Thursday 18 September 2014

One More Reason to Stop Smoking Today – It Affects Your Feet

Since time immemorial, you have been cautioned about the ill effects of smoking and tobacco. Numerous researches are conducted to scientifically prove how and why smoking affects your lungs. Thus, you know that smoking is a sure fire way to get lung cancer. Yet there are certain facts about smoking which you might not be aware of. This article reminds you why you need to give up smoking and give it up right now! Read on to learn how smoking can harm the feet!

How does smoking harm your feet?

You must be wondering if it is indeed true that smoking affects your feet as there is actually no clear connection between the respiratory system and foot. The answer is, the human body works in an interesting manner as every system in the body is pretty much interlinked. Therefore, smoking can definitely affect other parts of your body apart from the lungs or heart.

While enjoying that puff, you put excessive pressure on the respiratory system and in turn cardiovascular system. All these unwanted pressures negatively impact your body thus restraining it from functioning at its optimum levels. The feet being miles away from the heart gets much less blood supply when you are smoking. As a result a medical condition develops known as Peripheral Arterial Disease or PAD.

What is Peripheral Arterial Disease?

As the name indicates, Peripheral Arterial Disease is a condition which mainly impacts the cardiovascular system thus limiting blood flow to peripheral points of the body such as the feet. A kind of substance medically known as plaque accumulates in the walls of the arteries that run down to your feet. With plaque accumulation these arteries become narrow thereby hampering normal blood flow. The feet as a result suffer from poor blood circulation.

Signs and Symptoms

Podiatrists are of the opinion that the foot of a smoker can be differentiated from that of a non smoker by just looking at it. The latter’s skin will be thinner, shinier and darkish. A person affected by PAD symptoms may feel foot pain at times. In case he/she suffers from foot injuries, it won’t heal easily.

Sometimes, non-smokers can develop PAD too. However, those with smoking habits remain four times more vulnerable to PAD, than those who don’t smoke. In severe situations if the foot is subjected to improper circulation over a stretch of time, this might result in amputation too!

How to protect your feet from the ill effects of smoking?

Stop smoking for good if you seriously want to protect yourself from adverse effects of tobacco. Those who are indeed sincere about quitting smoking should try to avoid people who are into smoking. Talk to a foot specialist if you feel your smoking habit is in any way aggravating foot conditions. Those suffering from PAD must immediately talk to the podiatrist for necessary medication or if needed, a minor operation.

Consulting a podiatrist certainly helps bring your feet situation under control. Further they could offer valuable suggestions following which you can definitely keep your foot in better shape.

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