Curtis Harwell Discuss's Smoking Affects on Health & Fitness

It is a well-known fact that smoking reduces fitness. It does this in a number of ways, chiefly by reducing the amount of oxygen available in the body. Since oxygen plays a major role in energy production, even a minor depletion has an impact on physical performance.

MAJOR EFFECTS OF SMOKING ON FITNESS

David Pyne, an Australian sports physiologist, lists the major effects of smoking on the body's respiratory and circulatory system as follows:

• High levels of carbon monoxide from smoking reduce the amount of oxygen absorbed into the blood from the lungs.

• Carbon monoxide in the blood also reduces the amount of oxygen that is released from the blood into the muscles.

• Smoke inhalation has an immediate effect on respiration, increasing airways resistance and therefore reducing the amount of oxygen absorbed into the blood.

• Smoking causes chronic (or long-term) swelling of mucous membranes, which also leads to increased airways resistance.

• Smoking increases the heart rate for a given level of exercise.

CARBON MONOXIDE - THE MAIN OFFENDER

Carbon monoxide, the same lethal gas which is released by motor vehicle exhausts, is present in cigarette smoke and is absorbed rapidly into the bloodstream.