1) Smoking will make you anxious, irritated and depressed

While smoking a cigarette can make you feel energised momentarily, you begin to feel tired as the effects subside. That’s when the crave kicks in, which is no surprise since scientists have found that nicotine is as addictive as heroin, cocaine or amphetamines.

In other words, smoking physically changes your brain and when it stops getting the nicotine it is used to, you may feel anxious, irritable and depressed.

2) Your heart will be stressed and your blood sticky

Smoking raises your blood pressure and puts stress on your heart which weakens it and makes it less able to pump blood to other parts of your body. It also makes your blood sticky which is more likely to form blood clots that block flow to your heart, brain and lungs. Smoking lowers good cholesterol levels and raises blood pressure, which can result in stretching of the arteries and a buildup of bad cholesterol (atherosclerosis).

3) Less hair, poor vision and stretch marks ruin your looks

If you are concerned about how you look you should immediately quit smoking because it can not only cause premature thinning of your hair but can also impair your vision besides giving your face wrinkles and stretch marks — the last thing one would want on their face.

4) Smoking affects your sense of taste and disturbs digestive system

Smoking will slowly kill your taste buds and will depress your appetite so you may not be getting all the nutrients your body needs. A smoker is at great risk of developing oral problems. Tobacco use can cause gum inflammation (gingivitis) or infection (periodontitis). These problems can lead to tooth decay, tooth loss, and bad breath. Further, smoking contributes to many common disorders of the digestive system, such as heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), peptic ulcers, and some liver diseases.

5) Smoking gives you chronic cough

Smokers have a higher risk of developing respiratory infections which cause frequent colds and flu. In a condition called emphysema, the air sacs in your lungs are destroyed. In chronic bronchitis, the lining of the tubes of the lungs becomes inflamed. Over time, smokers are at increased risk of developing these forms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Years of lung irritation can give you a chronic cough with mucus.

6) It damages your ‘identity’

Our bodies are made up of cells which contain genetic material, or DNA, that acts as an instruction manual for cell growth and function and every single puff of a cigarette damages it. When the DNA is damaged, the instruction manual gets messed up and the cell can begin growing out of control. The body tires to repair the damage that smoking does to the DNA, but over time, smoking can wear down this repair system and lead to a cancer.

7) Smokers are at a higher risk of infertility

Smokers are at a higher risk of infertility and may encounter difficulties in achieving orgasm. While smoking can affect a man’s ability to get an erection due to restricted blood flow, it may also cause a premature menopause to women smokers. It also increases a woman’s risk of cervical cancer.

Women smokers experience more complications of pregnancy, including miscarriage, problems with the placenta, and premature delivery. Also, pregnant mothers who are exposed to secondhand smoke are also more likely to have a baby with low birth weight. Babies born to mothers who smoke while pregnant are at greater risk of low birth weight, birth defects, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

8) It gives you cancers of all sorts

A single cigarette contains over 4,800 chemicals which can cause cancer almost anywhere in your body including, bladder, blood (acute myeloid leukemia), cervix, colon and rectum (colorectal), esophagus, kidney and ureter, larynx, liver, oropharynx (includes parts of the throat, tongue, soft palate, and the tonsils), pancreas, stomach, trachea, bronchus, and lung. Smoking also increases the risk of dying from cancer and other diseases in cancer patients and survivors.