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Drugs, alcohol, and smoking

How tobacco affects your body

Brain

• Nicotine, the drug that makes tobacco addictive, goes to your brain very quickly.
• Nicotine makes you feel good when you are smoking, but it can make you anxious, nervous, moody, and depressed after you smoke.
• Using tobacco can cause headaches and dizziness.

Mouth

• Tobacco stains your teeth and gives you bad breath.
• Tobacco ruins some of your taste buds, so you won't be able to taste your favorite foods as well.
• Tobacco causes bleeding gums (gum disease) and cancers of the mouth and throat.

Heart

• Smoking increases your heart rate and blood pressure and causes heart disease and heart attacks.
• If you try to do activities like exercise or play sports, your heart has to work harder to keep up.

Lungs

• Smokers have trouble breathing because smoking damages the lungs.
• If you have asthma, you can have more frequent and more serious attacks.
• Smoking causes a lot of coughing with phlegm (mucous).
• Tobacco can cause emphysema (lung disease) and lung cancer.

Skin

• Smoking causes dry, yellow skin and wrinkles.
• The smell sticks to your skin.

Muscles

• Less blood and oxygen flows to your muscles, which causes them to hurt more when you exercise or play sports.

Content last updated May 18, 2010

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