Articles on how smoking relates to parts of the body beyond the lungs, including the mouth, heart and circulation, eyes, bones, digestion, cancers, fertility, hearing and skin. This page lists all 35 Smokers Lung Health Review guides on the topic, each with its opening lines so you can pick the one that matches your question.
Smokers Lung Health Review is a publication. These guides are for education and do not replace care from a qualified professional.
Guides in this section
Smoking and Sleep Apnea: What the Evidence Suggests and Which Symptoms Need Evaluation
Smoking and sleep apnea are connected: research from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) lists smoking as a risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea, because it can inflame the upper airway during sleep.
Smoking and Bad Breath: What Oral Hygiene Can and Can’t Fix
Daily oral hygiene can remove the food particles, plaque, and bacteria that cause everyday bad breath, and it can slow gum disease that smoking makes worse. It cannot reverse the dry mouth smoking causes, undo existing gum damage, or clear breath odor tied to a medical condition.
Smoking and Dry Mouth: What to Ask at a Dental Visit
Dry mouth is common in people who smoke, and it is not just uncomfortable. Less saliva means less protection against cavities, gum irritation, and mouth infections.
Smoking and Diabetes Risk: How Tobacco Worsens Blood Sugar Control
Smoking raises the risk of type 2 diabetes and makes blood sugar harder to control. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people who smoke have a 30% to 40% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than people who don't smoke, and the more someone smokes, the higher that risk climbs.
Smoking and Eye Health: Macular Degeneration and Cataract Risk Research
Yes. Smoking is a well-documented risk factor for several serious eye conditions, including cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists certain eye diseases among the many health problems caused by cigarette smoking.
Smoking and Eye Health: Macular Degeneration, Cataracts and Vision Risk
Smoking is one of the strongest known risk factors for two of the most common eye diseases in older adults: age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cataracts.
Smoking and Male Fertility: Effects on Sperm Quality and Reproductive Outcomes
Yes. Smoking can damage sperm and make it harder for a man to help conceive a child. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that smoking damages sperm and can also lead to impotence, or erectile dysfunction (ED). Both problems can make it harder to father a baby.
Smoking and Fertility: Effects on Reproductive Health for Men and Women
Smoking is linked to lower fertility in both women and men, and it raises the risk of several pregnancy complications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that smoking causes reduced fertility in women, and reduced fertility is also linked to men who smoke.
Smoking and Stomach Ulcers: How Tobacco Impairs Digestive Healing
Smoking does not directly cause every stomach ulcer, but it is one of the strongest known risk factors for developing one, and it makes existing ulcers harder to heal. Research shows smokers develop peptic ulcers (sores in the stomach or upper small intestine) nearly twice as often as people who have never smoked.
Smoking and Peptic Ulcers: How Tobacco Affects the Digestive System
Smoking does not directly cause peptic ulcers the way an infection or a medicine can. But according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), people who smoke are more likely to develop peptic ulcers, and smoking can slow down how fast an existing ulcer heals.
Smoking and Peripheral Artery Disease: How Tobacco Damages Circulation
Some circulation symptoms should never wait for a routine appointment. Call your doctor promptly, or seek emergency care, if you notice a leg or foot sore that will not heal, a foot or toe that turns pale, blue, or unusually cold, sudden severe leg pain, or numbness that comes on quickly.
Smoking and Blood Circulation: Peripheral Artery Disease and Vascular Risk
Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room if a leg suddenly turns pale, cold, or blue, loses feeling, or has no pulse. The same goes for a foot wound that looks infected, is spreading, or has a foul odor. These can be signs of a sudden blockage or severe tissue damage that needs urgent treatment.
Smoking and Bladder Cancer: Why This Underrecognized Link Matters
Yes. Smoking is the largest single cause of bladder cancer, and research puts its share at roughly half of all cases in both men and women. That single number is the reason this topic deserves its own close look: half is a bigger share than most people guess when they think of smoking as mainly a lung issue.
Smoking and Bladder Cancer: The Overlooked Smoking-Related Cancer Risk
Yes. Smoking is the most well-established risk factor for bladder cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bladder cancer is one of several cancers that health agencies list as caused by tobacco use, alongside lung, throat, and kidney cancers.
Smoking and Oral Health: Periodontal Disease, Implant Failure and Gum Recovery
Smoking is the single biggest risk factor for periodontal (gum) disease, according to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). Tobacco use slows healing and blood flow to the gums, lets harmful bacteria thrive, and makes standard gum treatments less likely to work.
Smoking and Bone Density: Osteoporosis Risk and Fracture Healing Impairment
Yes. Smoking is a documented risk factor for osteoporosis and bone fracture, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS). Smoking is also linked to slower healing after a fracture, likely for some of the same reasons it slows healing after surgery.
Smoking and Bone Health: Osteoporosis Risk and What Research Shows
Research shows smoking is a documented risk factor for osteoporosis and bone fracture, though scientists are still studying exactly how much of the effect comes from tobacco itself versus other habits common among smokers.
Smoking and Wound Healing: How Tobacco Impairs Recovery After Surgery
Yes. Smoking slows wound healing and raises the risk of surgical complications. Tobacco smoke narrows blood vessels, lowers the amount of oxygen that reaches healing tissue, and weakens the immune cells your body relies on to fight infection and rebuild skin.
Smoking and Wound Healing: Why Recovery Takes Longer and What Surgeons Check
Smoking slows wound healing because it narrows blood vessels and lowers the amount of oxygen your blood can carry to healing tissue. Less oxygen and blood flow at the wound site means cells repair more slowly, which raises the risk of infection, poor scarring, and other complications after a procedure.
Smoking and Hearing Loss: The Vascular Connection Research Shows
Research links smoking to a higher risk of hearing loss, and much of that risk appears to trace back to damaged blood vessels. The inner ear depends on a steady, strong supply of oxygen-rich blood, and smoking is known to harm blood vessels throughout the body.
Smoking and Hearing Loss: What Audiological Research Shows
Research shows smoking is linked to a higher risk of hearing loss, and the risk tends to climb the longer and more heavily a person has smoked.
Smoking and Chronic Back Pain: Spinal Disc Degeneration and Healing Impairment
Research links smoking to a higher risk of chronic back pain and faster breakdown of the spinal discs that cushion your vertebrae. Nicotine and other chemicals in cigarette smoke reduce blood flow to spinal tissue, which researchers believe speeds up disc degeneration and slows healing after an injury or spine surgery.
Smoking and Colorectal Cancer: Risk Evidence and Screening Recommendations
Yes. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), cigarette smoking is linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer and to an increased risk of dying from colorectal cancer. Smoking is also linked to a higher risk of developing colorectal adenomas, the type of polyp that can turn into cancer over time.
Smoking and Erectile Dysfunction: Vascular Damage and Recovery After Quitting
Yes. Smoking damages the blood vessels that carry blood into the penis, and an erection depends on strong blood flow. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) lists smoking cigarettes as one of the lifestyle behaviors that can lead to erectile dysfunction (ED),…
Smoking and Pancreatic Cancer: Risk Factors and What Evidence Shows
Yes. Smoking is one of the clearest, most consistently confirmed risk factors for pancreatic cancer. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) lists smoking as a risk factor for pancreatic cancer that people can actually change, unlike genetics or family history.
Smoking and Rheumatoid Arthritis: The Autoimmune Connection
Smoking does not cause rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in every person who smokes. But research consistently links long-term cigarette smoking to a higher risk of developing RA, especially in people who already carry certain genes linked to the disease.
Smoking and Chronic Sinusitis: Upper Airway Inflammation and Recovery
Most sinus symptoms are uncomfortable but not an emergency. Call your doctor promptly, or seek emergency care, if you have a high fever, severe facial swelling, swelling or redness around one eye, vision changes, a stiff neck, confusion, or symptoms that keep getting worse instead of better.
Smoking and Stroke Risk: Vascular Damage, Warning Signs and Risk Reduction
Smoking increases the risk of stroke because it damages the blood vessels leading to the brain and makes blood more likely to clot. A stroke happens when blood flow to part of the brain is blocked or a blood vessel bursts, and smoking is one of the risk factors that can be changed.
Smoking and Kidney Health: What Research Shows About Renal Risk
Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room if you have little or no urination, sudden swelling in your legs, ankles, or around your eyes, confusion, chest pain, or severe shortness of breath. These can be signs of a serious kidney or heart problem that needs emergency care. Yes.
How Smoking Affects Taste and Smell: What Changes After Quitting
Yes. Smoking is widely recognized as a factor in dulled taste and smell, and most people who quit say food tastes better and smells stronger once they stop. Taste and smell work closely together, so a change in one often shows up as a change in the other.
Smoking and Skin Health: How Tobacco Affects Aging, Healing and Circulation
Smoking speeds up skin aging by damaging collagen and elastin, the fibers that keep skin firm and stretchy. It also narrows blood vessels, which lowers blood flow to the skin.
Smoking and Anesthesia: What Surgeons Need Patients to Know Before a Procedure
Anesthesia providers ask about smoking because it changes how your heart, lungs, and blood vessels respond to surgery and recovery. Tobacco smoke lowers the oxygen available to your tissues and makes it harder for wounds to heal.
Smoking and Anxiety: The Nicotine Paradox Explained
If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, or your anxiety feels sudden, severe, or out of control, stop reading and get help right away. Call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) any time, day or night.
How Smoking Affects the Immune System: What Research Shows
Yes. Research shows that smoking changes how immune cells work, and this makes it harder for the body to fight off infections and heal properly.
Carbon Monoxide from Smoking: How CO Reduces Blood Oxygen and Why It Matters
Every puff of cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide (CO), a gas that attaches to hemoglobin in red blood cells more easily than oxygen does. When CO takes up that space, the affected red blood cells cannot carry a full load of oxygen to the body's tissues and organs.