Cancer Buddies of Smoking

Smoking causes a lot of ills to the human body, but there is nothing like cancer, when it comes to scaring the heck out of the average human. Much has been said about how many minutes in a person's lifetime a single cigarette is capable of claiming. Not to mention how second hand smoke can be even more damaging to unsuspecting recipients. The health risks caused by cigarette smoking are not limited to smokers. Exposure to secondhand smoke, or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), significantly increases the risk of lung cancer and heart disease in nonsmokers, as well as several respiratory illnesses in young children. (Secondhand smoke is a combination of the smoke that is released from the end of a burning cigarette and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Institute of Environmental Health Science’s National Toxicology Program, and the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have all classified secondhand smoke as a known human carcinogen—a category reserved for agents for which there is sufficient scientific evidence that they cause cancer .  

A list of BIg C's I hope should get a smoker to stop and think for a while and hold lighting up that next stick for maybe, a few minutes after reading this. Then probably, proceed with the forbidden habit yet again, well, probably a little later than the usual interval time that he or she is used to, if the illustrations would actually succeed to bother at all

These following cancers have been studied to have certain links or are actually attributed largely to smoking as the major risk factor;

The Bladder is the organ that holds the urine.  Smoking increases the risk of developing bladder cancer nearly fivefold. As many as 50% of bladder cancers in men and 30% of in women may be caused by cigarette smoking.  On early stage cases of bladder cancer, a mode of treatment would be to resect the bladder via the urethra, a tiny tube that conveys urine from the bladder to the meatus, basically an opening where you see urine coming out.  A cutting instrument is inserted through the urethra to remove the bladder tumor.  On some cases the bladder is removed all together and if your the few lucky ones you get to have an ileal conduit,  a small urine reservoir that is surgically created from a small segment of bowel. People who have had an ileal conduit need to wear a urine collection appliance outside their body at all times. Nice!

Cigarette, cigar, or pipe smokers are six times more likely than nonsmokers to develop oral cancers. Oral cancer appears as a growth or sore in the mouth that does not go away.

Approximately half of people with oral cancer will live more than 5 years after diagnosis and treatment. If the cancer is detected early, before it has spread to other tissues, the cure rate is nearly 75%. Unfortunately, more than half of oral cancers are advanced at the time the cancer is detected. Most have spread to the throat or neck. Approximately 25% of people with oral cancer die because of delayed diagnosis and treatment.

Cervical cancer is cancer that starts in the cervix, the lower part of the uterus (womb) that opens at the top of the vagina. Carcinogens from tobacco increase the risk for cervical cancer, and women who smoke have about double the chance of a non-smoker to develop cervical cancer.

A hysterectomy (removal of the uterus but not the ovaries) is often performed for cervical cancer that has not spread. In more extreme cases a procedure called a pelvic exenteration might be done, all of the organs of the pelvis, including the bladder and rectum, are removed. Neat!

Esophageal cancer is a malignant (cancerous) tumor of the esophagus, the muscular tube that moves food from the mouth to the stomach. Smoking is again, a major risk factor together with alcohol consumption. Experts say that the best ways to prevent cancer of the esophagus are to quit (or never start) using tobacco and to limit the use of alcohol.

Now, I could just surmise as to the mode of treatment on this particular cancer, i just couldnt imagine that right now. I mean how great is it to have a part of one's esophagus removed? 

The larynx is an organ at the front of your neck. It is also called the voice box. Cancer of the larynx is the most common form of Head & Neck cancer and accounts for 3.5% of all new cancer cases worldwide. Smoking again is a wide known culprit. Surgical treatment options could render a patient to lose his or her voice.

Smoking still is the undisputed number one cause of lung cancer, with about 90% of lung cancers arising as a result of tobacco use. The risk of lung cancer increases with the number of cigarettes smoked over time. Among those who smoke two or more packs of cigarettes per day, one in seven will die of lung cancer.

Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds, many of which have been shown to be cancer-causing, or carcinogenic. The two primary carcinogens in tobacco smoke are chemicals known as nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The risk of developing lung cancer decreases each year following smoking cessation as normal cells grow and replace damaged cells in the lung. In former smokers, the risk of developing lung cancer begins to approach that of a nonsmoker about 15 years after cessation of smoking.  It's never too late my friend..

I understand that smoking is like one of the hardest habits to avoid or quit all together. But I have seen people who have gathered enough courage and strength to sustain that will power to just do it. Driven mostly by the desire to live longer and healthier and most of all, be able to spend more days with the family they love and not to be able to miss out on what more life has to offer.

So before you will be at greater risk with living with the dreaded Big C, Why not try cutting on the number of sticks you ought to pollute your body and environment for the remainder of the day? All it takes really is one big steadfast decision.