If someone tells you that they can name all the damaging effects of smoking in a few simple sentences most likely hasn’t kept up with all the latest research and scientific data available right now. It appears that every time a government institute or science lab does some type of study on smoking, there is yet another bunch of items to add to the list of harmful effects of smoking.

Many people certainly know about lung cancer and easily connect that with the habit of smoking. But what’s more, did you know that infertility in both men and women is considered another side effect of smoking? In men, smoking chokes out healthy oxygen that keeps sperm healthy and active. Having “lazy” or “slow” sperm is one common cause of a man’s infertility; the sperm are just not fit enough to make the long trip toward a woman’s egg! In women, smoking can interfere with her ovulation process, keeping healthy blood flow to her fallopian tubes. Not being able to release a healthy egg each month is one major cause of a woman’s infertility – and yet many women don’t recognize that this decreased capacity to conceive a child is a common side effect of smoking!

When talking about cancer, the lungs are just one part of the body that’s affected. Many smokers get cancer in the mouth and throat areas as well, as obviously any part of the body that comes into such close contact with cigarettes is going to be more prone to cancerous cells.

Because the tar and nicotine from cigarettes is absorbed into the bloodstream, and blood travels round the body to each and every cell, there is the possibility for cancerous cells to develop in virtually any area of the body. Breast cancer, cervical cancer, cancer of the liver, and cancer of the kidneys are also thought to be additional side effects of smoking. As a matter of fact, many doctors and researchers are tying virtually any cancer into the contamination that smoking brings to the body!

And obviously the effects of smoking on the body’s respiratory system are also too many to list. The lungs absorb the poisonous smoke from cigarettes but have no way of filtering out all those poisons. Every part of the respiratory system, from the bronchial tubes to the lung sacs themselves, are affected and injured with each and every cigarette.

So if you’re someone who’s considering trying to quit smoking, now is the time to do it. The harm you’re doing to your body is too great to ignore, and the list of harmful effects of smoking is just too long. It’s time to quit!

Seb

Seb Brown is the creator of the Quit The Cigarettes manual - The 10 step master plan to giving up smoking. For more information on Quit The Cigarettes please click here: Quit The Cigarettes

There seems to be a new study or a new bit of research being done every day that warns people to the dangerous facts about smoking. The one thing in common among all of these studies and reports is that the facts about smoking are not good.

Imagine a product that, every year, killed off just under half of the population of Rhode Island. OK, Rhode Island is a very small state, but cigarette smoking does just that – kills off over 400,000 people every year, or just under half of Rhode Island’s population! To reduce that down even further, that means that 20% of deaths in the United States are smoking related. A depressing fact about smoking is that it is the single most preventable reason for premature death in the United States.

Many women of course are very worried about breast cancer and respond to this worry with yearly tests, the results of which they wait for nervously. On the other hand, between 1960 and 1990, deaths from lung cancer among women have increased by more than 400%—exceeding breast cancer deaths in the mid-1980s. The American Cancer Society estimated that in 1994, 64,300 women died from lung cancer and 44,300 died from breast cancer.

When it comes to the strength of your respiratory system, the facts about smoking are that there is virtually no part of this system that is untouched. Male smokers increase their risk of death from lung cancer by more than 22 times and from bronchitis and emphysema by nearly 10 times. Women smokers increase their risk of dying from lung cancer by nearly 12 times and the risk of dying from bronchitis and emphysema by more than 10 times.

Some other shocking facts about smoking are that smoking triples the risk of dying from heart disease among middle-aged men and women. Think about that – the risk is tripled! Furthermore, smoking affects every part of your body, from your mouth and throat to your bones, your blood, and your digestion.

But perhaps the saddest facts about smoking are those that affect “passive” smokers, or those that don’t smoke themselves but that are exposed to it from others. Annually, exposure to secondhand smoke (or environmental tobacco smoke) causes an estimated 3,000 deaths from lung cancer among American adults.

So if you’re someone who smokes, it’s time to stop. You can see that there is no good news about smoking, nothing beneficial or healthy about it. You can doubtless recognize the harm it does to you and those around you – once you get your facts about smoking straight, that is!

Seb

Seb Brown is the creator of the Quit The Cigarettes manual - The 10 step master plan to giving up smoking. For more information on Quit The Cigarettes please click here: Quit The Cigarettes

It’s very tricky for some people to comprehend, but the effects of smoking touch more than just your lungs alone. While many associate lung cancer with smoking, they’re often uneducated about just how absolutely dangerous smoking effects can be.

Think about these parts of the body that are damaged by smoking. Your skin is usually effected by premature aging and wrinkles, as one of the general effects of smoking is poor blood circulation and a loss of oxygen, both of which are required for healthy skin. A smoker’s mouth usually has stained and discolored teeth and plaque, and teeth can actually become loose as the gums dry up and become brittle.

Cancers of the lips, mouth, throat and larynx are common effects of smoking, as are constant sore throats, a reduced sense of taste, and breath that smells of smoke. Poor blood circulation means cold hands and in particular cold fingertips, which are usually stained with tar.

Lung cancer is not the solitary smoking effect that hits the respiratory system. For the most part smokers are more prone to bronchitis, a constant shortness of breath and persistent cough with sputum, and are more liable to get colds, flu, pneumonia, and asthma. Smoking also complicates tuberculosis and virtually any other respiratory condition you can get.

The heart, one of the most important organs in the body is not immune to the effects of smoking. A lot of heart attacks can be linked back to smoking. Smoking causes arteries of the heart to block and weaken. Also smoking constricts blood vessels, making the heart need to work harder to do its job.

When thinking about the body’s mid-section, cancers of the esophagus, abdomen, pancreas, kidneys, bladder, and colon are all traced back to the effects of smoking.

Similarly the bones are not immune to the effects of smoking. Osteoporosis, spine and hip fractures, and degenerative disc disease can be linked to smoking.

Infertility is another issue with heavy and chronic smokers, both male and female. Men can have lower sperm counts and decreased sperm motility, and women can have difficulty with ovulation when smoking.

As for the rest of the body, the effects of smoking are many, including blood diseases, decreased circulation to the feet and toes, and difficulty recovering from wounds. Really, when you think about it, there is not one place on the human body that does not suffer, and suffer greatly, from smoking’s effects. Really, is there any reason why it’s not time to quit?

Seb

Seb Brown is the creator of the Quit The Cigarettes manual - The 10 step master plan to giving up smoking. For more information on Quit The Cigarettes please click here: Quit The Cigarettes

A lot of people today are vaguely aware of the dangerous effects of cigarette smoking, from lung cancer to bronchitis. However, the real truth is that there are a great many parts of one’s body, many members of one’s family, and several aspects of one’s life that are hit hard by the effects of cigarette smoking.

We are all aware of lung cancer and bronchitis. But did you know that smoking cigarettes is the number one contributor to heart attacks also? Did you also know that numerous types of cancers are also thought to be caused by the damaging effects of cigarette smoking, including:

• Liver cancer
• Bladder cancer
• Cancer of the larynx
• Cancer of the throat
• Cancer of the mouth and tongue
• Esophageal cancer
• Cancer of the large intestine
• Cancer of the bloodstream

Cigarettes are not just rolled tobacco, as many people simply think. The tobacco industry purposely adds ingredients in order to increase the addictiveness of tobacco. There are in the region of 4000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, many of them toxic. The ingredients in cigarettes affect everything from the internal functioning of organs to the effectiveness of the body’s immune system. The effects of cigarette smoking are destructive and extensive, covering your entire body from head to toe.

Putting aside your own personal health, have you ever thought about the effects of cigarette smoking on your wallet? Someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day will wind up spending over $700 every year. That’s an whole month’s rent, two months worth of groceries, three or four automobile payments, or the cost of a very nice flat-screen television. Not to mention how that money could grow in a nice savings account!

The effects of cigarette smoking also affect those around you as well. Those who are exposed to second-hand smoke inhale about 15% the amount of nicotine as those who are active smokers, so for every ten cigarettes you have around your children, they may as well have smoked one and a half cigarettes themselves. Even pets have been found to suffer from increased health problems due to their owners smoking! Many have respiratory diseases and cancers, all a part of the effects of cigarette smoking.

So if you smoke, it’s time to quit. It’s time to think about how bad this habit really is, how it really affects your life and the lives of those around you. There are absolutely no health benefits, there is no upside, and there is nothing positive about the effects of cigarette smoking.

Seb

Seb Brown is the creator of the Quit The Cigarettes manual - The 10 step master plan to giving up smoking. For more information on Quit The Cigarettes please click here: Quit The Cigarettes

In August of 2006, a federal judge ruled that the tobacco industry had actually engaged in racketeering practices, stating that the industry had been engaged in a decades-long conspiracy to cover up the dangers of smoking from their users. Tobacco companies were actually ordered to take out newspaper adverts detailing smoking health effects.

The judge stated that the conspiracy had dated back to 1953, when a group of tobacco companies met together at the Plaza Hotel in New York City and came up with a public relations plan to counter health concerns connected with smoking. The judge also ruled that even after the 1964 Surgeon General’s report linked smoking to lung cancer, tobacco companies continued to deny and intentionally distort many serious dangers of smoking their products.

It was also found that the tobacco industry marketed cigarettes to youth groups; that even though the industry claims it does not want children to smoke, the companies were caught tracking youth activities and preferences, thereby ensuring that “marketing and promotion reaches the youth,” even hiding from them the serious dangers of smoking while their young bodies were still growing.

The industry was also faulted for denying publicly that second-hand smoke is dangerous, the judge citing inside acknowledgement that this was indeed the case.

In 1999, the Clinton administration accused the tobacco industry of racketeering as part of a synchronized plan to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking, and to cover up the information they had to the contrary.

Under the ruling, the tobacco companies were also ordered to discontinue using such descriptions as “low tar,” “light,” “ultra light,” “mild,” or “natural,” or any other descriptions that might seem as if these products posed less of a health hazard or in any way were an attempt to downplay the dangers of smoking them.

While this ruling was a victory for many anti-smoking and anti-tobacco campaigns, many commented on how long it took for the government to respond to tobacco’s use and on how long the actual case itself took as well. Others felt that maybe the court was not punitive enough with the industry. “We are pleased with the court’s finding of liability on the part of the defendants, but disappointed that the court did not impose all of the remedies sought by the government,” said the Justice Department in a written statement. “Nevertheless, we are hopeful that the remedies that were imposed by the court can have a significant, positive impact on the health of the American public.” All in all, it seemed to many to be a shallow victory, but still did some good in highlighting the real dangers of smoking that even the tobacco industry itself could not – or was no longer allowed to – deny.

Seb

Seb Brown is the creator of the Quit The Cigarettes manual - The 10 step master plan to giving up smoking. For more information on Quit The Cigarettes please click here: Quit The Cigarettes

Many who try to quit smoking attempt to go “cold turkey,” that is, they just stop abruptly without the use of any quit smoking aids that are available. There may be medical reasons for this, or some may simply feel as if they “should” be able to quit on their own.

Going cold turkey will get nicotine out of your system quickly, usually within a couple of days or so, however, the withdrawal symptoms are usually pretty severe and intense, as is the physical discomfort that goes with this. Many people find themselves itching for a cigarette very early on, and when this happens, you would do well to consider using some of those quit smoking aids that are available.

Do Quit Smoking Aids Really Work?

The happy news for anyone in this situation is that most quit smoking aids, even those available over the counter at your local pharmacy, seem to have good results for those who use them. They are usually very affordable and easy to use, and have few side effects.

Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is a popular quit smoking aid. These therapies include the patch, gum, spray, and inhaler. These products work by allowing nicotine into your system gradually over a period of time, thereby reducing your cravings for a cigarette. The other advantage to these types of quit smoking aids is that, unlike cigarettes that consist of thousands of poisonous and carcinogenic chemicals, NRTs contain only nicotine. Also, the chemical reaction that happens when one burns cigarettes causes people around a smoker to suffer the consequences as well, something that doesn’t happen with the patch, gum, inhaler, or spray.

Other quit smoking aids are available from your doctor in pill form. Most are considered mild anti-depressants, and work by calming and relaxing you, thereby decreasing your nervous habit of reaching for a cigarette. Some however have more severe side effects than those products you can get over the counter, and should only be used when under a doctor’s care.

In the end, trying to go cold turkey may be an option for you, but if you’re worried that it might not work and aren’t really looking forward to the withdrawal symptoms and the cravings – and your family isn’t looking forward to them either! – then you have a number of options when it comes to quit smoking aids.

Seb

Seb Brown is the creator of the Quit The Cigarettes manual - The 10 step master plan to giving up smoking. For more information on Quit The Cigarettes please click here: Quit The Cigarettes