Smoking is more than just an addiction for adults — it is a health problem that can also be experienced by children and adolescents who smoke.
This article will explore the various ways that these different age groups are negatively impacted by smoking and what they can do to stave off or overcome the effects.
Smoking affects children’s lung development, cognitive abilities, respiratory health, etc. Young people who smoke tend to have a harder time during childhood and adolescence in school because of the negative impacts on their academic performance and sanity.
They also experience depression risk factors such as sleep disturbances and being irritable. Their immune systems are also weakened, allowing for more sickness and colds.
Adolescents who smoke also are at an increased risk of developing lung cancer as they get older. Smoking can cause adolescents to subconsciously think that it is okay to smoke because their peers (usually the same age) do it.
Over time, this can lead to a lifetime of smoking regardless of how early in life they start. It is especially difficult for teens who smoke to quit once they had tried and failed at multiple attempts to stop in adulthood because of their smoking history when they were younger.
Smoking affects children’s lung development, cognitive abilities, respiratory health, etc. Young people who smoke tend to have a harder time during childhood and adolescence in school because of the negative impacts on their academic performance and sanity.
They also experience depression risk factors such as sleep disturbances and being irritable. Their immune systems are also weakened, allowing for more sickness and colds.
Adolescents who smoke also are at an increased risk of developing lung cancer as they get older. Smoking can cause adolescents to subconsciously think that it is okay to smoke because their peers (usually the same age) do it. Over time, this can lead to a lifetime of smoking regardless of how early in life they start.
Poor Lung Growth
Poor lung growth in children is a direct result of smoking. It is most commonly caused by second-hand smoke but can also be caused by active children smoking themselves.
Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen-providing cells in the lungs and causes additional damage to the area’s cells.
The composition of smoke has many dangerous chemicals that affect children and teens the same way they do adults. The reason that children and adolescents suffer such intense negative effects from smoking, however, is because their bodies aren’t as developed or equipped to handle these chemical compounds.
For example, nicotine is a chemical that causes an increase in both heart rate and blood pressure — this compounds itself because these two factors make each other worse. The increased heart rate, which is already increased by nicotine, makes the blood pressure increase all the more.
Children’s lungs are also not as developed or resilient as adults’ lungs, meaning that they can’t handle as much smoke without negatively affecting them.
Many children have to have breathing assistance through an inhaler once they begin to smoke regularly and the damage increases.
In addition to the inhalers, many children who smoke need some form of oxygen assistance to help them breathe easier when they’re at home or out of school.
View Also –