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How Your Digestive System is Affected When You Smoke

Why should you stop smoking cigarettes? Smoking can be the cause of many diseases in the digestive system. Overall, smoking can have a negative effect on how the body functions. You can develop conditions such as cancer, heartburn, peptic ulcers, and other liver diseases. It can be harder to treat these conditions while smoking. For that reason, quitting smoking can be the best way to prevent or help treat diseases in the digestive system, to the point of increasing the chances to reverse it. Here at the Digestive and Liver Center, we promote a healthy lifestyle which includes avoiding smoking and providing tools to learn more about the benefits of quitting.


Conditions You Can Develop

Smoking can increase the risk of developing and help progress different digestive conditions, such as:

  • Different types of cancer: You can develop cancer in the mouth, voice box, pancreas, stomach, liver, esophagus, colon and rectum.

  • Heartburn: smoking weakens the muscle that connects the stomach and the esophagus which helps stop the flowing of acids in the stomach coming up to the esophagus. 

  • Peptic ulcers: smokers are at more risk to develop peptic ulcer, specifically duodenal ulcers, and are less likely to recover. 

  • Liver diseases: the liver has very important functions in the digestive system. When you smoke, it might harm the liver from doing important processes to remove toxins in your body. You are at high risk to get liver diseases such as primary biliary cirrhosis, and non alcoholic fatty liver 

  • Crohn's disease: this is an inflammatory disease that can cause irritation in the GI tract. Smokers are at higher risk to develop this disease. It has been found that smoking may cause the intestine defenses and blood flow to decrease.

  • Colon polyps: studies have shown that smoking increases the chances of getting polyps. 


Reversing The Conditions

Quitting smoking can help to reverse some digestive conditions that are developed by smoking in the first place. The effects of smoking in the digestive system may have a short term duration, which helps to recover from several conditions if you stop smoking. For example, the factors between how the stomach works and duodenum lining returns to normal after a couple hours of quitting smoking. Also, it might help with reducing severe symptoms with conditions such as Crohn’s disease. 


Benefits of a Healthy Lifestyle

Having a healthy lifestyle can be the answer to most of your health problems. Quitting smoking may be a huge step in your well being. Also, a healthy diet can be beneficial for dealing with all of the conditions caused by smoking. If you have any questions, concerns or want to know more about different conditions that can cause smoking, our GI experts in Orlando are here to help. Go ahead and call to make an appointment at 407-384-7388 to learn more about a healthy lifestyle. 


Smoking and the Digestive System. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. (2013). file:///C:/Users/Guest/Downloads/Smoking_Digestive_System_508%20(2).pdf. 

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For Kissimmee, West Orlando and Sanford Location: Please call our office for dates and times we will be at this location.

Orlando Office

Monday:

8:00 am-5:00 pm

Tuesday:

8:00 am-5:00 pm

Wednesday:

8:00 am-5:00 pm

Thursday:

8:00 am-5:00 pm

Friday:

8:00 am-5:00 pm

Saturday:

8:00 am-12:00 pm

Sunday:

Closed

Downtown Orlando

Monday:

8:00 am-5:00 pm

Tuesday:

8:00 am-5:00 pm

Wednesday:

8:00 am-5:00 pm

Thursday:

8:00 am-5:00 pm

Friday:

8:00 am-5:00 pm

Saturday:

Closed

Sunday:

Closed