Blog # 47 Andrew Siegel, M.D.
To paraphrase Dr. David Katz—the master levers of our medical destiny are our fingers, forks and feet: fingers that may or may not bring cigarettes to our lips; forks that may or may not bring healthy food to our mouths; feet that may or may not participate in exercise and fitness pursuits. The negligent use of our fingers, forks and feet is the leading causes of premature death and conversely, the appropriate use of them is capable of preventing 90% of diabetes, 80% of cardiovascular disease and 60% of cancers.
Bottom line: Most everyone is knowledgeable about the role of tobacco in contributing to cardiovascular disease, stroke, lung cancer and emphysema. However, the complications of tobacco abuse go way beyond the heart and the lungs; physicians in every medical and surgical specialty bear witness to the havoc that tobacco wreaks on every system in our body. As a urologist, I am on the front lines of the deleterious and deadly effects of tobacco. Tobacco has clearly been linked to several urological cancers as well as numerous other non-malignant conditions. Tobacco is a major factor in the occurrence of bladder cancer, kidney cancer, sexual dysfunction, and infertility in both men and women. Smoking cessation can help reverse these serious issues.
Bladder cancer is an incredibly prevalent cancer. It is the 4th most common cancer in men and the 8th most common cancer in females. It is highly correlated—hugely so—with the use of tobacco. Cigarette smoking is the number one environmental cause and greatest risk factor for bladder cancer. Cancer-causing chemicals known as carcinogens get inhaled into the smoker’s lungs, are absorbed into the bloodstream and are filtered by the kidneys, from where they pass into the urinary bladder. In the bladder, these carcinogens have prolonged, direct contact time with the bladder lining, where they induce changes that ultimately can become malignant. There is a many-year “latency period” from the time of exposure of the carcinogens to the actual occurrence of cancer—often several decades. So the smoking that you did in your teens and twenties can come back to haunt you in your forties and fifties.
Continuing to smoke leads to worse bladder cancer outcomes compared to patients who discontinue tobacco use. Ongoing smoking after the diagnosis of bladder cancer greatly increases the risk of morbidity and mortality, treatment-related complications, recurrence of the cancer and the development of a second malignancy. Smoking cessation will diminish all of the aforementioned consequences. It is estimated that elimination of smoking could decrease the overall incidence of bladder cancer by 50%.
Prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer in men and keeps our office bustling with patients. Although smoking does not increase the risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer, men who smoke at the time of prostate cancer diagnosis have an increased risk of recurrence and death from prostate cancer and also face an increased overall mortality from cardiovascular disease. Conversely, those who quit smoking at least a decade before the diagnosis of prostate cancer was made have mortality similar to those who never smoked.
Smoking is also strongly correlated with both male and female sexual dysfunction. Anything that compromises blood flow to the genitals is going to interfere with sexual function, and the chemicals in tobacco do a marvelous job at constricting blood flow. Approximately 40% of men with erectile dysfunction are smokers. There is a direct relationship between the quantity of smoking and the extent of sexual dysfunction. Smoking cessation will help restore lost function, but tobacco takes its toll as former smokers have been shown to be at an increased risk of developing sexual dysfunction later in life.
Smoking adversely affects the reproductive system in both sexes. As compared to non-smokers, the semen of smokers demonstrates poorer parameters, particularly sperm motility. Thus, sperm from smokers has reduced potential for fertilizing an egg. Females who smoke have a higher prevalence of fertility issues including an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy and fare poorer than non-smokers when assisted reproductive techniques are needed. Women who smoke during pregnancy increase their risk for bearing male children born with undescended testicles. Smoking has also been associated with increased risk of acquiring HIV infection, HPV infection, invasive cervical cancer, and pelvic inflammatory disease.
An estimated six trillion cigarettes are smoked worldwide every year. It is not only the smokers who suffer the ill effects of tobacco use. The health of individuals exposed to smokers is also at risk due to second-hand smoke. Second-hand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled into the air we breathe from the lungs of smokers. Second-hand smoke is involuntarily inhaled by non-smokers and can linger in the air for hours after tobacco products have been extinguished. There is no safe level of second-hand smoke, and even brief exposure can be harmful. Second-hand smoke clearly is associated with serious diseases and is responsible for shortening life spans. Second-hand smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a cause of cancer in human beings, causing approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths and about 50,000 cardiac deaths in non-smokers in the United States annually. Second-hand smoke is particularly harmful to young children, being responsible for hundreds of thousands of respiratory tract infections in those under 18 months of age.
There at least 43 carcinogens and more than 300 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in second-hand smoke, as well as many other toxins including arsenic, carbon monoxide, lead, cyanide, DDT, formaldehyde and polonium 210. Polonium 210—a highly toxic radioactive poison that was brought to the attention of the public because of its use in the poisoning of a former KGB agent—is inhaled along with the tar, nicotine, cyanide, and other chemicals.
Smoking is a vile, incredibly harmful, self-destructive and miserable habit and addiction. It is the single greatest cause of illness and premature death in modern society. Every cigarette that is smoked can be thought of as another nail in one’s coffin.
Years ago, smoking was an excusable habit simply because we didn’t know any better. It was thought of as a sophisticated, glamorous and sexually alluring and was so glorified on television, in magazines, and in Hollywood on the silver screen. Magazine advertisements depicted physicians smoking and one slogan went so far as to state: “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.” Even my father, a physician, smoked; however, as soon as he caught wind of the fact that smoking was dangerous to his health, he stopped immediately.
The greatest irony is that there are many smokers who have a pervasive fear of terrorism and potentially pandemic bacterial and viral illnesses such as avian bird flu, mad cow disease, SARS, anthrax, West Nile virus, etc. What they fail to realize is that the cocktail of carcinogenic chemicals entering their lungs and bloodstream via smoking and being delivered to every single cell in their body can be thought of as little terrorists—suicide bombers if you will, that can and certainly will ultimately wreak havoc on their health and their lives. Smoking really is just a form of slow, voluntary suicide. While we do not have a great deal of control over terrorist acts or deadly pandemics, we certainly have the ability to live a smart lifestyle that avoids self-destructive behavior such as smoking.
What truly is a source of amazement to me are the smoking lounges in the airports. Glassed in like fish in an aquarium, these ridiculous-appearing humans are puffing away in unison, garnering not only the ill benefits of first-hand smoke, but also second-hand, third-hand, and every other permutation imaginable! A motley group of men and women collectively inhaling and exhaling, hacking and choking within this absurd observatory, with plumes of smoke floating around like clouds—this glass menagerie is a showcase for the folly of humankind.
This folly is certainly aided and abetted by Big Tobacco. In 2006, a federal judge named Gladys Kessler ordered strict new limitations on tobacco marketing, sticking it to the cigarette manufacturing companies for their disingenuous behavior and forcing them to stop labeling cigarettes with deceptive descriptors including “low tar,” “light,” or “natural.” The tobacco industry was shown to have “marketed their lethal product with zeal, with deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted.” She further stated that “cigarette makers profit from selling a highly addictive product that causes diseases leading to a staggering number of deaths per year, an immeasurable amount of human suffering and economic loss, and a profound burden on our national health care system.”
The WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that by the year 2020, cigarettes will be responsible for the deaths of 10 million people annually. Cigarettes killed 100 million people in the period between 1900 and 2000, and we’re on track for nearly a billion tobacco-related deaths for the 21st century. About half of all smokers will die of smoking-related diseases. Habitual smoking decreases general life expectancy by an average of 8-12 years. Many smoking-related deathsare not pleasant and quick deaths, but are often protracted and associated with significant suffering.
There is a magic pill—inexpensive, readily available, free of side effects and safe for all ages—that taken daily will reduce the risk of getting any major chronic disease by 80% or so. This pill is called healthy lifestyle, and if you don’t have it in your medicine cabinet yet, it would make all the sense in the world to acquire it.
Andrew Siegel, M.D.
Author of Promiscuous Eating: Understanding and Ending Our Self-Destructive Relationship with Food
Now available on Amazon Kindle
For my educational video on bladder cancer:
Our Greatest Wealth Is Health 