Month without tobacco: Alzheimer’s, diabetes, infertility… These little-known effects of cigarettes on health

Blackened lungs and cancer: this is how we most often imagine the effects of cigarettes on health. And, in fact, between 80 and 90% of lung cancer cases are related to active smoking, according to Public Health France. One in three cancers is due to smoking: throat, mouth, pancreas, esophagus, bladder… “With 75,000 deaths a year, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable mortality in France,” warns the Ministry of Health.

On the occasion of tobacco-free month that begins this Saturday, November 1, it is important to remember that smoking has many effects on health, which are sometimes unknown.

“It is a product that affects our health in general,” emphasizes Alice Deschenau, head of the addictions department of the Paul Guiraud de Villejuif hospital group and president of the French-speaking Tobacco Society.

“Neurological toxicity”

Being a smoker is associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, the Alzheimer Research Foundation states on its website. “The risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease is 40% higher among heavy smokers (more than a pack of cigarettes per day),” according to the foundation, a figure “drawn from recent reports of 37 studies.”

It is known that tobacco “has neurological toxicity, if only because of the vascular impact it has,” explains Alice Deschenau.

Smoking promotes “increased vascular rigidity and thickening of the wall of key blood vessels such as the carotid artery,” Inserm, a public medical research institute, specifies on its site. This can result in reduced oxygenation of the brain. “Poor oxygenation of the brain also means earlier degeneration of our brain. This is what we commonly call dementia,” explains Alice Deschenau.

A link to type 2 diabetes

Smoking can also have a significant impact on diabetes. “It increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, which is characterized by the body’s misuse of insulin,” explains the official website of the tobacco information service. “Smokers have around a 40% higher risk of developing this type of diabetes than non-smokers” and “the greater the number of cigarettes smoked per day, the greater the risk,” explains this public awareness service.

The mechanisms that link smoking and diabetes are multiple, emphasizes Alice Deschenau: it stimulates the release of cortisol, alters some hormones, promotes inflammatory mechanisms, etc.

Infertility and sexual abilities.

Another often overlooked effect: the link between smoking and (in)fertility. For both men and women, smoking is a factor in infertility. According to a document published by the University Hospital of Nice, in men it can cause sperm abnormalities, a lower number of motile sperm, which prolongs the time until conception. And in women it significantly alters the quality of the oocytes, which is also a cause of infertility.

Active smoking can also cause erectile dysfunction, due to the vascular damage it causes. “The erection comes from the ability to have blood flow to the penis. If the vascularization is not good enough, this blood flow will be more difficult to achieve,” says Alice Deschenau.

Wrinkles that appear faster

It is a less serious risk, since for some it is only aesthetic, but it has an impact on the lives of many people: tobacco has a significant effect on the skin of smokers. According to Public Health France, it can also worsen eczema and psoriasis in affected people.

As this public body dependent on the Ministry of Health explains, smoking “reduces the oxygenation of the skin and makes it opaque and less flexible”, which causes expression lines and wrinkles to “appear early”.

“A smoker feels it less because the body gets used to it, but there is a direct toxicity in the skin that becomes visible when you stop smoking. For some people, the quality of the skin improves in a few months,” says Alice Deschenau.

One solution: quit smoking

Given these risks, the only solution is to stop smoking. “The longer we go without smoking, the more the health risks decrease. Reducing cigarette consumption is very good, but we really have to move towards quitting smoking. This is what will allow us to find a very low risk of pathologies,” says the addict.

He considers it “important to explain what tobacco means” for the general health of smokers. “Often people think that the risks are related to heavy smokers, but that is not true. And if we continue even though we already know all this, it is because it is an addiction and we must have the reflex to seek help. An addiction cannot be treated on its own.”