When something is going wrong in your body, there will be signs. They may be subtle, but they are visible in close observation. If you are a smoker, you may be worried about the smell of smoke emanating from your mouth or clothes. However, there are other signs that tell whether you smoke or not and these signs are difficult to get rid of!

Smoking is the harmful act of inhaling tobacco infused smoke and is a common activity all over the world. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 480,000 deaths happen each year due to smoking or smoke inhalation. The organization explained that smoking causes harm to nearly all organs and quitting lowers the risk of early death and other smoking related diseases.

Like many other substances, there are clear tell-tale signs when someone is smoking. This is especially important for finding lung problems like Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is a lung disease that makes it hard to breathe, sooner so people can get help.

Why Does Smoking Affect Your Physical Appearance?

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) explains that tobacco smoke has more than 7,000 harmful chemicals like nicotine, carbon monoxide, and various metals like arsenic, cadmium, and lead, quickly reach your lungs and then travel through your blood to all your organs, including your skin. Smoking damages your skin's ability to heal because it increases an enzyme metalloproteinase (MMPs) that breaks down collagen. Collagen is what keeps your skin smooth and elastic. As you lose collagen, your skin sags. Squinting from the smoke and puckering your mouth when smoking also cause wrinkles around your eyes and mouth.

Smoking also reduces blood flow to your skin, which means it gets less oxygen and nutrients. All these things together lead to what doctors call a "smoker's face." Quitting smoking can help prevent or slow down these skin problems."

Visible Signs Of Smoking

Here are some visible signs of smoking in people, according to 2013, Lung India

Fingers and Nails

When people smoke, the tar and other chemicals in the smoke stick to their fingers and nails. This repeated contact causes a yellow stain that's hard to wash off. It's a very common sign that someone regularly handles cigarettes or biris.

Moustaches

Especially in older people with white moustaches, smoking causes a yellowing effect. This is most noticeable in the center of the moustache, where the smoke from the nose directly hits the hair. The consistent exposure to smoke colors the hair over time.

Lips

Heavy smokers often have a bluish-black tint to their lips. This discoloration happens because the chemicals in tobacco smoke affect the blood flow and the color of the skin on the lips. The constant exposure changes the lip's natural color.

Teeth

Smoking causes teeth to stain both inside and out. The outside of the teeth turns yellow from the tar, while the inside develops a brownish-black stain. This happens because the smoke seeps into the enamel and discolors the teeth over time.

Premature Wrinkling

Smoking makes the skin age faster. This leads to wrinkles like "crow's feet" around the eyes and "cobblestone wrinkles" on the neck. This happens because smoking reduces blood flow, limiting oxygen to the skin, and damages collagen, which keeps skin elastic.

Nodular Elastosis

This condition, also known as "Favre–Racouchot syndrome," causes blackheads and wrinkles, especially around the eyes and temples. It is made worse by both sun exposure and heavy smoking. The skin becomes discolored with visible nodules and wrinkles.

Facial Wrinkling and COPD

A study published in Thorax 2006 found a connection between wrinkles on the face and COPD, a lung disease. It's thought that smoking affects both the skin and lungs through similar processes. If doctors notice signs like "crow's feet" on a smoker's face, they might recommend tests for COPD. This early detection can help people get treatment sooner and improve their lung health.

The monsoon season brings a respite from scorching heat, but it also increases the risk of contracting various diseases and infections. Apart from common illnesses like dengue, malaria, and typhoid fever, states and cities in India also face the risk of specific infections based on climate, geography, infrastructure, parasites, and sanitation.

Prevention Of Gut Infections During Monsoon

In a conversation with Health and Me, Dr Aabha Nagral, Director of Gastroenterology, Chief Hepatologist and Liver Transplant Physician at Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, explained how rains can lead to contamination of water sources, increasing the spread of fecal-oral infections.

As the monsoon has set in, several states in India, including Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu are facing an alarming rise of gastrointestinal infections. Heavy rains are one of the reasons behind contamination of drinking water and food supplies.

Bacteria, viruses, and parasites in food and drinking water often result in a spike in diarrhea, vomiting, food poisoning, and gastroenteritis. Increased bacterial growth in warm and humid conditions, combined with poor food hygiene and subpar sanitation facilities, contributes to the rise of gut infections in urban areas like Mumbai.

Recent research and seasonal trends also support the increase in these infections. A 2025 review published in Frontiers in Tropical Diseases found that tropical infections like cholera, giardiasis, and enterotoxigenic E. coli infections disrupt the gut microbiome by reducing beneficial bacteria and increasing harmful microbes.

Faecal-oral diseases and infections like hepatitis A and E mainly cause jaundice, whereas gastroenteritis presents with diarrhea. On the other hand, typhoid can present with high fevers.

Dr Nagral says, “You can have various other diseases during the rains by what we call faecal-oral contamination of water. So, we know that during the rainy season, the water gets contaminated more easily. So, make sure that you are boiling your water for at least 10 minutes, or if you are using RO or any other means of sterilising the water. Also, make sure your systems are well serviced regularly so that the water you drink is well filtered and sterile.”

The water source is among the first to get contaminated during the monsoon. Dr Nagral suggests these tips to prevent gut infections.

• Avoid foods and drinks that contain water in different forms

• Avoid street-side juices during monsoons to prevent gut infections

• Avoid any drink that contains ice or that has been sitting out for a long time

Dr Aabha Nagral also spoke about avoiding consuming street foods as they are more likely to be contaminated during the monsoon.

She explains, “Also, I would say avoid all street food because that’s how diseases spread. They spread through flies which sit on the faeces, which are often unfortunately there on our roadside, and then onto your food or drinks.”

Common Monsoon Diseases

Monsoon diseases can vary across India depending on rainfall, flooding situation, sanitation, and local mosquito populations. Some of the most common ones include dengue, malaria, typhoid, and diarrheal diseases. These infections affect nearly every state during the rainy season.

Specifically, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu have seen a higher likelihood of leptospirosis following floods.

Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand continue to record high malaria cases, while flood-prone states like Odisha, Assam, and Bihar are vulnerable to water-borne illnesses, including cholera and gastroenteritis.

A recent study has found proof that an autoimmune reaction is triggering certain neurological symptoms seen in some long COVID patients. The study, conducted in healthy mice, found that the mice exhibited symptoms mirroring those of affected patients to some extent.

What is Long COVID?

While it has been a long time since the end of the COVID pandemic, its effects continue to linger even today. Several patients who contracted COVID continue to suffer.

Autoantibodies Behind Long COVID Symptoms?

A US NIH-funded research group, directed by Drs. Akiko Iwasaki and Tamas L. Horvath of the Yale University School of Medicine and Dr. David Putrino of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai recently found that autoantibodies could be triggering these neurological symptoms in some long COVID patients.

Antibodies, in a healthy person, help fight infections. In patients with autoimmune diseases, these antibodies target the body’s own tissues. They are called autoantibodies.

The study also discovered that patients who had these autoantibodies are more likely to experience similar symptoms. For example, people with autoantibodies are more likely to face symptoms like loss of taste and smell. They are also more likely to experience nausea and joint pain.

The Mouse Experiment

The researchers conducted the study by transferring purified antibodies from long COVID patients into healthy mice. It was discovered that the mice developed the following changes that resembled the donors' symptoms:

• Antibodies from patients with chronic pain caused increased pain sensitivity

• Antibodies from patients with dizziness caused balance problems

• Antibodies from fatigued patients reduced treadmill endurance

The recent breakthrough in long COVID research has brought the healthcare industry one step closer to personalizing care for those affected.

Dr. Putrino says, “Our study now shows that if you are in a subgroup of Long COVID patients who have autoantibodies circulating in your body, this is a quantifiable sign that you may be a good candidate for these drugs.”

Long COVID Patients More Likely To Develop Heart Diseases

The study finds that cardiovascular diseases were more common among long COVID patients. It concluded that 11.9% of those with long COVID have CVD compared to 6.8% without this condition.

Specifically, it further revealed that long COVID was associated with a higher risk of chest pain and heart attack, but not coronary heart disease and stroke.

There is a growing belief that ‘sugar feeds cancer.’ Because of this, many people think that stopping sugar and carbohydrates completely can starve cancer cells and help defeat the disease. However, the trend may have side effects. This half-truth is becoming dangerous for many patients. This trend is making it even more difficult for patients to cope with the side effects of chemotherapy.

This fact is not entirely unscientific, but it is incomplete. In 1924, the German scientist Otto Warburg found that cancer cells consume more glucose than normal cells. This phenomenon is known as the Warburg Effect.

This finding has subsequently been validated in numerous studies. This is also the reason why cancer cells appear clearly in PET-CT scans. They absorb glucose-like substances more aggressively than normal cells. But this does not mean cancer can be “starved” by reducing sugar in food.

Why The Body Still Needs Glucose?

Glucose is an essential fuel for the human body. The brain, heart, red blood cells, and immune system all depend on it.

If a person completely stops eating carbohydrates, the body starts producing glucose on its own. It breaks down muscles and proteins to make energy. This process is known as gluconeogenesis. This means the cancer cells still receive fuel, but the patient’s body becomes weaker day by day. This condition is described as ‘cancer cachexia.’

In this condition, body weight and muscle mass reduce rapidly. Such patients often cannot tolerate chemotherapy and surgery properly. In some cases, their protein levels and white blood cell counts had dropped too much.

As a result, doctors had to delay treatment, reduce medicine doses, or even stop some treatment cycles. Irony is painful. In trying to starve cancer, patients sometimes end up weakening their own bodies so much that proper treatment becomes difficult.

In my clinic, I see it almost every week. In such a case, a cancer patient walks in visibly frail. She almost had lost several kilograms over the past month. When I asked about her diet, her IT professional son said that she has cut out sugar entirely. The reason behind this was the same reel-based knowledge about sugar and cancer cells. His son strictly follows this half-truth. Due to her weakness, we had to push back her treatment for a few weeks.

What Cancer Patients Should Eat

We simply suggest avoiding foods that rapidly increase blood sugar levels. These include refined sugar, sweets, soft drinks, maida, and highly processed foods. We advise cancer patients to eat complex carbohydrates, whole grains, pulses, vegetables, healthy fats, and enough protein. The best way is not to cut sugar entirely, but to lower the glycemic load.

Will Fasting help?

Some animal studies have shown the benefits of fasting during cancer treatment. However, there is still not enough evidence in humans. For patients who are already weak or losing weight rapidly, long fasting can become harmful.

The Goal Is to Stay Strong During Treatment

Cancer cells use more glucose, but starving the body cannot stop cancer. If you want to help your body, then avoid refined sugar and junk food, but continue eating balanced meals. Because sufficient protein and calories are extremely important. Practising long fasting without medical advice is harmful. The goal should be to keep the body stable and strong, not weak.

The purpose of cancer nutrition is to nourish the patient, not to starve them. Proper nutrition helps the body tolerate treatment and fight disease more effectively. What is needed is to reduce the intake of refined sugar and foods with a high glycemic index, not to declare every carbohydrate an enemy. After all, one cannot win the battle against disease by weakening the body.