Effects of Smoking

Smoking is dumb, it ages you and will make you less attractive...

And Smoking will Kill You!

On average, each cigarette you smoke shortens your life span by 11 minutes!!!

Each drag on a cigarette exposes your lungs to 43 chemicals we know cause cancer!

30,000 people worldwide burn or suffocate to death because of fires caused by cigarettes each year!

The following are some of the dangerous effects of smoking and why you should Quit Right Away if you haven't already:

Smoking is a leading cause of cancers of the throat, swallow pipe, lung, stomach, and kidneys.

It leads to unattractive tar deposits on your teeth and fingernails.

Smoking in your home makes breathing ailments and ear infections more likely in your children. And they are more likely to pick up the habit as adults.

You put yourself at risk for chronic bronchitis and emphysema - lung disorders - by long term smoking, both conditions of which leave you permanently short of breath and are miserable to live with.

Smoking depresses your immune system making colds and flus more likely.

Your sense of smell and taste are corrupted by smoking.

Smoking increases coronary artery disease leading to heart attacks.

Tobacco smoke lowers fertility and in pregnant mothers and lowers baby birth weight.

The good news is: most of the damage from smoking can be reversed by your body if you quit before it becomes irreversible.

Smokers tend to feel good after a puff because nicotine is a stimulant poison. In fact, because of this effect tobacco was promoted as a tonic in the old days. Nicotine causes your heart to beat faster, cuts your appetite, and raises your blood pressure. But placing your hand in a fire does the same thing - that doesn't mean it's good for you!

The Harmful Chemicals in Tobacco Smoke

Each puff of cigarette smoke has in over 4000 chemicals, 40 of which we know cause cancer!!!

And did you know that Nicotine, the addictive ingredient of cigarettes is used in agriculture as an insect killer?

Each drag you take on a cigarette also has in the following household chemicals you may find familiar:

Acetone = Wall paint stripper.
Arsenic = Ant poison.
Ammonia = Floor and toilet cleaner.
Butane = Lighter fluid.
Carbon Monoxide = Car exhaust.
DDT = Insecticide.
Methanol = NASA fuel.
Naphthalene = Moth balls.
Nicotine = Insecticide and weed killer.
Vinyl Chloride = PVC pipes.

Now why would you want to put that filth into your lungs?

Read on and lets talk about quitting right now.

Smoking and Pregnancy

Remember that smoking affects you AND your baby!

The following are just some of the horrible effects smoking in pregnancy can have on your baby:

Lower birth weight. Smoking reduces the amount of blood that reaches your placenta starving your baby of the food it needs to grow strong.
Smoking makes it harder to get pregnant in the first place by lowering your fertility.
Once pregnant, smoking makes miscarriages more likely.
After birth, babies born to smoking mothers cry more as they crave the nicotine you do in cigarette smoke.
Babies born to smoking mothers are more likely to die unexplained (SIDS), and to suffer from asthma and ear infections when older.
Children of smoking parents are more likely to smoke too.

Next! Learn about the terrible chemicals in cigarettes the 'Smoking Industry' doesn't want you to know about...

Quit Smoking !!!

So you think SMOKING is silly and you're ready to quit. The following is a 3 point game plan to help you stop permanently:

Step 1: Have your Reasons to Quit Smoking

You need to be very clear in your mind why you are quitting smoking. You need to list all the ways that smoking is costing and hurting you. You need write down on a piece of paper how smoking is turning your teeth brown, how you might have a hidden cancer because of smoking, how much money you're putting into your ashtray every month, how silly you feel following the smoking crowd, how selfish you are blowing your homicidal smoke into the faces of friends and family etc.

Step 2: Be Committed to Quit Smoking

You can't be serious about quitting and have a pack stashed away under your mattress "in case of emergency". This is one time you have to burn all your bridges because just one pull on a skinny cigarette can drag you back into smoker slavery. Now here's how to prove you mean business:

Don't you find wishy-washy people lame? Good, then you need to tell everybody you know that you're quitting smoking by some date. That way you'll have to smoke in your closet if you fail.
Throw out every cigarette, every ash tray, every lighter you own and every smoking friend you have. It's important to keep everything away that reminds you of smoking when you're quitting. That means staying away from places with lots of smoke and friends who smoke around you. Ever wonder why every bartender in the world likes a drink; it's hard not too with it swirling all around you all the time. So keep the smoke away while you quit.
Set a date to quit smoking. You can plan to quit everyday for the rest of your life but good intentions won't help you. You need to set aside a date to stop. Vacation is a bad time. It needs to be a time when you are busy - that helps to keep your mind off it.

Step 3: Be Ready for the Fight to Quit Smoking

Cigarette smoke is addictive but nowhere as strong as other drugs like cocaine. So you can beat this thing. Eight out of every ten smokers who quits does it 'cold turkey'. That means no crutches, no fancy support groups, no outside help. Just them, the cigarettes, and the willpower to say NO!. But forewarned is forearmed. These are the obstacles in your path that you'll have to cross over on your way to being free of smoke:

The craving - there's no way around it, you're going to feel like something's missing from your life. But it will pass. The longer you don't give in the less its power over you will be. Each time you think of a cigarette it might help to also think of the bitter and filthy poisons you'll be sucking into your innocent lungs. Keeping busy also helps. When you get a craving to smoke, doing a hobby or going for a walk should help. If you really can't stand it then you could try a nicotine patch.
The fidgeting - for some people it's not the smoke but the cigarette itself and the puffing motion they crave because it relaxes them in public. But other people do things like chew gum, crack their knuckles, play with their hair etc. If you find that without a cigarette you feel uncomfortable you can invent a new fidget or choose from one of the above.
Weight gain - One of the toxic effects of smoking is that it lowers weight. But off cigarettes you can expect only to gain at most 10 pounds. That's really not much of a visible difference.
Antisocial? - One of the comforts of smoking is doing it with friends; it's like sharing a drink. A kind of bonding experience. But think of it this way, are you still close with all of your friends from ten years ago? Do you think then that your cigarette sharing friends now will visit you in hospital when you have lung cancer thirty years from now?

Smoking is just plain awful and one of the dumbest decisions you could ever make. And deciding to quit is one of the smartest. So why not quit smoking right now?