How come do smokers suffer cancers comparing to non-smokers?
410193
you didnt learn anything in school, did you?
810990
Gee, that's like asking which is worse, being stabbed to death or being beaten to death?  The result is still the same.\n\nPeople often think cigars are safer because you don't (at least, you aren't supposed to) inhale the smoke.  But you are still exposing your lungs to the smoke in the room created by the lit cigar.  You are still burning your tastebuds, dulling your sense of smell and contaminating your mouth, lips, gums, teeth and fingers.  \n\nBy comparison, the cigarette is much smaller, lasts far less time and although it is inhaled directly into the lungs, it is still doing the same number on your mouth, lips, gums, teeth, fingers and tongue.  But even though the amount of time it takes to consume a cigarette may seem more appealing, cigarette smokers tend to smoke their cancer sticks much more frequently than when a cigar smoker lights up.  It's almost as if the cigarette smoker is trying to play catchup to the cigar smoker.  Neither is good for you.  Both can cause ulcers of the mouth and tongue - even if you never develop cancer.
350828
Nothing good! The nicotine causes a temporary feeling of well being, but it is addicting. There are also many other chemicals in it which are harmful. Inhaling these chemicals harms the lungs,organs that are a major detoxifier of the body. That's why smoking kills: the lungs are damaged and the bodies ability to detox itself is greatly diminshed=everything else being gradually poisoned in the body. Cancer is created from the damaged, mutant cells in the lungs...the cancer also spreads to other parts of the body via the circulatory system (capillaries in the lungs and surrounding tissues)...then the body is so toxic it breaks down completely-and dies.
177194
There is all sorts of conflicting data on this one, but here are a few sites with some info on studies:\n\nhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/141891.stm\nhttp://www.webmd.com/content/article/23/1728_57309\nhttp://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_2X_What_are_the_risk_factors_for_lung_cancer_26.asp\n\nI tend to lean toward the yes side, I just can't picture smoking being ok for the lungs, and the smoke does have carcinogens in it.
562593
Environment is easily the primary cause of lung cancer.  I'm not even aware of any genetic disorders that are associated with lung cancer.\n\nSmoking is the primary cause of lung cancer.  Before smoking was common, lung cancer was exceedingly rare.  Back in the early 1900's (1904 I believe), a doctor in the US found a man with lung cancer, and he wrote to all of his doctor friends to gather them so that they could have a part in this "once in a lifetime" chance to see a lung cancer patient.\n\nI wish I could photograph some of my textbooks to show you the correlation between smoking and lung cancer.  \n\nThe main causes of lung cancer are smoking, asbestos inhalation, and radon inhalation.  Each of these works via a completely different mechanism.  Smoking works by causing mutations in DNA with chemical carcinogens.  Asbestos works by causing excessive proliferation of certain lung cells, which increases the chance of a transcription error.  Radon works by emmitting alpha radiation, which causes DNA mutations by breaking DNA strands.  Radon then half-lifes into polonium, which adheres to the cells in your lungs and continues to emit radiation, causing more damage.  All three of these mechanisms have only become important within the last century.  Smoking was not popular until the 1940's or so, asbestos was not used prior to the 1950-60's or so, and radon accumulation in homes was not a problem before a similar timeframe.\n\nThere is really no contest between environmental and heredity effects on lung cancer.  Before smoking, asbestos, and radon, there was virtually no lung cancer at all.
728810
The American Cancer Society does more than help people cope with cancer, it helps people prevent it by lifestyle changes including smoking.\nCheck around their site beyond the link below for lots of great resources.
245547
Smoking KILLS\n\nEvery year hundreds of thousands of people around the world die from diseases caused by smoking.\n\nOne in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in middle age.\n\nTobacco smoke also contributes to a number of  cancers.\n\nThe mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily increases your heart rate and blood pressure, straining your heart and blood vessels. \n\nThis can cause heart attacks and stroke. It slows your blood flow, cutting off oxygen to your feet and hands. Some smokers end up having their limbs \namputated.\n\nTar coats your lungs like soot in a chimney and causes cancer. A 20-a-day smoker breathes in up to a full cup (210 g) of tar in a year.\n\nChanging to low-tar cigarettes does not help because smokers usually take deeper puffs and hold the smoke in for longer, dragging the tar deeper into their lungs.\n\nCarbon monoxide robs your muscles, brain and body tissue of oxygen, making your whole body and especially your heart  work harder. Over time, your airways swell up and let less air into your lungs.\n\nSmoking causes disease and is a slow way to die. The strain put on your body by smoking often causes years of suffering. Emphysema is an illness that slowly rots your lungs. People with emphysema often get bronchitis again and again, and suffer lung and heart failure.\n\nLung cancer from smoking  is caused by the tar in tobacco smoke. Men who smoke are ten times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers.\n\nHeart disease and strokes are also more common among smokers than non-smokers. \n\nSmoking causes fat deposits to narrow and block blood vessels which leads to heart attack. \n\nSmoking causes around one in five deaths from heart disease. \n\nIn younger people, three out of four deaths from heart disease are due to smoking.
1153135
There was a very recent study that showed that marijuana use did not cause lung cancer as cigarette smoking did.\n\nThere are also studies showing that it reduces the pain of glaucoma and cancer, and because it increases appetite, it helps when cancer patients are going through chemo.
1063571
There are many different kinds of cancer.  The accumulated effects of repeated sunburn/sunexposure can cause skin cancers.  Heavy drinking & alcoholism can cause pancreatic and liver cancers.  Smoking/second-hand smoke can cause lung cancer.  Over-exposure to radiation can cause cancer.  Existing cancers can cause other cancers.  It would take far too long to list all the causes and possible causes.  Some days I feel that everything causes cancer.\n\nAs far as prevention, there's no guarantee that anything you do will prevent it.  But you can reduce the chances.  Eat healthy, reduce or avoid red meat, moderate or no alcohol, don't smoke or linger around second-hand smoke, stay active and exercise.  Stay out of the sun as much as possible and wear sunscreen/block.  Any search on cancer prevention will give a long list of things you should and should not do.  But in the end, if you're genetically programmed to get it....\n\nDon't spend the rest of your life worrying about it.  Use common sense, live a healthy lifestyle and enjoy the life you have.
992805
They both are lethal long term. Smoking can be worse because it is harmful to women and their fetus if pregnant. Smoking causes many forms of cancer. Smoking in public is harmful to others. Smoking leaves behind a foul sent on clothes and areas heavily smoked in. Smoking causes constriction of arteries leading to many cardiologic and lung problems as well as other organ problems as a result. I can go on and on about smoking. Now McDonalds can cause some very serous health problems also. However, it largely depends on what you eat from McDonalds. In addition, daily exercise can help offset some of the detrimental effects of McDonalds food. Atherosclerosis is a major risk as well as obesity, which can all be offset by daily exercise. The documentary "Super Size It" shows how fast a heavy-duty diet from McDonalds can acutely damage your body. Damage once it is down to your body can be very difficult to recover from especially if you live a sedentary lifestyle. The tar and infiltrates that accumulate in your lungs from smoking will be expelled and your lungs will return to normal in about five years if you remain smoke free. However, cancer may have already have taken hold somewhere in the body. The same with a poor diet, many of the damage can be repaired over the course of years with the correct diet and exercise. However, once serous damage is done to the heart from arthrosclerosis there is no way to repair the damage to your heart. In short, smoking affects you and the others around you. A bad diet only affects you.\n\n\nHope this helps!
1027227
Although you have no genetic history, a history of smoking does put you at a more risk level for lung cancer.  Studies have shown that second hand smoke may actually be worse than smoking.  So, by already smoking in the past, you've already exposed your lungs to the carcenigens is tobacco.  Continuing to expose yourself to secondhand smoke puts you at even more risk.
36099
They ARE NOT!  Since cigar smoke is not inhaled into the lungs, you are at less risk for cancer of the throat, lungs, and emphysema.  However, your risk of developing cancer of the mouth is greatly exaberated.  Also, cigar smokers tend to smoke less than cigarette smokers, therefore reducing the amount of exposure to the carcinogens in tobacco smoke.  Cigarette filters often contain tiny grains of fiberglass, which are inhaled with the smoke.  These grains abrade the lining of the throat and lungs, thereby increasing the surface area of exposed cell walls for the toxins and nicottene to be absorbed in the blood stream.
1131373
The physical health risks associated with both cigarettes and  marijuana are caused by the same thing: the carcinogens, or cancer causing agents, in the smoke. Nicotine and THC are the drugs, respectively, ingested by the smoke. It has been shown in studies that an unfiltered ingestion of tobacco OR marijuana is roughly three times as harmful as a typical filtered cigarette. However, the average cigarette smoker smokes far more individual puffs in a given time period than the average recreational marijuana smoker. \n\nWhen looked at on a larger scale, cigarettes outnumber ALL other drugs, including narcotics, in related health problems and associated deaths. These statistics are precipitated by the popularity and highly addictive nature of cigarettes, as well what is generally considered ruthless, misleading and unethical advertising and business policy by the tobacco industry.
828483
I'm not a doctor or have any professional or eductional teachings of cancer. But I found out last year from the D.A.R.E. program at my son's school is that each time you smoke a cigarette, the chemicals that are in the smoke are drawn into your lungs and they adhere to the vili in the bronchial tubes. This tar substance lines the tubes and weighs heavy on the vili, hairlike tissue that is used to clean the air that enters the lung. The tar substance ends up lining the tubes and narrows them, like cholestrol in arteries, making the tubes smaller and smaller. This makes it harder for the lungs to inhale air and the lungs stop absorbing the oxygen they need to properly oxygenate the blood cells. Your lungs have to work harder to inhale oxygen and your blood cells carry less oxygen to all  the other organs. Also the tar substance will eventually close of some tubes all together and will less oxygen in the lung itself, lung tissue cells die off and are never replaced. Parts of your lung die, parts can't work properly and other parts form cancer cells.\n\nThis is part of the information that my son brought home from D.A.R.E. 2 years ago and I stopped smoking after reading this. I don't know how my damage my lungs are in or if I will end up with cancer some day from the 13 years of smoking I did do, but I do notice that I breath better, I don't cough or wease anymore and I have more energy. My son saved me.
15600
Smoking can cause lung cancer, but few people realize it is also a risk factor for many other kinds of cancer as well, including cancer of the mouth, voice box (larynx), throat (pharynx), esophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas, liver, cervix, stomach, colon and rectum, and some leukemias.\n\nSmoking increases the risk of lung diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. These progressive lung diseases - grouped under the term COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) - are usually diagnosed in current or former smokers in their 60s and 70s. COPD causes chronic illness and disability and is eventually fatal.\n\nSmokers are twice as likely to die from heart attacks as are nonsmokers. And smoking is a major risk factor for peripheral vascular disease, a narrowing of the blood vessels that carry blood to the leg and arm muscles.\n\nSmoking also causes premature wrinkling of the skin, bad breath, bad smelling clothes and hair, and yellow fingernails.\n\nFor women, there are unique risks. Women over 35 who smoke and use "the pill" (oral contraceptives) are in a high-risk group for heart attack, stroke, and blood clots of the legs. Women who smoke are more likely to have a miscarriage or a lower birth-weight baby.\n\nBased on data collected from 1995 to 1999, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently estimated that adult male smokers lost an average of 13.2 years of life and female smokers lost 14.5 years of life because of smoking.\n\nNo matter what your age or how long you've smoked, quitting will help you live longer. People who stop smoking before age 35 avoid 90% of the health risks attributable to tobacco. Even those who quit later in life can significantly reduce their risk of dying at a younger age.\n\n\nAdditional diseases caused by smoking are gingivitis, gangrene, and emphysema
635997
Smoking's a phase most of us all go through. If it isn't too late for you, try visiting a hospital cancer center. There will invariably be patients, emaciated, hairless cancer victims, with I.V.s attached, outside 'enjoying' their cigarettes. REALLY makes one think, doesn't it?
18075
Smoking dramatically increases your chance of getting lung cancer (amongst other cancers of the mouth and throat) but is not the ONLY cause of cancer. Sometimes cancer develops not due to smoking. Cigarettes contain cancer CAUSING agents.