As a person smokes tobacco from cigarettes or cigars, 4,000 harmful substances enter the body. These horrible effects are what spurred the creation of e-cigarettes which are smokeless and therefore do not carry these particular risks (but they carry others detailed below.) Here is the journey that smoke takes in your body and the effects it causes over time:

smoke enters your mouth and…

• the taste buds on your tongue and in your mouth become damaged, blocked and deadened, which may result in tongue cancer and eventual death
• your gums may bleed and the tissue between your teeth begins to erode leaving gaps and the greater chance for tooth decay, tooth loss and gum disease
• your teeth are stained yellow and brown
• your develop bad breath (understatement)

smoke moves down your throat along your trachea (windpipe) and into your lungs…

• smoke contains cancer causing substances that wreak havoc on your system leading to potential cancer of the trachea and lungs, and eventual death

smoke also enters other areas of your body….

• smoke also creeps into your esophagus – a tube that carries food from your throat to your stomach.  By irritating the lining, normal cells become cancer cells that eventually turn into tumors growing in your esophagus and blocking food passage.
• smoking also increases the chance of getting stomach ulcers, which are open sores that develop in the lining of the stomach and cause intense burning pain

smoke has a terrible effect on your heart….

• smoking causes your blood vessels to get smaller and smaller in diameter. This means it takes much more energy for your heart to pump blood. Your heart eventually becomes worn out from this heavy workload and develops a disease called Congestive Heart Failure. Sometimes a clot forms in the heart muscle and blocks blood supply to an area of the heart. This will cause a heart attack and maybe death
• smoking causes increased pressure (described above) that causes weak arteries in your brain to rupture – this is called a stroke – and results in potential brain damage and even death.

So now that you know the trip 4,000 smoking “passengers” take in your body, let’s focus on one very special passenger… an evil little fellow named “Tar.”