Health Risks: Smoking and Poor Diet

Smoking

• Tobacco smoking is the practice of burning tobacco and ingesting the smoke.
• Forms of smoking include cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, shisha, e-cigarettes and vaping.
• Some chemicals found in tobacco smoke include: nicotine (the addictive drug), hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, lead, arsenic, ammonia, radioactive elements, benzene, carbon monoxide, tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
• Cigars contain as much tobacco as an entire pack of cigarettes.
• Regular cigarettes contain tobacco, added chemicals, a filter, and a paper covering.
• Smokeless tobacco, like snus, is marketed as a less harmful alternative to cigarettes.

Poor Dietary Habits

• There are three principles of good nutrition: adequacy, balance, and variety.
• Underconsumption and overconsumption of unhealthy food, drinks, and a low-fiber, high-fat, high-salt, and high-sugar diet are all detrimental to health.
• Effects of poor dietary habits include malnutrition, stress, tiredness, sleep deprivation, weak brain function, indigestion, and heart problems.
• Causes include: learning from parents or guardians with unhealthy eating habits, families not having meals together, busy schedules, lack of desire to eat healthy food, poverty, emotional and mental conditions.

Sedentary Lifestyle

• Occurs when an individual lacks the recommended level of regular physical activity, or if someone is physically inactive.
• Physical inactivity causes increased risk of certain cancers, anxiety and depression, cardiovascular diseases, coronary heart disease, obesity, a decrease in skeletal muscle mass, and high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Types of Diseases Associated With Unhealthy Lifestyles

• Cardiovascular Disease (leading cause of death in the Philippines):
  • Arteriosclerosis: hardening and thickening of arteries. Some types are natural with aging.
  • Atherosclerosis: deposition of fat on arterial walls leading to plaque buildup.
  • Coronary Heart Disease: narrowed or blocked coronary arteries (blood pathway to heart muscles).
    • Risk factors include: smoking, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, age, obesity, physical inactivity
  • Heart Attack: heart muscle failure due to lack of blood flow.
  • Angina Pectoris: chest pain from narrowed coronary arteries due to insufficient oxygen for the heart.
  • Heart Rhythm Abnormalities (Arrhythmia): irregular heart rhythm due to faulty electrical conduction system.
  • Congestive Heart Failure: the heart is not able to or below its normal capacity to pump blood, causing liquid to accumulate in the lungs and other areas of the body.
• Cancer: uncontrolled cell division.
  • Tumors can be benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous).
  • Malignant tumors spread to invade and destroy nearby tissues (metastasis).
  • Benign tumors do not invade other body parts, but can be harmful if they obstruct normal tissues.
  • Categories:
    • Carcinoma: invasive malignant tumor from epithelial tissue (skin, breast, uterus, prostate, lung, stomach, colon, rectum, etc.)
    • Sarcoma: cancer of connective or supportive tissue (muscle, bone, fat, blood vessels, cartilage)
    • Lymphoma: cancer of lymphatic or immune system tissue
    • Leukemia: cancer of the blood or bone marrow
• Diabetes (Diabetes Mellitus): body unable to produce or effectively use insulin.
  • Insulin: a hormone produced in the pancreas to regulate glucose utilization.
  • Resistance to insulin can lead to impaired glucose uptake.
  • Diabetes impairs several organs, leading to kidney damage, blindness, and atherosclerosis.
  • Type 1 Diabetes: body produces little or no insulin (insulin-dependent)
  • Type 2 Diabetes: body produces insulin, but cannot use it (non-insulin dependent)
  • Gestational Diabetes: occurs in some pregnant individuals.
• Chronic Respiratory Disease (COPD): chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Affects airways and lungs.
  • Symptoms: breathlessness, chronic cough, excessive mucus production.
  • Risk Factors: tobacco smoking, indoor air pollution, outdoor air pollution, occupational dusts and chemicals.