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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LUNG EXPERTS GIVE 10 GOOD REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD GIVE UP SMOKING You’ll decrease your risk of heart disease and heart attack. The fact that smoking can hurt the heart and the blood vessels still surprises many people, Gay says, even though these effects have been known for years.
You’ll be less likely to have a stroke. Two times less likely, in fact. Strokes are either caused by a blood clot that gets stuck in the blood vessels of the brain, cutting off blood supply, or by the bursting of a weakened blood vessel in the brain. Either way, part of the brain dies immediately, and so can the person who is having the stroke. Most stroke survivors live out their lives paralyzed or severely weakened. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. (after heart disease and cancer) and the top cause of disability, but since you can cut your risk in half by kicking the habit, Gay says, why not do it? |
Table of contents: Reduce your risk of heart disease and heart attack. Lower you risk of having a stroke. less likely to experience erectile dysfunction. Your appearance will improve if you quit. The dangers of second-hand smoke. keep your kids from getting sick from second-hand smoke.
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You’ll be less likely to experience erectile dysfunction. This is one effect that most men don’t know about, but if they did, they’d probably get more serious about quitting, Gay says — only half-joking. “Men who smoke have a 50 percent increased risk of developing erectile dysfunction than men who don’t smoke, even after you eliminate all the other medical problems that cause erectile dysfunction,” he explains. The easiest way for a man to reduce his chances of problems in the bedroom is to throw away his cigarettes. If you’re a woman, you’ll be less likely to have fertility problems, or give birth to a premature or low birth weight baby. Do you want to get pregnant and have a healthy baby? Stop smoking now, before you even start trying to conceive, Gay advises. “Women who smoke have an increased risk of problems with fertility, increased risk of pre-term deliveries, increased risk of having a low birth weight baby, and an increased risk of infant death,” he explains. These hazards related to smoking and pregnancy may also give your baby a higher chance of birth defects, and lifelong health and learning problems. Quitting will help your personal appearance, by reducing bad breath, yellowed teeth and fingernails, premature skin aging and early hair loss. Not only does smoking hurt your inner organs, it can also harm your outer appearance, Gay warns. The chemicals in tobacco can stain your teeth and hands, and alter the conditions in your mouth to cause bad breath. They can also accelerate the hair loss, wrinkles and loss of skin elasticity that come with older age anyway. It’s like putting your body on fast-forward, Gay notes — you’ll look and feel older than you are. And that fits right in with the fact that you’ll also probably die sooner than you would have if you didn’t smoke. If you quit now, you can probably halt many of the effects smoking has on your appearance, as well as your health. And you’ll probably smell better, too. |
If you quit, you’ll spare your spouse or partner the dangers of second-hand smoke.
Smoking at home means that anyone who lives with you gets exposed to the witches’ brew of chemicals in tobacco smoke, and breathes them in every day. And while the precise risk is not fully understood, there’s compelling evidence that this can affect their health in the long term. “There is proof that second-hand smoke is very damaging to people,” Gay says. “Non-smoking spouses of people who smoke have an increased risk of lung cancer and heart disease as compared with couples in which neither partner smokes.”
If you quit, you’ll keep your kids from getting sick from second-hand smoke.
Adults who live with smokers have it hard enough, but what about children? No matter how much you try to stay away from your kids when you smoke, you’re probably putting them at increased risk of several health conditions, Gay says. “Children who live in a household with a smoker have a two- to four-times-greater risk of asthma as children who live in a non-smoking household,” he explains. “If you stop smoking, your children have less risk of developing this and other medical problems,” from coughs and flu to ear infections and crib death.
The bottom line for any of these top reasons to quit smoking, Gay notes, is that quitting is worth the effort it takes. And he knows that quitting is hard – he has seen many patients struggle with it even when they’re facing devastating lung diseases caused by smoking.
“We physicians clearly understand how difficult it is to stop smoking.
That’s why we’re here to help you quit,” he says, adding that smokers should
be sure to ask their doctors for help in identifying medications or programs
that can help them kick the habit. Many employers will pay all or part of
the cost of smoking cessation programs, and several states and nonprofit
health groups offer help.
Read the first part of this article. Though
most smokers might assume only
their lungs suffer from their tobacco habit, Gay’s list proves
otherwise.
“Very clearly, quitting smoking will improve your health, the health of the
individuals that you love, and the health of the people around you,” Gay
says. “This is clearly the time to stop smoking. It’s good for you, it’s
good for your family, and it’s good for your life.”
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Smokers should not believe that the tar and nicotine levels listed on a pack of cigarettes are what they are actually inhaling. The take-home message of this report is that the only proven way to reduce the disease risks associated with smoking is to quit.
A majority of smokers would like to quit smoking, and understand that smoke exposure is a hazard that must be regulated.
The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are initiating a new
Tobacco-Free Sports public education program at the Paralympic
and Olympic Winter Games
Coercive and critical approaches are rarely successful in
convincing
smokers to quit. These tactics tend to make smokers feel guilty,
defensive, inadequate and afraid.
The government is to provide smoking
cessation resources to the 46 million adults in the USA who smoke, we
can make an enormous improvement in public health."
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) recently
reconfirmed what we already know: that people do tend to
gain weight when they quit smoking.
Tips to help you quit smoking.
Women make up Thirty nine percent of all smoking-related
deaths every year in the United States.
Three out of four smokers in the United States say they want to quit, but less than 5% of smokers who quit for at least a day are able to stay tobacco-free for three to 12 months.
Does
banning smoking in
restaurants present any sort of economic risk? In areas where
smoking bans are already in place do people eat out less often, and
spend less money in restaurants?
Millions of Americans smoke
"low-tar," "mild," or
"light" cigarettes, believing those cigarettes to be less
harmful than other cigarettes. The evidence does not indicate a
benefit to public health from changes in cigarette design and
manufacturing over the last 50 years.
Vice President for Campus Life, Princeton University, Janet S. Dickerson announced she has accepted recommendations from students to prohibit smoking in undergraduate dorms.
Don't Stop Pedalling By Catherine Brennan. Stand up straight. Take a deep breath. Draw the bow. Focus on the Gold. Whoosh. Release and the arrow finds its mark.
No one knows why some people have little trouble quitting, while others struggle for years to withdraw from nicotine, and make many attempts to quit smoking before they are successful.