Smoking vs. Non-Smoking: Health Impacts & Differences

The differences in lung and heart health between non-smokers and smokers cannot be disputed. From tar-coated lungs to diminished breathing capacity, smokers face far more health concerns than those who stay away from the addictive practice of smoking cigarettes.

Coated Lungs

• Cigarette smoke coats the lungs with a toxic substance known as tar, an inhaled cocktail of including carbon monoxide and other chemicals, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Constant irritation from tar over time induces the breathing disease known as emphysema, which causes diminished lung capacity and difficulty breathing, a condition very rare in nonsmokers.

Heart Health

• The difference between heart health for smokers and nonsmokers is evident from the physical transformation people go through shortly after kicking the habit. Within 20 minutes of smoking the final cigarette, a person's heart rate and blood pressure drop back to normal levels. Smokers have a higher incidence of elevated blood pressure than nonsmokers, a physical effect that can lead to various disorders, heart disease.

Taste

• Prolonged exposure of the mouth and tongue to cigarette smoke can dull the sense of taste, diminishing food flavor and causing foul breath. Ex-smokers often experience enhanced flavor of food within a few days after quitting.

Tarnished Smile

• Cigarette smoke yellows teeth with unsightly stains that even professionally cleaning often cannot remove. Nonsmokers have whiter teeth. Over time, ex-smokers' teeth can regain some of their former luster.

Cancer

• Cedars-Sinai Medical Center reports that smokers are 30 times more at risk for developing lung cancer than nonsmokers. The hospital reports that one in seven smokers of two packs or more each day will die from lung cancer.