What causes more DAMAGE (short and/or long term) to the body: alcohol/beer or tobacco?

Question

Taking into consideration that each is respectively used at "the same level" which is hard to compare - so say for example either you smoke half a pack a day or drink a 6 pack a day/6 shots.

Answer 1

There isn't a good answer to this question. Alcohol can cause death instantaneously if you drink too much of it (alcohol poisoning, e.g.). It can also cause death in other ways -- drunk driving, falling, etc. Barring accidental deaths like these, I'd say it was probably a toss-up between which one was more damaging to the body. However, alcohol is likely to do a lot more peripheral damage -- damage to your family, relationships, your job, your mental health, etc.

In short, they're both bad when you overdo it with either one of them.

Answer 2

That would depend on how much of either you use/consume. Smoking a pack of cigarettes a day is far worse than drinking a glass of wine with dinner a few evenings a week. But drinking a six pack of beer every night is worse than smoking a cigar on the weekends, maybe.

Answer 3

Hard to say, since they can both kill you in some way or other. Alcohol may do damage over the short term by impairing judgement and perception to the point that you wind up killing yourself and/or someone else by trying to drive drunk. It may do damage over the long term by causing things like bleeding esophageal varices, cirrhosis of the liver, and alcoholic encephalopathy (a fancy way to say brain damage).

Tobacco doesn't necessarily cause damage in the short term, but over many years of chronic abuse, it can destroy your lungs, impair your heart function, and put you at high risk for all kinds of cancers (mouth, esophagus, lung, and several others not as obviously connected to smoking).

So I'd say it was a toss-up. I knew someone who died from the indirect effects of alcohol, and I saw firsthand in a college anatomy and physiology lab what chronic tobacco use does to the lungs and heart.

Answer 4

I smoke and I can tell you smoking damages more than alcohol. When I smoke I can't work out very well, my breath is short. Tobacco is bad even if you smoke few cigarrettes but alcohol does not damage if you drink it with responsability

Answer 5

Tobacco in both short and long term

Answer 6

I'm going to say smoking they are really close tho. but I think smoking causes more cancer and illnesses. Also short term diffently just one ciggerette can cause cancer .

Answer 7

alcohol kills brain cells (but you got plenty) and you have a slight chance of being an addict.

tobacco causes lung cancer, shortness of breath, and is very addictive. it is also very difficult to quit and there are some withdrawal symptoms.

Answer 8

Well alcohol kills more people than smoking. Liver failure, accidents, etc.