Smoking can cause long-term negative effects on the body, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

Smoking is dangerous to your health. It can harm nearly every organ in your body and increase your risk of certain health conditions like glaucoma, cancer, and lung disease.

It can also increase inflammation throughout your body and negatively affect your immune system, making you more susceptible to infection.

The good news is quitting smoking can reverse many of these effects on your body.

Learn more about the harmful effects of smoking on the body.

A well-studied link also exists between smoking and many types of cancer. Smoking can increaseTrusted Source your risk of developing cancer almost anywhere in your body.

If you quit smoking, the risk of developing most of these types of cancers decreases in about 10 to 20 yearsTrusted Source, depending on the type of cancer. However, your risk will still be higher than that of people who have never smoked.

One of the ingredients in tobacco is the mood-altering drug nicotine. Nicotine is habit-forming and highly addictive. It is one reason why people find it so difficult to quit smoking.

Nicotine reaches your brain in seconds and can energize you for a while. But as the effect wears off, you may feel tired and crave more. Physical withdrawal from nicotine can impairTrusted Source your ability to think and increase feelings of anxiety and depression.

Vision

Smoking long-term can affect your vision and optic nerve. It may lead you to develop certain conditions that affect the eyes. These can include:

Respiratory system

Smoking damages the airways, air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs, and cilia, which are tiny hair-like structures that prevent dirt and mucus from entering your lungs.

Lung damage

Smoking can causeTrusted Source lung damage and lead to:

  • permanent lung tissue loss
  • a chronic cough
  • damage to the respiratory system
  • increased chance of developing certain infections that affect the lungs, like tuberculosis and pneumonia

Cancer risk

People who smoke are 20 timesTrusted Source more likely than nonsmokers to be diagnosed with lung cancer and are at higher riskTrusted Source for chronic nonreversible lung conditions such as:

Withdrawal from tobacco products can cause temporary congestion and respiratory discomfort as your lungs and airways begin to heal. Increased mucus production right after quitting smoking may be a positive sign that your respiratory system is recovering.

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Medical Infographic by Bailey Mariner

According to the CDC, 1 in 4 deathsTrusted Source in the U.S. result from cardiovascular disease caused by cigarette smoking.

Smoking can damageTrusted Source the cardiovascular system, including your:

  • heart
  • arteries
  • blood vessels

Nicotine causes blood vessels to tighten, which restricts the flow of blood. Smoking also raises blood pressure, weakens blood vessel walls, and increases your risk of blood clots.

This can raise your risk for cardiovascular disease.

Secondhand smoke

Smoking impacts your cardiovascular health and also affects the health of those around you who don’t smoke. Exposure to secondhand smoke carries the same risk to a nonsmoker as someone who does smoke.

Smoking cigarettes can affect your skin, hair, and nails.

Skin

Substances in tobacco smoke can change the structure of your skin. This may contributeTrusted Source to:

  • premature skin damage associated with aging
  • wrinkles
  • delayed wound healing
  • developing hidradenitis suppurativa
  • developing psoriasis
  • developing certain types of skin cancer

Smoking can also increaseTrusted Source the risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma (skin cancer) on the lips.

Hair

There’s also a linkTrusted Source between smoking and androgenic alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss in males. Smoking causes hair loss due to:

Nails

It may also affect your fingernails and toenails and increase the likelihood of fungal nail infections.

Cigarette smoking can affect the digestive system in multiple ways.

Cancer risk

Smoking increasesTrusted Source the risk of cancer in the organs of the digestive system. This can include cancer of the:

  • mouth
  • throat
  • larynx
  • esophagus
  • stomach
  • pancreas
  • colon and rectum

Type 2 diabetes

Smoking also has an effect on insulin, making it more likely that you’ll develop insulin resistance. People who smoke cigarettes have a 30% to 40%Trusted Source greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and its complications.

Type 2 diabetes tends to develop faster in people who smoke than people who do not smoke, as it may be harder to control.

Periodontal disease

Smoking can raise your riskTrusted Source for periodontal disease or disease affecting the gums. This happens because smoking causes inflammation around the teeth and increases your risk for bacterial infections. The gums may become swollen and bleed (gingivitis) and eventually begin to pull away from the teeth (periodontitis).

Quitting smoking

The good news is that quitting smoking can reduce many risk factors for the conditions and diseases mentioned above.

If you smoke and are thinking about quitting, visit our smoking cessation resource center, which has tips for how to stop smoking, information on smoking cessation therapies, and more.

Smoking while pregnant may causeTrusted Source babies to be born with underdeveloped lungs.

Children whose parents or caregivers smoke cigarettes may also experience certain health conditions at a higher rate than children whose caregivers do not smoke. These can include:

Smoking cigarettes increases your risk for health conditions that can affect the whole body.

But quitting smoking reduces many of these risks. It also has both short and long-term benefits. Since smoking affects every body system, finding a way to quit can help you live a longer and healthier life.