Does one cigarette do less harm than ten?

Smoking is detrimental to health and that is not in doubt, but when it comes to taking care of you, is it worth reducing the number of cigarettes consumed? For our body, is it just like smoking one or ten cigarettes?

Is there a dose / response relationship?

Many times I have heard say: “nothing happens, I only smoke two cigarettes a day”. Reality shows that even if it’s a cigarette that we smoke, it’s a source of toxic substances that can cause prolonged damage to the body, but would it be worse to smoke ten cigarettes?

Smoking is one of the main risk factors for vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, and in this pathology a dose / response relationship has been observed : how many more cigarettes are smoked or greater is the exposure to tobacco; arterial dilation that can lead to atherosclerosis.

The good news is that the negative effect is reversible : if we stop smoking we begin to gain flexibility again in our blood vessels and this away from the risk of disease.

Similarly, those who smoke more cigarettes have more inflammatory cells in their lungs, which speaks of a negative reaction to the toxic substances that tobacco smoke possesses. Here also, it is concluded that the amount of cigarettes consumed is related to the response or effect in the organism.

In olfactory capacity similar happens : smoking causes a dose-related deterioration and reversible upon cessation of exposure to tobacco smoke.

Therefore, we can conclude that it is not equal to smoking one or ten cigarettes, since smoking has a dose-related response, something that should be considered when taking care of health or assessing risks.

A cigarette is also harmful

Although a cigarette is less harmful than ten, we must never forget that each unit has toxic substances and therefore, even a minimal exposure to tobacco smoke can initiate damage to our body.

Smoking increases the oxidative stress in our body, exposes us to carcinogenic substances and initiates harmful inflammatory responses. Of course, a cigarette to a lesser extent than ten but similarly a cigarette is harmful to the body.

Prolonged exposure to tobacco smoke is harmful to our body so a daily cigarette in 10 years can also cause harm and we should not underestimate its effect.