No Smoking for Life

Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Smoking causes many diseases and reduces the health of smokers in general. The adverse health effects from cigarette smoking account for an estimated 443,000 deaths, or nearly one of every five deaths, each year in the United States. More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined. Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women. An estimated 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease are caused by smoking.

Smoking and Increased Health Risks:

Compared with nonsmokers, smoking is estimated to increase the risk of—

Coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times,
Stroke by 2 to 4 times,
Men developing lung cancer by 23 times,
Women developing lung cancer by 13 times and dying from chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) by 12 to 13 times.

Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease:

Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Cigarette smoking causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels (arteries) and puts smokers at risk of developing peripheral vascular disease (i.e., obstruction of the large arteries in the arms and legs that can cause a range of problems from pain to tissue loss or gangrene). Smoking causes abdominal aortic aneurysm (i.e., a swelling or weakening of the main artery of the body—the aorta—where it runs through the abdomen).

Smoking and Respiratory Disease:

Smoking causes lung diseases (e.g., emphysema, bronchitis, chronic airway obstruction) by damaging the airways and alveoli (i.e., small air sacs) of the lungs.

Smoking and Cancer Disease:

Smoking causes the following cancers:

Acute myeloid leukemia
Bladder cancer
Cancer of the cervix
Cancer of the esophagus
Kidney cancer
Cancer of the larynx (voice box)
Lung cancer
Cancer of the oral cavity (mouth)
Pancreatic cancer
Cancer of the pharynx (throat)
Stomach cancer

 

Smoking and Other Health Effects

Smoking has many adverse reproductive and early childhood effects, including increased risk for—infertility, preterm delivery, stillbirth, low birth weight, and
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Smoking is associated with the following adverse health effects:

Postmenopausal women who smoke have lower bone density than women who never smoked.

 

Women who smoke have an increased risk for hip fracture than women who never smoked.

How to Quit?

Quitting smoking can be a three-step process.

1. Recognise that you should quit:

"Begin with the end in mind"

The fact that you are reading this article may indicate that you recognise the harmful effects of smoking, and if you are a smoker, you may want to quit it. This self-realisation is the first step in the war against smoking.

Some tips:

Write down your goals in your personal diary. Keep checking regularly to see whether you are following your goals. If required, take the help of a supportive spouse, parent, friend, or child to remind you, in a gentle way, about your goals.

2. Be convinced why you want to quit:

Mere recognition is, of course, not enough. What is more important is to know why you want to quit. Be convinced about the reasons you want to quit.

Some tips:

Remind yourself of the reasons why smoking is bad for you.
Visualise how quitting smoking will make you feel better and improve your health.
Visit sites that are dedicated to anti-smoking that have years of experience with helping people quit smoking. Help cancer patients in hospitals, you will be convinced about the dangers of smoking. Moreover, your attempts to help cancer patients battle this dreadful disease will be appreciated.

3. Quit:

It is now time to take the plunge, and finally do what you should have done long back—quit! There are only two ways to quit: abruptly quitting or gradually reducing cigarette consumption.