Smoking

by dominicaldays
18.04.10
2:02 PM UTC

Filed in Costa Rica

Dr. Mauricio Esquivel Gamboa
Medical Doctor and Surgeon

When I studied medicine, I had the opportunity – for better or for worse – to serve in the Cardiovascular Department as part of my many rotational services in various departments. There, one specializes in the treatment and care of illnesses affecting the blood vessels. This is where I came in touch with the damage smoking can cause to the heart and the lungs. I came in contact with people who were receiving stationary treatment for various reasons, such as high blood sugar, high blood pressure, arterial problems, and the likes; all of them had problems with their veins and arteries, but the saddest thing was meeting those who were born completely healthy, without any history of illnesses, but who were there, waiting to have a foot or a leg amputated. Having to assist in these surgical procedures was some of the most tragic things I encountered. And they only reason they had to undergo these surgeries was because they had smoked tobacco. It was at this stage of my medical training that I began to understand that tobacco is more dangerous than it is made out to be, because it kills slowly, since it cuts into life slice by slice, so to speak. All of them wished they had never started smoking, but by that time it was simply too late.

This is why I want to emphasize some information regarding smoking which became known during World War One, when smoking was promoted to decrease soldiers’ appetite and because it had a calming effect on them. It wasn’t until the 1930s that the first scientific evidence began to show health problems related to the use of tobacco. Today, we know that cigarettes contain 4,027 chemicals of which 200 are poisonous and 60 cause cancer. The most harmful substances are, in fact, tar and nicotine. Experience shows that nicotine is – along with heroine and caffeine – the most addictive drug, and that it affects all bodily organs and can cause multiple symptoms. Children or teenagers who begin to smoke are stifled in their growth and women who use oral or injected contraceptives risk thrombosis (a clotting of the veins or arteries), skin tissue ages quicker and wrinkles are formed due to increased dehydration of the skin. Furthermore, it promotes cancer of the respiratory tracts (mouth, throat, larynx, or lungs) as well as the stomach, uterus, pancreas, the kidneys, the cervical column, and many more.

Women who smoke during pregnancies may encounter a series of problems, such as premature birth, underweight babies, unwanted abortions, or the death of the baby.

In conclusion, it may be said that smoking is one of the most addictive and harmful vices for one’s health. There exist only few effective treatments to giving it up, but they are very expensive and the best one – you guessed it – is voluntary abstinence and self-control.