How Smoking Contributes to Digestive Disease Smoking and Your Digestive System

We all know that smoking is harmful to the heart and lungs but smoking is also harmful to your digestive system.

It is a known fact that cigarette smoking can cause many health problems and studies have shown that smoking also affects the digestive system such as with peptic ulcers and heartburn. In addition, smoking also gives a higher risk for gallstones and Crohn’s disease. Also, cigarette smoking has been known to affect the liver.

Let’s discuss heartburn first because it affects millions of Americans each year. More than 60 million people suffer from heartburn at least once a month and about 15 million also feel pain from heartburn on a daily basis. The reason smoking affects the digestive system is because smoking affects the esophageal valve, which in turn causes stomach acids to go back up into the esophagus. When this happens, there is reflux and when reflux occurs on a regular basis, it can become a very serious health concern.

Smoking can also aggravate or bring on, a peptic ulcer. A peptic ulcer is found in the lining of the stomach and is an open sore. No one really knows why ulcers form but there is a relationship between ulcers and cigarettes. Stomach acid is another factor in the formation of ulcers. Some studies have shown that if smoking is done on a continual basis, acid increases in the stomach.

The liver is another organ of the body that is affected by smoking. Liver is a vital organ that processes alcohol, drugs, various toxins in the body and then works to remove the toxins. Some studies have shown that smoking changes the ability of the liver to handle these toxins. It is also thought that smoking in excess can aggravate liver disease.

In addition, Crohn’s disease, inflammation in the lining of the intestine, can be another illness brought on by smoking. It is not yet understood why smoking increases the risk of Crohn’s disease but some think that smoking might lower the defenses of the intestine, or change the immune system that in turn, leads to inflammation.

There is good news; however, on smoking and its effects on the digestive system. Some of the effects of smoking on the digestive system last for a brief time such as the effects on liver and pancreas once the person stops smoking. In the case of the pancreas, within a half hour after smoking, the bicarbonate returns to normal. And reports have also shown that when a person stops smoking, years later their lungs are clear and have a normal and healthy look.