The Experts Opinions

Published at 23 October, 2017.

Want to know what experts from various industry think about smoking? 

 

Doctor on: Mental Health and Wellbeing:

We'll be straight. We all know by now how much smoking damages your vital organs, including coating your lungs in sticky tar as well as filling arteries with chemicals such as arsenic, to name a few. In the UK, smoking rates among adults with depression are about twice as high as among adults without depression as it blocks the stimulant dopamine, which is the chemical which causes good moods. Research into smoking and stress has shown that instead of helping people to relax, smoking actually increases anxiety and tension. Nicotine creates an immediate sense of relaxation so people smoke in the belief that it reduces stress and anxiety. This feeling of relaxation is temporary and soon gives way to withdrawal symptoms and increased cravings.

Smoking reduces nicotine withdrawal symptoms, which are similar to the symptoms of anxiety, but it does not reduce anxiety or deal with the underlying causes.

Every year in the UK 70 million workdays are lost due to mental illness, including anxiety, depression and stress-related conditions. This means mental illness is the leading cause of sickness and absence from work.

 

Dentist on: Oral Health

Those who smoke are more likely to develop gum disease than non-smokers. This happens because smoking causes a lack of oxygen in the bloodstream so infected gums do not heal. This can accelerate the effects of gum disease, which can then lead to tooth loss. According to the NHS, more than 93% of oropharyngeal cancers (cancer in the gullet part of the throat) are caused by smoking, and if you smoke you are six times more likely to get oral cancer than non-smokers.

93% of oropharyngeal (cancer in the gullet of the throat) cancers are caused by smoking. 

 

Optician on: Sight Loss 

Smokers are up to four times more likely than non-smokers to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and smokers with a genetic predisposition to AMD are eight times more likely to get the condition. We know now thanks to extensive research that smoking creates harmful effects of smoking on eyesight, particularly in the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) - one of the UK's leading causes of sight loss - and cataracts.

People are shocked to learn that smoking causes blindness. It damages the tissue of the eye and creates serious problems. 

 

Dermatologist on: Skin

Your skin is the biggest organ of your body and needs to breathe. Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide, which displaces the oxygen in your skin and nicotine, which reduces blood flow, leaving skin dry and discoloured. Cigarette smoke also depletes many nutrients, including vitamin C, which helps protect and repair skin damage. 

Cigs depletes many nutrients your skin craves, including vitamin C, which helps protect and repair skin damage.

 

If you're wanting to know more from reliable sources you can trust, our trained advisors are second none. At Yorkshire Smokefree, we offer a FREE NHS service which we tailor for each of our clients to achieve the best journey for ditching the cigs once and for all! Take a look at our website here for more information: http://yorkshiresmokefree.nhs.uk/