Quitting Smoking

Poll

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Author:
Ted Crawford

EVERYONE knows that smoking is bad for you and affects the heart and lungs AND causes cancer. Cigarette smoking is the #1 preventable cause of premature death in the United States; accounting for more than 440,000 deaths every year in this country alone.

When you light up, a plethora of toxic chemicals enter your lungs and bloodstream. Some of these chemicals send signals to the heart to make it beat and work harder and faster. Smoking causes vessels to constrict (tighten and narrow), forcing blood to travel through a smaller area. These effects cause blood pressure to increase. Many people develop hypertension (high blood pressure) ALL of the time just due to their smoking habits. Smoking also increases LDL (low density lipoproteins), the so-called "bad" cholesterol in the body. This in turn increases the likelihood of plaques (fatty deposits) to develop on the insides of blood vessels to form atherosclerosis; "hardening of the arteries." Smoking also greatly increases the risk of blood clots (thromboses) to form and block your blood vessels. In time, these clots and fatty deposits increase the risk of, and can lead to, either a stroke (a blockage of a vessel to the brain), or a myocardial infarction (heart attack), a blocked coronary artery.

Smoking, of course, also causes emphysema, a serious lung disease that impairs breathing by clogging the bronchial airways with inflammation and mucous.

Here are just a few of the many benefits to quitting smoking:

*Your skin will look smoother and younger. Smoking wrinkles you prematurely. I can usually determine who smokes and doesn't when a patient enters my office based on their face.

*You will SMELL better! I can also identify a smoker by the smell of smoker when I enter a room.

*It will reduce the risk for heart disease by nearly 1/2 half!

*It will reduce the risk of having a blood clot and stroke.

*It will reduce your risk of developing emphysema.

*It improves your stamina for exercising and doing your normal activities. Do you want to have prongs sticking out of your nose hooked up to an oxygen tank that you have to drag around?

*It greatly improves your sense of taste AND smell.

*You will SAVE tons of money; NOW AND LATER!

Quitting smoking IS a difficult process, but it is well worth the effort. If you still smoke, please talk to your doctor about it! Their are aids to help you stop today!

Copyright 2006 Ted Crawford

"The Smoking Gun...Why You Need To Put It Away!"==>http://www.babyboomersdoc.com

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Smoking... Start Smoking Now! Remember the Marlboro guy? You don't see those sorts of ads promoting tobacco products on TV anymore. Back in the day, it used to be cool to smoke. Today we know, more than ever, the many health problems that are associated with smoking a tobacco product. It is finally being seen as a bad habit, perhaps a socially unacceptable one by a few. But, why do so many people start smoking then? Each year millions of people will light their first cigarette. Will it be you this year? Why We Smoke Fitting in- In many schools, smoking is a large problem. Yes, it is still peer pressure that forces many teens to light up. Whether caused by the bully or the "come on, are you cool or not?" routine, smoking still happens quite a bit in those younger years. The best way to prevent your child from smoking is to talk to them about what it is, what it does to them, and the need to avoid it in the first place. The partner does it- This is another large reason why people begin smoking in their young adult years. As they begin to date and hang around a group of people, they may just learn to smoke. Even if the non-smoking partner is never asked to take a smoke, it often happens that he/she gives it a try. At other times, people start it because it's easier to make conversation at bars or clubs. Stress relief- Many people know that those who are smoking are relieving stress through it. So, if your life gets overloaded with anxiety and worry, maybe smoking a pack will help you to deal with it. Atleast that's how many individuals start smoking. Like other addictions, these feelings simply serve as a short-term escape from reality. All of these reasons to start smoking do not have any real merit. After all, who really believes that it is cool to...