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Notes:


Nicotine is popular because it's an effective tranquilizer and appetite suppressant. Many women smoke mainly to control their weight. Unfortunately, it also destroys the user in several ways.

It promotes cancer, especially of the lung, mouth, larynx, esophagus, bladder, and tongue.

It damages skin, causing premature wrinkling and thinning.

It interferes with all body healing processes, especially after injuries or after surgery. For example, some back surgeons will not operate on smokers.

And it greatly accelerates atherosclerosis by poisoning the vascular endothelium. This more important for women than for men, as nearly all the risk of using birth control pills is actually attributable to smoking; and women normally have a reduced risk of heart disease until menopause. But this advantage is erased for the woman who smokes: she becomes a man in terms of heart disease risk.