We all know about the risk and damage that comes with smoking, but what about when you’re out at your favorite microbrewery and fancy popping outside for a cheeky cigarette? It may turn out that the effects of smoking are worsened by alcohol, it’s worsened so much so that more alcoholics in the U.S., die from tobacco-related illness rather than alcohol-related illness, which is rather shocking.
This isn’t just a niche either, as according to the NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism), approximately 46 million adults used both alcohol and tobacco in the past year. That’s over 14% of the total US population who have smoked and drank during the same period, chances are that you may also be one of them!
Enough of the statistical lecture, it’s time to talk about the effects of smoking whilst drinking. No prizes for guessing that the effects are pretty bad…in fact, it probably entails more negating effects than you would’ve thought first thought. Firstly, let’s look at the short term effects of smoking and drinking.
Short Term Effects: These are a lot more subtle than the longer effects of smoking and they also help each other out in damaging your body. As you may know, alcohol is a depressant; conversely, tobacco is a stimulant. When you smoke, the stimulant that is Tobacco counteracts some of the symptoms of being drunk, therefore making you feel sober, or soberer than you actually are. To many people, this would lead to them drinking excessively as they do not feel as drunk as they do when not smoking.
On the other hand, alcohol is known to lower our inhibitions and from doing so, would make us do things we may not usually do, in this case, smoking. Especially as, like alcohol, cigarettes are seen as a social “lubricant” and can create conversation and bonds between people. As people tend to smoke on a night out, for this reason, it’s like a vicious cycle and comes as no surprise that this NIAAA report on alcohol and tobacco states that “Studies have found that people who smoke are much more likely to drink, and people who drink are much more likely to smoke”: Alcohol makes you want to smoke more whilst smoking makes you want to drink more, as you can imagine, this all adds up by the end of the night and can easily lead to sickness and headaches regardless of if you’ve had too many to drink or not.
Long Term Effects: The long-term effects of smoking and drinking are a lot more harmful than the short term, this is because exposing your body to alcohol and tobacco simultaneously increases the risks of throat and oesophagal cancer. There is some science behind this too, as when you smoke, chemicals get caught up in your throat. Drinking alcohol when some of these chemicals are still present in your throat dissolves the chemicals which release carcinogens that become trapped in your throat, against your sensitive throat skin.
On top of this, the carcinogens stay in your bloodstream for longer when drinking and smoking. This is because your metabolism is affected when smoking and drinking, meaning your body finds it harder to get rid of these chemicals, which in turn, increases the length of exposure your body has to these carcinogens and increases your risk of cancer.
How to stop: There are many alternatives to smoking tobacco that would help with your long term health, things such as nicotine patches and nicotine gum are made to kick the craving of smoking whilst still giving you that release of nicotine, however, if you still want the sensation of smoke entering your lungs, then vaping is your best bet. You can even get the best of both worlds and purchase nicotine shots to go with your vape juice.
If none of these seems to fit the bill and help you give up smoking, there are more extreme resorts such as NRT (Nicotine Replacement Therapy) or you could even go and get yourself hypnotised!
Hopefully, this post has increased some awareness of the damaging effects smoking and drinking can have on your body when taken simultaneously.
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