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What to expect
Conditions caused or made worse by smoking
- Coronary heart disease.
- Atherosclerosis - a build up of fatty deposits and loss of elasticity in the artery walls which can lead to strokes, peripheral vascular disease and gangrene and aneurysms.
- Buerger's disease, which can also lead to gangrene.
- Cancer - lung, mouth, nose and throat, larynx, oesophagus, pancreas, bladder, stomach, leukaemia, lymphoma, kidney.
- Chronic bronchitis, emphysema and other lung diseases.
- Recurrent infections in the airways and damage and loss of efficiency in the lungs.
- Peptic ulcers (in the stomach and duodenum) - increase both in incidence and the time they take to heal.
- Defective vision.
- Reduced fertility and male impotence.
For men and women who smoke, the risks from coronary heart disease, lung cancer, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and other smoking-related lung diseases are similar.
However, women who smoke also increase their risk of:
- spontaneous abortion and other problems during pregnancy;
- low birth weight babies;
- mortality during labour;
- menopause two to three years early;
- heart attacks and strokes if they also use oral contraception (ten times more likely than non-smokers);
- increased risk of osteoporosis - the loss of bony tissue, resulting in brittle bones that are liable to fracture.
Smoking is especially bad for your heart. It makes the coronary arteries narrower and encourages blockages in them. It also damages your lungs.
If you continue to smoke right up to the time of your operation, this will increase the risk of the operation and will greatly affect your breathing in the days after it, so it is a good idea to stop smoking as soon as possible.
This will give your body the longest possible time free from the bad effects of smoking before your operation or treatment.
Unfortunately, not everyone knows they are going to have surgery or treatment until they actually need it. But even giving up smoking one or two days before the operation or treatment can help to improve healing and recovery.
When you quit smoking, your body immediately starts to recover:
- within the first hour, your body begins to get rid of tobacco poisons;
- after eight hours, levels of nicotine and carbon monoxide in your blood will have halved;
- after a few weeks you should notice you have a better sense of taste and smell, your lungs are clearer and you have more energy. (This can take longer If you are a heavy smoker.
How giving up can improve your health
- Smokers who stop before age 35 have similar life expectancy to those who have never smoked.
- Those who stop smoking before age 50 reduce their risk of dying from smoking-related diseases by half.
- Stopping smoking for 1 year lowers the excess risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke by half.
- Risk of developing lung cancer is lowered by 20-90% depending upon number of years of stopping smoking.
- Risk of getting oral cancer is halved after stopping smoking for 3-5 years and after 10 years the same as for lifelong nonsmokers.
- In those with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), stopping smoking stops the decline in lung function.
- In women, stopping smoking before or during pregnancy reduces the risk of pre-term birth and low birth weight baby.
Smoke free hospitals
The NHS became ‘Smoke Free' from 1st January 2007.
As one of the commitments in "Choosing Health" smoking will not be permitted within any NHS premises anywhere.
The 'Smoke Free NHS Policy' will mean that smoking will not be permitted within buildings, and in some hospitals outside of buildings and throughout the grounds.
Smoking cessation advisors are available to support and advise patients if they wish to stop smoking. The ward sister/charge nurse can contact them if requested.
Why it is a good idea to stop smoking before you come in for treatment
If you smoke, giving up is a good idea at any time, but if you are coming into hospital for treatment, it is particularly important to stop, inorder to help reduce the risk of complications.
Giving up will also improve the effectiveness of certain treatments and improve healing.
Cigarettes and tobacco have bad effects on your heart, lungs, blood and other parts of your body. Your doctors will therefore want to know whether or not you smoke as this will affect if and when you are safe to undergo treatment, particularly major surgery.
If you are able to give up six weeks before surgery, this probably reduces the risks, but even cutting out smoking on the day of your operation helps a little.
