Effects of Smoking on Teenagers and Why do Teens Choose to Smoke?
by Angel _Cherman
1. Lungs: Smoking can cause inflammation and inflammation can make your chest feel tight, cause you to wheeze, or feel short of breath. Smoking destroys the tiny air sacks, or alveoli, in the lungs that allow oxygen to exchange. Alveoli doesn't grow back. Smoking can stunt the grouting of your lungs, since teens are still developing.
2. Stress and depression: Life is stressful, and it's normal to feel a little down sometimes. It's not uncommon for teens to become depressed. Many choose to start smoking as to relieve any pain going in their life. However, teens who are depressed will have even worse effects than anyone else. The brain will be more likely to crave nicotine, causing someone to have intense negative withdrawal symptoms when they stop, and a better chance of relapse.
2.1. Rebellion- Every teenager goes through a phase when they want to exercise their new freedom. It's a normal and healthy part of growing up. If they're exposed to smoking, that's often what they will start doing as to get their parents upset and show defiance. After a couple cigarettes, it soon becomes more than just a rebellion, but an addiction
3. Family Influence: Parents are always a big influence on their Children. If a teens mother, father, older siblings, or anyone in the family is a smoker there is a great possibility that he/she will be as well. 29 percent of youth smokers are kids who's parents smoke.
4. Effects of Smoking on Teenagers:
4.1. Brain: Teen brains aren't fully developed yet and by smoking it responds differently to the effects of nicotine than the adult brain. The developing brain is highly sensitive to the addictive properties of nicotine. Smoking stunts the growth of the prefrontal cortex, this canister the ability for teens to make rational decisions about their health.
4.2. Head and Face: Because teens hearing nerve pathways aren't fully developed exposure to the toxic chemicals in smoke may cause permanant damage to these nerve pathways and set up for hearing loss later in life. Smoking also causes decreased vision. Nicotine restricts the production of rhodopsin, a chemical pigment necessary for night vision. This can make driving at night dangerous. Smoking dulls the taste buds on your tongue. Stress and smoking can cause you to breakout and have more zits that last longer.
4.3. Heart: Smoking raises your blood pressure and puts stress on your heart. Smoking causes changes to the heart muscle, and a higher resting heart rate which are all warning signs that the heart is working to hard. Also causes sticky blood, which makes your heart work harder and it can cause deadly blood clots that can block the blood flow to your heart, brain, and legs. Smoking increases the amount of cholesterol and unhealthy fats circulating in the blood.
4.4. DNA: Your body is made up of cells, containing genetic material, or DNA, that act as an "instruction manual" for cell growth and function. Every single puff of a cigarette causes damage to DNA. When DNA is damaged, the "instruction manual" gets messed up and the cell can begin growing out of control and create a cancer tumor.
4.5. Stomach and Hormones: Teens who smoke have more belly fat than non-smokers. This increases your chance of type 2 diabetes. Smoking also lowers estrogen in females, which causes: dry skin, thinning hair, and memory problems.
4.6. Blood and the Immune System
4.7. ErectileDysfunction: Tar and chemicals in cigarette smoke cause damage to the blood vessels and arteries that deliver blood to the penis.
4.8. Muscles and Bones
5. Why Teens Choose to Smoke:
5.1. Media: Although advertisements for smoking is still illegal, it's still relevant in the media. Tv shows, video games, movies, celebrities, and more still portray the image that smoking is fun and cool. Teens will see their favorite tv character or celebrity smoking, thinking that if they're smoking it must be okay! It's important to help each other make our own choices and not to be influenced by the media.
5.1.1. "Everyone else smokes"- Teens overestimate how many other people their age actually smoke. The fact is, only 7% of teens smoke. Even better news, numbers been dropping significantly!
5.1.1.1. I will be focusing on “Why teens choose to smoke”. I have researched extensively on this topic and I will also be interviewing kids/ and adult who may have more info about this topic than I do. I will also be editing the video.