Bladder Cancer and Smoking

We’ve seen testimonies and seen evidence that smoking is highly dangerous, including all tobacco and the carcinogenic materials that make up cigarettes. In addition to what we already know about smoking, secondhand smoke became a legitimate health issue after it was banned in many public places.

Cigarettes can damage your lungs and heart, as both nonsmokers and smokers are aware. According to the American Cancer Society, tobacco smoking is responsible for almost 80% of all lung cancer deaths.

Connection Between Bladder Cancer and Smoking

We all know that smoking causes wrinkles, esophageal cancer, and tooth decay. Did you know, however, that there is a strong connection between cigarette smoking and bladder cancer?

The connection between bladder cancer and cigarette smoking is more about what happens after the deep inhale than it is about what happens during it, and it’s just another excuse to quit or never start smoking in the first place.

Smoking as a Lifestyle

For several smokers, a cigarette with their morning coffee or at certain times of the day has been part of a long-standing everyday routine. The smoke reaches the lungs through the mouth, nose, and lungs. The smoke then leaves the body through exhalation, which appears to be reasonable.

So it’s true: the smoke exits the body in a similar manner as it entered. But what about the toxins and carcinogens that remain in the environment? Where do they go if they don’t leave your body?

You may be surprised by the answer.

Smoking’s Effects on the Bladder

Toxins and carcinogens from cigarettes that aren’t exhaled stay in the bloodstream, but not all of them stay in the lungs; instead, they mostly accumulate in the urinary tract.

Your body then channels these toxic chemicals through the urinary tract, much as it does with food, drink, or regular cellular waste, before it’s time to eliminate the waste through urination. These chemicals can stay in your body for a long time before they are removed, and their effects can be seen in the urinary tract, but particularly in the bladder.

In reality, smokers are three times more likely than nonsmokers to develop bladder cancer.

Smoking Creates a Dangerous Exposure

If you smoke, the chemicals that include cigarettes will expose you, your loved ones, or your unborn kid. You surely wouldn’t think of inhaling or ingesting intoxicating poisonous chemicals such as arsenic, formaldehyde, lead or ammonia, as a part of your everyday routine.

Such exposure in the urine causes the bladder to become compromised by very high concentrations of dangerous residues left behind by cigarette smoke. The outcome? In smoking people a disturbingly high rate of blood cancer.

Is Any Type of Smoking Safe?

Even if they are promoted as safe alternatives to regular cigarettes, e-cigs, vaping, snuffing, and cigars are treated as cigarettes in our bodies. This means that our urinary health and our overall health are still being compromised.

Nicotine and other chemicals, such as formaldehyde, that are excreted in the urine like cigarettes and increase cancer risk, are included in vapor and e-cigarettes. TSNAs – tobacco-specific nitrosamines – are one the most potent carcinogenic substances known to man, because of the large concentrations of nitrates and nitrites in Cigars that have aged or fermented tobacco. TSNAs are also offered by pipe smoking.

In the meantime, snuff is taken into the body directly as chew or as smokeless tobacco and absorbed in the mouth. It is also swallowed too often, which frequently occurs in various cancers such as bladder cancer.

Bladder Cancer Presentation in Patients

If you smoke, vape, or chew (or even if you don’t), and you notice the following symptoms, seek medical attention immediately:

• Blood in your urine
• Frequent and painful bladder infections
• Frequent, painful, or burning sensations while urinating

If you smoke now or were ever a smoker and are presenting symptoms of bladder cancer, see your urologist right away. The earlier the cancer is detected, the better your chances are for a positive resolution.

The Philippine Urological Association, Inc. has Urologists that are fit to treat this problem and you may contact them through this website.