affect the blood vessels supplying the penis directly, making it difficult for you to have and maintain an erection.
9. Low Libido
A condition commonly associated with older men, premature ejaculation is quite commonly seen in younger men who smoke. That is because the habit leads to a lack of blood flow, lowered sensation in the penis, heart disease and lack of stamina. All these factors put together lead to the lack of proper function of the male reproductive system, causing premature ejaculation
10. Blindness
Thought smoking only affects your lungs? Well, here is an eye opener for you (pun intended); smoking also affects your vision. According to the CDC smoking increases one’s risk of suffering from cataracts, age related macular degeneration and optic nerve damage and can actually make you go blind.
