KUALA LUMPUR: Smoking and vaping could cause serious damage to vital organs long before symptoms appear, increasing the risk of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure, even among younger individuals, medical experts have warned.
Sunway Medical Centre (SMC), Sunway City respiratory physician and interventional pulmonologist Dr Syed Ajmal Syed Ali said the misconception that smoking primarily affects the lungs often leads people to underestimate its wider and potentially life-threatening consequences.
“Smoking is best understood as a systemic disease process, not a single-organ problem. When you inhale a cigarette or a vape, more than 7,000 chemicals can enter the bloodstream and travel throughout the entire body. The lungs are just where the story begins,” he said in a statement today.
