Experiment shows impact smoking one cigarette has on body

It's become abundantly clear over the past few decades that cigarettes are far from good from us, but even one could take a while off our life expectancy.

Studies have long looked to establish the impact that cigarettes have on our bodies, with it now obvious that regularly smoking can increase our chances of developing serious conditions such as lung cancer or blood clots.

Even second-hand smoke can cause problems for our health, and while many have had success in switching to vaping, the constant puffing of the e-cigarettes has also been linked with some dangerous diseases.

Sir Thomas Beecham famously said 'try everything once, except folk dancing and incest', and it seems as if the conductor should have added smoking cigarettes to that exclusive list given the impact that just one can have.

It was initially believed that smoking a cig took 11 minutes off your life, a new study from The University College London revealed that the average is nearer to 20 minutes, almost double the figure.

It comes to 17 minutes per cig for men, and 22 minutes for women, meaning that you can shorten your life by almost four hours if you smoke a whole box.

There are now more people who vape than smoke cigarettes in the UK (getty stock)

A YouTube video from Chris Notap has also given us an insight into what exactly happens to our lungs when we have a smoke, and it's worth picturing this the next time you get offered one on a night out.

the video shows the human lung as a soda bottle with some water and cotton buds, showing how many toxins you breathe into your lungs when you smoke.

After assembling his experiment, Notap lights a cigarette and lets it burn while slowly letting water out of the bottle - to simulate exhaling - and waits as the smoke fills up his makeshift lung.

Once the cigarette is finished burning, Notap then simulates exhalation by refilling the bottle from the bottom and expelling the lingering smoke.

Granted, you're not holding smoke in your lungs as long as Notap's experiment does, but the final result is pretty grim.

After removing the cotton bud stuffed into the neck of the bottle, we see how the previously pristine white ball is now discoloured and yellow from the toxins inhaled.

While we can't claim that a cotton bud and our lungs would have the exact same reaction, the thought of this gunk sitting at the bottom of our lungs is enough to put anyone off.

"Well the bottom line is, smoking is bad for you," Notap explained at the end of his video.

"You're only meant to have one thing going in [your lungs] and that's air.

"Why would you want to introduce smoke into something that gives you life and helps you thrive."

Now, you probably already knew that smoking was bad for our lungs, but this gives you a pretty clear picture about why even one could spell serious trouble, while 30 packs is another problem entirely.