- Diseases associated with smoking cause more than 60,000 deaths a year in Mexico.
- It is estimated that in our country at least five million people have tried the electronic cigarette at least once in their lives.
- Every May 31, World Tobacco Day is commemorated to raise awareness about the dangers of this addiction.
Among the many health problems that can be avoided, there is one that is quite serious due to the impact it causes. Its about smokinga addiction related to a large number of diseases that go beyond cancer. Cigarettes can cause serious conditions such as pulmonary emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), strokes, or coronary heart disease.
In this case, only in Mexico are registered 60 thousand deaths each year due to diseases related to this habit.
Despite knowing the fatal consequences, little is addressed about how tobacco consumption affects one of the most important organs of the human body: the microbiota. It is the set of microorganisms that live in us and that, according to some specialists, carry out a variety of critical tasks for the Human Being and our body.
Smoking, an addiction with serious consequences
Various articles published by the Biocodex Microbiota Institute, point out that tobacco consumption, even through electronic cigarettes or vapers, can cause dysbiosis. That is, an imbalance in the microbiota that lives in our lungs, mouth and intestines, severely affecting its functions, such as the maintenance of the immune system.
It turns out that the microorganisms that make up the microbiota, both from the intestine and the lungs, enter the body orally. From there the bacteria travel to the lungs suspended in the air and in microparticles in secretions such as saliva. It is kept in balance, thanks to the constant exchange of bacteria and microbes that enter through this pathway.
An example of imbalance that tobacco can cause is the use of the electronic cigaretteused in Mexico by 5 million people at least once, which could contain concentrations of nicotine and toxic substances equivalent to those of a normal cigarette and trigger a series of inflammatory reactions through its effects on the oral microbiota, in addition to accentuating the vulnerability to infections that can lead to caries or periodontitis.
Another consequence of the dysbiosis caused by smoking is the imbalance between the molecules that favor weight gain and others that slow it down, according to the study “The intestinal microbiota modulates weight gain in mice after discontinuous exposure to smoking”. smoke”, in the smoker the molecule that favors weight gain would be produced more and more, while the one that blocks it would be more and more scarce.
This process is progressive and gives the body time to adapt and associate the lit cigarette with the need to eat less. When you stop smoking, this satiating effect disappears immediately. While the imbalance of the microbiota favorable to weight gain persists for much longer and can lead to weight gain as a consequence.
In the case of the lung microbiota, its healthy composition depends on the immigration of favorable microorganisms and the elimination of those that are harmful, through respiration, so that alterations in the environment of the respiratory tract, such as those caused by Smoking makes people more susceptible to lung diseases that can become chronic over time.
The impact of smoking on the microbiota initially presents changes that may seem common to any other environmental factor, but they run the risk of becoming chronic situations, since it is necessary to remember that dysbiosis means an impact on the entire immune system and not only to one part of the body.