Almost everybody knows that smoking can cause heart disease and lung disease along with several other types of cancers. These are the more serious side effects of smoking that should propel smokers to quit smoking. Other side effects of smoking focus mainly on the path of the smoke as smokers inhale it such as the mouth and the lungs.

Lesser Known Side Effects of Smoking

Smoking affects our production of collagen and elastin. Collagen is one of the primary factors for elastic skin and is also a common element in tendons and ligaments. The decrease of collagen production can impair the healing of your tendons and ligaments as well as make them prone to injury. In connection to collagen and elastin, smoking also increases our susceptibility to wrinkles and sagging skin.

Nicotine, one of the main ingredients of cigarettes, can affect the blood vessels by constricting them. One of the side effects of smoking is the limiting of the supply of blood and vital oxygen to our parts of the body and bones. If a smoker breaks a bone, the healing of the bone will take longer because of the decrease of blood and oxygen supply to it.

Studies have also brought to light another side effect of smoking which is connected to age related blindness. Recent studies have shown that age related macular degeneration is most likely to happen to smokers than those who do not smoke. Many of the side effects of smoking are related to the circulatory system and the inability of the veins and blood vessels to supply enough blood all over our body.

Other side effects of smoking are the dulling of our taste buds and the decrease of our sense of smell. Tar, another ingredient in cigarettes and other tobacco products, has the ability to coat out mouth, taste buds and esophagus. Once it coats our taste buds, it lessens the taste buds’ ability to sense taste and flavor. The same side effects of smoking can also be attributed to the dulling of our olfactory nerves which can also affect our perception of food.

Although these side effects of smoking are not life threatening they can still affect your life negatively. There are studies that show a reverse of some of the side effects of smoking when the individual quits smoking. The reversal may take some time but there is improvement especially in the circulatory system.