Is Chewing Tobacco Bad for You?

The number of cigarette smokers around the world has declined gradually over the past few decades due to the association of tobacco smoke with a wide variety of diseases and illnesses. Some of these health risks are known to be very dangerous and even fatal, pushing smokers to quit smoking.

Of course, quitting cigarettes can be difficult, but as long as alternative products are available, smokers may switch flawlessly to still attain their much-needed nicotine. This is where smokeless tobacco comes into play. 

Smokeless tobacco products, which include chewing tobacco, have been around almost the same time as cigarettes do. There was even a time when they became greatly popular among tobacco users due to their historical ties to high-profile sports like baseball. So, if you used to smoke and want to switch to smokeless tobacco like chewing tobacco, you should know whether it’s safe for you to consume or not. 

How Bad Is Chewing Tobacco for You?

Smokeless tobacco products, as their name implies, are tobacco products that don’t produce any smoke. Instead, they are consumed through chewing, sucking them on, or sniffing them into the nose. These ways of consuming smokeless tobacco allow their respective juices to be absorbed into the body through the nose or mouth.

Smokeless tobacco products are available in Canada online through NativeSmokes4Less. You can buy them at highly competitive prices. You can also save more if you buy them in bulk.

Different types of smokeless tobacco exist in the market today.

Snuff, for instance, is finely ground tobacco that can be moist or dry. Moist snuff, also known as dip tobacco, is consumed by placing it between the gums and cheek. It comes in pouches, resembling little teabags. Dry snuff, alternatively, is typically sniffed up the nose. Is dip chewing tobacco? While dip and chewing tobacco are both smokeless forms of tobacco, they differ in form and use. Dip is finely ground and placed in the mouth, while chewing tobacco comes in larger leaf form and is chewed to release flavor and nicotine.

Then there’s dissolvable tobacco. It is finely ground tobacco pressed into sticks, pellets, or strips. Since it is dissolvable, one could expect the tobacco to melt in the mouth. This smokeless tobacco product has sweet flavours and can sometimes look like candy.

Perhaps, the most popular form of smokeless tobacco you can buy today is chewing tobacco.

Chewing tobacco is made from larger-grain tobacco leaves that may come loose in small cans or paper packets, twisted into a rope form, or pressed together into small bricks. Usually, this form of smokeless tobacco can be chewed or placed between the gums and cheeks for sucking. 

Since chewing tobacco doesn’t need combustion like cigarettes do, you may wonder if it is safe to consume for a long time.

Unfortunately, chewing tobacco does still present health risks to the users.

When you chew or suck chewing tobacco, it releases nicotine and other chemicals through the form of tobacco juices or spit tobacco. Since smokeless tobacco is already in your mouth, these chemicals can be directly absorbed by the thin, permeable tissues under the tongue, inside the cheeks, and along the gums. 

Nicotine, a highly addictive substance, then passes directly into your bloodstream before it reaches your brain. Since the mentioned areas in the mouth are highly vascularized, the absorption process is expected to be efficient and quick.

Chewing tobacco can be bad for your health if you are consuming it regularly. 

As you repeatedly chew or suck numerous chewing tobacco leaves in a day, the chemicals they release will start to damage your oral health. Over time, you could likely experience the effects of smokeless tobacco on your mouth, which include gum recession, tooth decay, bad breath, and mouth sores.

You may then have a higher chance of developing oral cancers, including those of the cheeks, tongue, and lips. Cancers in the throat, esophagus, and pancreas may likewise develop when you consume chewing tobacco continuously for a long time.

Chewing tobacco can also be bad for you due to the nicotine it contains.

Nicotine is a substance that is naturally produced by tobacco. When it enters your body and reaches your brain, it creates a temporary sensation of relaxation and well-being. It then increases your levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for your brain’s reward system and creating feelings of pleasure and reward. Over time, you just unintentionally crave the pleasurable sensations, pushing you to chew tobacco leaves more often until you become dependent on them.

Your nicotine dependence leads to addiction. Consuming nicotine through chewing tobacco likewise raises your blood pressure, increases your risk of heart disease, and causes systemic health problems, including organ damage and complications with digestion. 

Why Is Chewing Tobacco Bad for You?

There are plenty of reasons why many people opt for chewing tobacco instead of smoking cigarettes.

First, many past smokers believe that ditching cigarettes in favour of chewing tobacco can make them safe against the health risks associated with smoking. 

Cigarettes have been linked to many health diseases such as lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), type 2 diabetes, harmful reproductive health effects, eye disease, and immune system problems. All these risks are attributed to tobacco smoke, which contains thousands of chemicals that cover almost a hundred cancer-causing chemicals.

Since chewing tobacco doesn’t require combustion, people believe that using tobacco leaves as a way to consume tobacco protects them from the harmful risks of cigarette smoking.

But different health studies contradicted this belief, with many of them concluding that smokeless tobacco like chewing tobacco can still do harm to one’s health. 

The tobacco juices, also called spit tobacco, contain nicotine and hundreds of disease-causing chemicals. By chewing tobacco leaves regularly, you are only putting yourself at risk of developing different types of oral cancers. Diseases in your mouth may likewise occur. They include gum disease, tooth decay, gum recession, bad breath, and mouth sores.

Second, cigarette smokers and even those who haven’t smoked believe that chewing tobacco contains less nicotine than cigarettes.

Plenty of studies have found that on average, a cigarette stick may contain around 10 to 12 mg of nicotine. But as one smokes, not all nicotine content is inhaled by the body. Instead, only about 1.2 to 1.8 mg of nicotine enters the body for smoking one.

While the number of nicotine from a cigarette stick is low, the speed rate of nicotine delivery through smoking is significantly high. This is the reason why smokers can instantly feel the relaxing sensation of nicotine as soon as they start puffing a cigarette.

The same sensation might not be attained if you chew or suck tobacco leaves. Hence, many believe that chewing tobacco may deliver lower nicotine than cigarettes. The truth, however, is that smoke types of smokeless tobacco like chewing tobacco may contain more nicotine than cigarettes.

When you chew tobacco leaves, the absorption rate of nicotine may be slightly slower than smoking cigarettes, but the amount of nicotine you might be taking in your body could be significantly higher. As you continuously rely on chewing tobacco, you might find yourself having more difficulties quitting smokeless tobacco in the future than to quit smoking cigarettes. 

All these apparent risks of chewing tobacco, even when compared to cigarettes and other smoking tobacco products, make it still bad and harmful for your health. After all, tobacco products are generally harmful to one’s health due to the number of chemicals they contain and release when consumed regularly and at a high volume.

Side Effects of Chewing Tobacco

Before knowing how to consume chewing tobacco, you must familiarize yourself with the different types of chewing tobacco you can purchase today.

The first type of chewing tobacco you can buy today is loose-leaf tobacco. Loose-leaf tobacco, which is made from shredded or cut tobacco leaves, is the most convenient form of chewing tobacco you can use since you only have to pinch and place the leaves between your gum and cheek. Unlike other types of chewing tobacco, it doesn’t need cutting or biting.

Plug tobacco is another form of chewing tobacco you can purchase today. It is comprised of compact blocks of tobacco leaves blended with sweeteners. It requires either a cutting tool or a sharp bite before it can release its content. 

One more type of chewing tobacco that requires cutting or biting is twist or roll tobacco. This chewing tobacco is made of rolled strands of whole or air-cured tobacco leaves. The strands are normally twisted into a rope shape so you can consume it more easily. But unlike plug tobacco, this form of chewing tobacco only has minimal sweetening. This makes it favourable for those who prefer strong tobacco flavours on their smokeless tobacco.

Now that you know the different types of chewing tobacco and how they are typically consumed, let’s delve deeper into all the things that occur in your mouth when you use them.

When you chew or suck the chewing tobacco leaves, you will gradually feel the release of the tobacco juices from the leaves. These juices will then release nicotine and other chemicals that enhance their flavours as well as increase the effectiveness of delivering the addictive substance. 

Normally, you only consume chewing for around half an hour. Beyond that, the potency and the flavours of the tobacco leaves may depreciate gradually. It is also unpleasant to chew the leaves for more than 30 minutes since your mouth might already be tired of doing it non-stop.

Since tobacco juices contain nicotine and other harmful chemicals, you should always spit them out once they accumulate in your mouth. Swallowing tobacco juices may only put you at risk of nicotine poisoning, which you don’t want to experience in the middle of chewing your favourite tobacco leaves. This is also the reason why swallowing tobacco juices is highly not recommended.

The chemicals released by the tobacco juices will then be delivered into your bloodstream through the thin membranes in your mouth, particularly under the tongue and in your gums. When you repeatedly chew tobacco leaves for a long time, you’ll feel a number of side effects that can affect your oral health and overall well-being. Some notable side effects of chewing tobacco include the following:

• Oral health issues: One of the most common side effects of chewing tobacco has to do with your oral health. Since you’ll be chewing or sucking on tobacco leaves, the very first part of your body that can be affected by their chemicals is the mouth. Over time, you may start to notice your teeth wearing down and obtain stains due to the tobacco leaves. Your gums may likewise start to recede gradually. Other oral health issues you might experience as a side-effect of chewing tobacco leaves include tooth decay, oral sores, and bad breath.
• System-wide effects: The tobacco juices that chewing tobacco leaves release contain chemicals that are typically absorbed by the tissues in your mouth. The chemicals, once absorbed by your body, are distributed to your body systems through the bloodstream. After a few minutes of chewing tobacco leaves, you’ll feel your blood pressure and cholesterol levels slowly rise. Eventually, these body changes put you at risk of heart disease and heart attack. Chewing tobacco leaves may likewise contribute to digestive problems and even ulcers.

Since chewing tobacco leaves can cause harmful side effects to your health, it would be best for you to slowly cut down your consumption of such tobacco products until you no longer have to depend on them. Smokeless tobacco users who have quit using smokeless tobacco are known to have a lower chance of developing harmful health effects that have been mentioned earlier.

Long-Term Effects of Chewing Tobacco

Tobacco companies are keen on releasing the best tobacco products they can think of to entice as many people as possible. From smoking products like cigarettes and cigars to smokeless tobacco products like chewing tobacco and snus, they have been, so far, successful in their respective goals.

But one thing that’s been going around the tobacco industry recently is the continuous decline of users of smoking and smokeless tobacco products. A key reason behind this is the long-term effects of these products on the users. Another reason is the proliferation of alternatives that don’t contain tobacco, which encompasses e-cigarettes or vaping products and nicotine pouches.

One smokeless tobacco product that has gradually declined in sales figures is chewing tobacco. 

Chewing tobacco is a popular smokeless tobacco product that can be consumed through chewing or sucking on it. Compared to smoking cigarettes, chewing tobacco is much more discreet as it doesn’t release any smoke into the surroundings. You only have to spit out the tobacco juices intermittently to avoid the risk of nicotine poisoning.

While using chewing tobacco as a way to consume nicotine can be more discreet and more convenient, it also makes you develop health risks at an accelerated rate.

Over time, chewing tobacco can cause tons of long-term effects to users like you.

First, chewing tobacco can cause different types of cancers. They include cancer in the cheek, gums, and lips. This is because chewing tobacco contains cancer-causing chemicals that can be absorbed by your mouth’s tissues and transported to your bloodstream. 

Cancer caused by smokeless tobacco like chewing tobacco typically begins as leukoplakia. It resembles a whitish patch that grows and develops inside your mouth or throat. 

Another type of cancer you might develop when you consume chewing tobacco for a long time is erythroplakia. Erythroplakia is a red, raised patch that develops inside your mouth, which is further linked to esophageal and pancreatic cancers.

Aside from cancers, chewing tobacco may likewise cause heart disease in the long term. Chewing tobacco, when you consume it repeatedly for a long time, can increase your heart rate and blood pressure. It then raises your risk of dying of heart disease and stroke.

Apart from heart disease, chewing tobacco for a long time can likewise lead to dental diseases like cavities, worn-down teeth surfaces, teeth staining, bad breath, gum disease, receding gums, bone loss around roots, and tooth loss. 

Nicotine addiction is another long-term effect of chewing tobacco. Nicotine, as previously stated, provides a soothing sensation that relaxes one’s mind and body. This sensation is short-lived, which is why many tobacco users consume tobacco products multiple times a day for a long time just to get the same feelings over and over again. This leads to addiction. As with smoking, withdrawal from chewing tobacco may lead to intense cravings, anger, and a depressed mood.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is chewing tobacco leaves bad for you?

Yes. Chewing tobacco leaves is harmful since they contain toxic chemicals and high nicotine content. It only puts you at risk of oral cancer, gum disease, tooth decay, and other severe health problems. 

What are the side effects of tobacco chewing?

Some side effects of tobacco chewing include gum recession, bad breath, tooth decay, and sores in the mouth. It also increases your risk of pancreatic cancer and oral cancers due to the existence of carcinogens or cancer-causing chemicals. Does chewing tobacco increase testosterone? While some believe it might have short-term effects on hormone levels, the overall impact of tobacco use on health far outweighs any perceived benefits, as it can lead to nicotine addiction, digestive problems, and elevated risks of heart disease.

What are the benefits of chewing tobacco?

Chewing tobacco, for some people, helps calm themselves down and relieve their stress levels due to its nicotine content. But medically, chewing tobacco doesn’t provide any healthy benefits as it only causes health issues and health risks over time.

How bad is chewing tobacco really?

Chewing tobacco is extremely harmful as it is linked to multiple life-threatening conditions like oral cancer, throat cancer, and heart disease. It can also damage your teeth, gums, and mouth, which leads to permanent oral health issues. 

Does your mouth heal after quitting chew?

Yes, your mouth can still heal after quitting chewing tobacco. Minor issues like gum irritation and sores may improve within a few weeks or months, while more severe conditions like precancerous leukoplakia can be reversed if detected early. However, long-term damage such as gum recession or advanced oral cancer may be irreversible. 

Summary

Even though chewing tobacco is seen as a smokeless replacement for cigarettes, it could still do you more harm than good. Chewing tobacco is bad for you, especially if you’ll be using it in the long term. Different side effects and health risks could be waiting for you when you chew or suck on tobacco leaves. These health risks include cancers in the mouth, oral health issues, and many more.

To prevent getting these health risks, you must quit chewing tobacco whenever possible. You can opt for nicotine replacement therapy as a way to start your quitting tobacco journey.