It is TIME to QUIT smoking NOW! Final part

Frequently Asked Question

Suppose I smoke for a while and then quit?

Smoking begins to cause damage right away and is highly addictive. Some studies have found nicotine to be as addictive as heroin, cocaine, or alcohol. It’s the most common form of drug addiction in the United States.

It’s much better to never start smoking cigarettes -- and become addicted to nicotine -- than it is to smoke with the thought of quitting later. Like alcohol, heroin, and cocaine, nicotine creates a tolerance in the body and promotes psychological dependence. This makes it much harder to quit, but with the right support it can be done.

When an ex-smoker smokes a cigarette, even years after quitting, the body reacts in the same way as it did when the person was smoking, which can cause the person to want to smoke again. Don't think you can smoke for a short while and quit when you want to; it's seldom that easy.

My advice

To smoker

Stop smoking immediately. If you think you are not able to do it, I would suggest that you put this image deep inside your mind. Imaging one day when lifting your fingers to hold the cigarette and direct it to your mouth become mission impossible after you suffer from stroke, you will be more likely to be able to do it now.

Or think of your parents, wife/husband and children, do you want them to suffer as a result of you chasing after the sensation of pleasure.

If you still not able to do it, then do visit my website at http://our.easypha-max.com/ to look for some supplement that will help to prevent some of the diseases mentioned above like cancer, osteoporosis, stroke, cardiovascular disease, erectile dysfunction, etc.

To Non-smoker

Never, ever, start smoking.

Keep yourself far away from smokers be it friends, relatives or family members that smoke.

Do not marry or get married to those who smoke.

Start advice those who smoke to stop smoking.

Comments on how to quit smoking are most welcome. Let’s safe the planet together!

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking

www.cnusd.k12.ca.us/community_day_school/substance

/smoking/smoke_harmeffects.html

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content

/PED_10_2x_Questions_About_Smoking_Tobacco_and_Health.asp

It is TIME to QUIT smoking NOW! Part 6

Frequently Asked Question

Is cigarette smoking really addictive?

Yes. The nicotine in cigarette smoke causes an addiction to smoking. Nicotine is an addictive drug just like heroin and cocaine:

When taken in small amounts, nicotine creates pleasant feelings that make the smoker want to smoke more. It acts on the chemistry of the brain and central nervous system, affecting the smoker's mood.

Nicotine works very much like other addicting drugs, by flooding the brain's reward circuits with dopamine (a chemical messenger). Nicotine also gives you a little bit of adrenaline -- not enough to notice, but enough to speed up your heart and raise your blood pressure.

Nicotine reaches the brain within seconds after taking a puff, but its effects start to wear off within a few minutes. This often leads the smoker to get another cigarette. If the smoker doesn't smoke again soon, withdrawal symptoms kick in and get worse over time.

Smokers usually become dependent on nicotine and suffer physical and emotional (psychological) withdrawal symptoms when they stop smoking. These symptoms include irritability, nervousness, headaches, and trouble sleeping. The true marker for addiction, though, is that people still smoke even though they know smoking is bad for them -- affecting their lives, their health, and their families in unhealthy ways. Most people who smoke want to quit.

My advice

So, don’t risk yourself. It is very easy to kick start but extremely difficult to quit. You will be very much regretted if you ignore this advice.

It is TIME to QUIT smoking NOW! Part 5

Frequently Asked Question

How does smoking affect pregnant women and their babies?

Pregnant women who smoke risk the health and lives of their unborn babies. Smoking during pregnancy is linked with a greater chance of miscarriage, premature delivery, stillbirth, infant death, low birth-weight, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Up to 5% of infant deaths could be prevented if pregnant women did not smoke.

When a pregnant woman smokes, she's smoking for two. The nicotine, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals enter her bloodstream, pass directly into the baby's body, and keep it from getting vital nutrients and oxygen it needs for growth.

Breast-feeding is a good way to feed a new baby, but if the mother smokes it exposes the baby to nicotine and other poisons in the smoke through breast milk. Nicotine can cause many unwanted symptoms in the baby, such as restlessness, a rapid heartbeat, vomiting, shorter sleep times, or diarrhea.

Some research has also suggested that children whose mothers smoked while pregnant or who have been exposed to secondhand smoke, even in small amounts, may be slower learners in school. They may be shorter and smaller than children of non-smokers. They are also more likely to smoke when they get older.

My advice

Ladies, do think twice before you smoke and gentlemen do thing twice before you married a lady who smoke. It might be the starting point for your nightmare!

It is TIME to QUIT smoking NOW! Part 4

Frequently Asked Question

What are the dangers of environmental (secondhand) tobacco smoke?

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is also known as secondhand smoke. Passive smoking (inhaling secondhand smoke) happens when non-smokers breathe other people’s tobacco smoke. This includes mainstream smoke (smoke that is inhaled and then exhaled into the air by smokers) and sidestream smoke (smoke that comes directly from the burning tobacco in cigarettes, pipe or cigar especially the end part of it). ETS contains the same harmful chemicals as the smoke that smokers inhale. In fact, because sidestream smoke is formed at lower temperatures, it has even larger amounts of some toxic and cancer-causing substances than mainstream smoke.

There is strong evidence that ETS causes serious damage to human health. Each year about 3,000 non-smoking adults die of lung cancer as a result of breathing secondhand smoke. ETS causes about 35,000 deaths from heart disease each year in people who are not current smokers. It can also affect non-smokers by causing asthma and other respiratory problems, eye irritation, headaches, nausea, and dizziness.

Children whose parents smoke are more likely to suffer from asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis, ear infections, coughing, wheezing, and increased mucus production. Babies of parents who smoke have a greater chance of dying of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Pregnant women exposed to ETS are at risk for having a low birth weight baby and may also be at risk for pre-term delivery and miscarriage.

Secondhand smoke is involuntarily inhaled, lingers in the air hours after cigarettes have been extinguished, and can cause a wide range of adverse health effects, including cancer, respiratory infections, and asthma. The current Surgeon General’s Report concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Even short exposures to secondhand smoke can cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow velocity reserves, and reduce heart rate variability, potentially increasing the risk of heart attack.

My advice

So, non-smokers beware of those smokers, they are threatening your health, stop them from smoking for your own sake.

It is TIME to QUIT smoking NOW! Part 3

Health Risks – further elaboration

Emphysema

Cigarette smoking is also the major cause of emphysema -- a disease that slowly destroys a person's ability to breathe. Oxygen gets into the blood by moving across a large surface area in the lungs. Normally, thousands of tiny sacs make up this surface area. With emphysema, the walls between the sacs break down and create larger but fewer sacs. This decreases the lung surface area, which lowers the amount of oxygen reaching the blood. Over time, the lung surface area can become so small that a person with emphysema often must gasp for breath.

Shortness of breath (especially when lying down), a mild cough that doesn't go away (which is often dismissed as "smoker's cough"), feeling tired, and sometimes weight loss are early signs of emphysema. People with emphysema are at risk for many other problems linked to weak lung function, including pneumonia. In later stages of the disease, patients can only breathe comfortably with the help of an oxygen tube under the nose. Emphysema cannot be reversed, but it can be slowed down -- especially if the person stops smoking.

Stroke

A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain functions due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain. This can be due to ischemia (lack of blood supply) caused by thrombosis or embolism or due to a hemorrhage. As a result, the affected area of the brain is unable to function, leading to inability to move one or more limbs on one side of the body, inability to understand or formulate speech or inability to see one side of the visual field.

Next part will be the Question and Answers session.

It is TIME to QUIT smoking NOW! Part 2

To support my topic above, I have to quote the scariest risk to smoker so that they can stop smoking immediately after reading my blog.

Health Risks

For smokers, the specific health risks of tobacco use include:

• nicotine addiction, decreased senses of taste and smell
• increased fetal death and diseases, if mothers use
• lung disease--emphysema, chronic bronchitis, lung cancer
• coronary artery disease--angina, heart attacks
• atherosclerotic and peripheral vascular disease--aneurysms, hypertension, blood clots, strokes
• oral/tooth/gum diseases--including oral cancer
• erectile dysfunction, also known as male impotence
• Women smokers enter menopause an average of 5 years earlier than nonsmokers
• Women who smoke are at an increased risk of osteoporosis

For nonsmokers exposed regularly to second hand smoke, the specific health risks include:

• increased risk of lung cancer over those not exposed to smoke
• in infants and children, an increased frequency of respiratory infections (such as bronchitis and pneumonia), asthma, and decreases in lung function as the lungs mature
• may experience (upon exposure to smoke) acute, sudden, and occasionally severe, reactions including eye, nose, throat, and lower respiratory tract symptoms

For smokeless tobacco users the specific health risks include:

• nicotine addiction, decreased senses of taste and smell
• increased infant death and diseases, if mothers use
• oral/tooth/gum diseases--including a 50 times greater risk for oral cancer with long term or regular use
• coronary artery disease--angina, heart attacks
• atherosclerotic and peripheral vascular disease--aneurysms, hypertension, blood clots, strokes

I will elaborate further on Emphysema and strokes in part 3.

It is TIME to QUIT smoking NOW! Part 1

I would like to start this topic with the question that I ask below.

Why do people begin to smoke?

Most people begin smoking as teens, usually because of curiosity and peer pressure. People with friends and/or parents who smoke are more likely to take up smoking than those who don't.

The tobacco industry's ads, price breaks, and other promotions for its products are another big influence in our society. The tobacco industry spends billions of dollars each year to create and market ads that show smoking as an exciting, glamorous, and healthy adult activity. Studies show that young people who see smoking in movies are more likely to start smoking.

The inhaled substances trigger chemical reactions in nerve endings in the brain due to being similar to naturally occurring substances such as endorphins and dopamines, which are associated with sensations of pleasure. The result is what is usually referred to as a "high" that ranges between the mild stimulus caused by nicotine to the intense euphoria caused by heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines.

In many respects, nicotine acts on the nervous system in a similar way to caffeine. Some writings have stated that smoking can also increase mental concentration; Repeated use produces tolerance and dependence (you're addicted and can't live without the stuff) in as little as a week! Most smokers say they enjoy smoking, which is part of the reason why many continue to do so even though they are aware of the health risks.

You are invited to post your comment as to why people begin to smoke to make this topic more interesting to be read.