After all these years with the Surgeon General and health expert’s warnings too many otherwise intelligent men and women still have the tobacco habit. Cigarettes kill 440,000 Americans a year, on average, so right there that’s 440,000 good reasons not to smoke. Smoking tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars markedly increases your risk of contracting one or more life-threatening illnesses. … Upon quitting, a smoker’s health may begin to improve within hours. And just in case you’ve been residing in a bubble all these years, here’s a brief list of those diseases:
Cancer
Tobacco smoke contains no less than 69 carcinogens, according to the National Cancer Institute. Carcinogens are substances that potentially can cause cancer by directly or indirectly interfering with the genetic information found inside cells. Among the carcinogens present in tobacco smoke are ammonia, vinyl chloride, benzene, carbon monoxide and cadmium. Smoking can lead to cancer of the lungs, mouth, larynx, esophagus, stomach and pancreas and has been linked to acute myeloid leukemia. Approximately 30 percent of all cancer cases in the United States are related to smoking, according to the American Cancer Society.
Cardiovascular Disease
Smoking increases your blood pressure and depletes the body’s beneficial cholesterol, known as HDL, whose functions include preventing harmful cholesterol — LDL — from building up inside arteries. As a result, smokers are more prone to arteriosclerosis, an accumulation of fatty substances collectively termed plaque. Arteriosclerosis is a major factor in the development of heart disease. Smoking also makes blood more clot-prone, which, combined with increased LDL levels, has the potential to cut off blood flow to the brain and cause a stroke. In addition, smoking increases your risk of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, a dangerous swelling of the portion of the body’s main aorta found in the abdomen.
Respiratory Illness
Smoking stimulates the production of mucus in the lungs while hampering and destroying the hair-like structures know as cilia that clean out mucus and toxins. Excess mucus often is manifested as a chronic cough and makes lungs more susceptible to infections. Smokers may therefore experience more colds with more severe symptoms. Moreover, smoking increases your likelihood of dying from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which can involve emphysema and chronic bronchitis. The former refers to the destruction of the air sacs that allow lungs to expand; the latter is a condition in which the passageways inside lungs swell. Both emphysema and chronic bronchitis make breathing difficult.
Smoker’s Health
The fact is this, if you take your health and life seriously, you can’t smoke, not even socially, not even a puff here and there. The research shows that even just one puff infects your body with toxins and chemicals, and alters your body chemistry. The really crappy part is that just being around smoke can make you sick, as inhaling second hand smoke is even more dangerous.
Some smokers do LOOK fit – in part due to their smoking habit – as cigarettes contain the stimulant nicotine, which curbs the appetite. That’s one reason people gain weight when they finally kick the nasty habit. I’ve even heard some people say that they started smoking to lose weight – and I think that’s nuts! So to be thinner, you’ll cough, be sick, yellow aging skin, reek of smoke, and most likely die prematurely? Yeah, that’s a really sound decision.
In addition to the numerous health dangers, smoking is detrimental to physical fitness even among relatively young, fit individuals. Study findings suggest that smokers will have lower physical endurance than nonsmokers, even after differences in the average exercise levels of smokers and nonsmokers are taken into account. Cigarette smokers should be given strong encouragement to stop smoking as part of any effort to improve physical fitness.
Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff
And if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette
With thanks to Willie Nelson’s lyrics
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