Now I know that all of you smokers out there know darned well that smoking isn’t good for you, so I’m not going to go on and on about the main problems that smoking can cause you, these things are already well documented, but I will say this; you can eat five portions of fruit and veg a day and exercise regularly, but healthy behaviour means little if you continue to smoke.

People have been very well aware for many years now of the main health problems brought on by smoking. But that said, here are a number of other health issues and facts that many people are simply not aware of:

There are nearly 4000 chemical compounds in every single cigarette that you smoke, and of these, around 400 are toxic to your body. The tip of a cigarette burns at 700 degrees centigrade, whilst the core burns at 60. This combined heating and burning process turns the tobacco into various toxins (poisons, effectively) which is then sucked toward the butt as you inhale. If you smoke a cigarette right up until the filter, this is where you get a much higher level of toxins into your body.

The products that are most damaging are:

1) Tar, a carcinogen (substance that causes cancer)

2) nicotine is addictive and increases cholesterol levels in your body

3) carbon monoxide reduces oxygen in the body

The damage caused by smoking is influenced by:

1) How many cigarettes you smoke

2) Whether the cigarette has a filter or not

3) In what way has the tobacco has been prepared

More recent research has shown that smoking reduces life expectancy by seven to eight years and of the 300 people who die every day in the UK as a result of smoking, many are now comparatively young smokers.

The number of people under the age of 70 who die from smoking-related diseases exceeds the total figure for deaths caused by breast cancer, AIDS, traffic accidents and drug addiction.

The more cigarettes you smoke in a day, and the longer you’ve smoked, the higher your risk of lung cancer (OK, you knew that one but I thought I’d sneak it in anyway as it’s kind of important). Similarly, the risk rises the deeper you inhale and the earlier in life you started smoking. For ex-smokers, it takes approximately 15 years before the risk of lung cancer drops to the same as that of a non-smoker.

Oral cancers (cancers of the mouth) are four times more common in smokers than non smokers, a fact that many smokers are unaware of. A disease called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is also affected very badly by smoking, which is responsible for 80 percent of cases.

It’s estimated that 94 per cent of 20-a-day smokers have some emphysema when the lungs are examined after death, while more than 90 per cent of non-smokers have little or none. COPD typically starts between the ages of 35 and 45 when lung function starts to decline anyway.

Lung fuction declines naturally with age, but when combined with smoking it drops about three times faster, and then breathlessness begins. Severe cases can end up on permanent oxygen before dying a slow and painful death from being unable to breathe.

Here’s one that I bet you guys didn’t know about (at least, not until it was too late!). For men in their 30s and 40s, smoking increases the risk of erectile dysfunction (ED) by about 50 per cent. Erection can’t occur unless blood can flow freely into the penis, so these blood vessels have to be in good condition. Smoking can damage the blood vessels and cause them to degenerate; nicotine narrows the arteries that lead to the penis, reducing blood flow and the pressure of blood in the penis.

I can’t stress this enough, but this a serious problem for you guys out there, not only for the obvious reason (as I’m sure you are with me there…). If you are a smoker and begin to have problems achieving or maintaining an erection you should go and see your doctor. A problem with the blood vessels in the penis could also mean that damage has been done to vessels in other parts of the body too.

If all this isn’t enough for you, then I’m going to get down and dirty…it’s guilt trip time. Did you know that the smoke that you do not inhale, the stuff that is released by your cigarette between puffs, carries an even higher risk than the smoke that you inhale. Think about what that means for your partner, kids, non smoking friends, etc,…

Children who grow up in a home where one or both of their parents smoke have twice the risk of getting asthma and asthmatic bronchitis. They also have a higher risk of developing allergies. Infants under two years old are more prone to severe respiratory infections and cot death.

It has been proven that the risk of lung cancer is increased amongst people who smoke ‘passively’ but as yet there is no proof of whether the risk of heart disease is also increased. You can be sure though, that you can look forward to a much healthier old age if you can stop smoking.

Please do yourself and all those who love you (actually those who don’t but have to be near you when you are polluting the air as well) a huge favour. There are 100’s of stop smoking programmes out there to help you, so quit smoking NOW!