By Janice Tai

Lung cancer, heart attack, bronchitis and stroke. That is quite a scary list of health problems - and you can get them all from smoking.

There will be hardened smokers inured to anti-smoking warnings like those stark images on cigarette packs. Yet, the images tell the truth.

Cigarette smoking harms every organ in the body. It has been conclusively linked to leukaemia, cataracts and pneumonia. It accounts for about one-third of all cancer deaths. One in two smokers will die from smoking-related illnesses.

Smoking's harmful effects can be seen by tracking how the body begins to repair itself within minutes of smoking the last cigarette:

Twenty minutes after quitting, the risk of a heart attack is already reduced. After eight hours, nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in the blood will decline by half, with oxygen levels returning to normal, said the British United Provident Association, a private medical insurer. This enhances energy levels and psychomotor and cognitive skills. After 72 hours, breathing becomes much easier. From the second to the 12th week, delivery of oxygen to the whole body improves and walking becomes less tiring. After one year, the risk of a heart attack falls to about half that for a smoker.

Professor Mak Koon Hou, a cardiologist and senior consultant at Mak Heart Clinic, said smoking increases the risk of various diseases because it introduces toxic chemicals to a person's body, resulting in changes in the cells.

These aberrations damage the tissues and cause malfunction or cancer. Smoking may induce changes in tissue responses to injury and disrupt the normal function of blood vessel lining. It also works synergistically with other factors such as diabetes to cause diseases of the blood vessels.

So, even if you are a lifelong smoker, you have good reasons to quit and it is never too late to do so.

You can call the QuitLine on 1800-4382000 for professional quit advisers to guide you. Alternatively, you can join the smoking cessation sessions offered at polyclinics and hospitals.

This article was first published in Mind Your Body, The Straits Times.