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General Health Articles
Smoking and Influenza
Influenza or flu is an acute
viral infection of the respiratory tract,
occurring in isolated cases, epidemics and
pandemics. It can cause mild to severe illness,
and at times can lead to death. Smokers are
more prone to the threat of influenza because
smoking is related to chronic coughing and
sneezing and respiratory droplets formed during
the process is the medium through which the
influenza virus get transmitted to others.
Smoking is a process where
nicotine is inhaled and absorbed into the
body. Nicotine is a poisonous, addictive chemical
found in tobacco. At present, smoking is prevalent
among everyone from children to adults.
Smoking deteriorates nearly
every organs of the body and reduces the health
of smokers making it susceptible to diseases
caused by influenza. Influenza infection is
more common among smokers in comparison to
non smokers. Immune system of the body becomes
weak due to smoking and becomes unable to
produce antibody to fight the antigen at the
time of invasion, so, they are likely to fall
prey to all the respiratory diseases. It is
the reason of higher mortality rate for smokers
than nonsmokers from influenza.
Some researches suggest that
the illness of one fourth of young and healthy
population infected with influenza is attributed
by smoking. Various grave diseases which is
caused by smoking includes chronic bronchitis,
coronary artery diseases and other forms of
heart disease, emphysema, gastroesophageal
reflux disease, lung cancer etc. Nicotine
which is present in tobacco is responsible
for some other diseases like erectile dysfunction
or impotency, gray hair and baldness, high
blood pressure and circulation problems, infertility
in men and women, osteoporosis and increased
risk of bone fracture.
Quitting smoking is the first
measure to prevent influenza and it will enhance
the life expectancy. It lowers the possibility
of having heart attack, stroke, or cancer.
Following measures can be
adopted to quit smoking successfully:
- Visit your doctor, seek required advice
and get proper medication. (Generic Zyban
is an effective drug than sugar pills
in helping patients stop smoking.)
- Share your desire with your family
members and get support and encouragement
from them.
- Coffee, tea and alcohol are well-known
triggers for smokers, so try to stay away
from it, instead try some fruit juices.
- Try to bye some good magazines, perfumes
and clothes with the money which you generally
used to waste buying cigarettes.
- Quitting smoking has immediate, as
well as long-term health benefits. So,
it’s better and urgent to quit smoking,
and you should try it today.
