good reasons to quit smoking

You have undoubtedly heard it preached over & over, about smoking and the dangers of heart disease, strokes and lung cancer, but that's only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. It's not just your heart & lungs that suffer. Smoking poisons every cell in your body, and also drains your wallet. Cigarette smoking has been linked to many other types of cancer besides just lung, including Larynx, Esophageal and Stomach cancer. Overall cancer risks are increased including pancreas, liver, and kidney. Besides that, there are plenty of other good practical reasons to quit.

Smokers are finding themselves increasingly unpopular. As new anti-smoking laws go into effect every year, and non-smokers are fed up with breathing their smoke, smokers have become social outcasts. Most people don't want to be around them. In California, smoking in public has even been banned altogether in many communities. Have you ever noticed how often smokers are forced to go outside in the weather to smoke, at smoke-free indoor events? You see them standing outside on the street puffing on their butts like losers. Back 50 or 60 years ago, smoking was considered "cool" and fashionable, but it has become very "uncool" in the 21st Century. There is a strong association between education level and smoking. The least educated people smoke the most. Today, increasingly cigarette smoking carries a stigma, as a dirty low-class habit.

The figures below speaks for itself. Do the math. This is a very conservative estimate based on the cheapest price Americans would likely pay for cigarettes in a state with low tobacco taxes. It's unimaginable how much a 4-pack-a-day habit would cost here, let alone Canada, where cigarette prices are about double US prices.

Pack/Day	$$/Day	$$/Week	$$/Month	$$/Year
1	$3.55	$24.85	$99.40	$1192.80
1.5	$5.33	$37.31	$149.24	$1790.88
2	$7.10	$49.70	$198.80	$2385.60
2.5	$8.88	$62.16	$248.64	$2983.68

Almost nothing short of exposure to Chernobyl's radioactive core ages the body faster than cigarette smoking, and consequently spoils beauty. There's real truth to the saying "smokers look like smokers." They generally look older and have more wrinkles than non-smokers of the same age. Smoking poisons every cell in the body, especially the skin, thereby causing wrinkles and accelerating aging. Tar & carbon particulate (which blackens the lung), deminishes lung capacity to take in oxygen, while the carbon monoxide displaces oxygen in the blood stream. Nicotine constricts blood vessels, and capillaries, but stimulates the heart to work harder. A study was done with two identical twins, one a smoker, the other a non-smoker. Infrared photography clearly demonstrated dramatic differences in skin temperatures.

Toxic chemicals and radioactive isotopes are also at work. Chemicals such as Nitrosamines (toxic nitric oxide compounds), Acrolein, Acetaldehyde, weakens and breaks down the collagen that bonds cells and tissues together. Wrinkling around the lips "purse lips" is common in long-time smokers, especially women. Years of heavy smoking can visibly age a person as much as 20 years.

Do you often finding yourself out of breath trying to keep up with your non-smoking friends? Are you finding yourself going to the 24-Hour Wal-mart at 2am because you've run out of cigarettes and need your next nicotine fix? Are you a slave to your habit? Do cigarettes restrict your activities, and prevent you from doing things you would love to do? Maybe you avoid going to the movies because you don't want to miss any parts, because you must go outside to have a smoke, or perhaps you never fly anywhere since smoking is banned on airline flights.

Smokers generally lead a sedentary lifestyle, simply because their bodies are starving for oxygen, not to mention the unhealthy effects of inhaling smoke and toxic chemicals. Smokers have great difficulty physically keep up with their non-smoking friends for long walks on the beach or hikes in the mountains.

Smoking kills your sense of smell & taste. Many smokers are unable to enjoy the fragrance of wildflowers in the country or fresh fruit at the farmer's market. After years or decades of smelling nothing but stale tobacco, many ex-smokers are amazed at what they can smell & taste after quitting.

Smoking is the only addiction that's involuntarily shared with others. Second-hand or environmental tobacco smoke ETS, is responsible for lung cancer in thousands of non-smokers every year, who live with smokers or work in a smoking environment. Some men have killed their non-smoking wives with lung cancer, by exposing them to their smoke. Most smokers fail to consider the rights of non-smokers, and usually always choose to smoke in their presence anyway. For many smokers, only the law is a deterence.

Smoking is not just dangerous to your health, but can also be physically dangerous. Smokers on average are more accident prone, and at least 20 times more likely to become involved in fires than non-smokers. Smoking in bed is responsible for 80% of fatal house fires, and 50% of forest fires. Smokers tend to have a much higher motor vehicle accident rate. Lighting up a cigarette and smoking while driving, is very distracting, like talking on the cell phone. Some smokers have been known to smoke while pumping gas which is illegal, and more than one smoker has ignited a fire and ended up in the burn unit.

For men who smoke, smoking has been linked to erectile dysfunction (E.D.) and infertility in both sexes. Some men make the mistake of relying on drugs ie: Viagra, Cialis to make up for the loss, when all they really need to do is quit smoking and start living a healthy lifestyle.

The life of a smoker is that of hassle and inconvenience. Having to make trips to the store when you run out of cigarettes, and fewer places to smoke in public, with more anti-smoking laws, and no-smoking policies. Even in many private non-smoking homes, smokers are asked to not smoke in their homes. Many smokers won't go the movies since smoking is banned there. If you think that's bad, the ultimate inconvenience is having to haul an oxygen tank with you everywhere you go, especially when you're sick and weak from emphysema. Sitting in the back of your Church with an oxygen tube in your nose, pumping out doses of Oxygen every 5 seconds, "PSSST! PSSST! PSSST!..." is no fun!

Good reasons to quit cigarettes