March 11th, 2010

Cigarette smokers are constantly faced with criticism and health warnings. Here are 5 things that are true about cigarette smoking.

1. Cigarettes Cause Cancer
Smoking cigarettes has been proven to cause cancer. When tobacco is burned, thousands of chemicals are generated. It is these chemicals that are responsible for cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Lung cancer, for example, is the most prevalent type of cancer and is primarily a result of cigarette smoking.

2. Cigarettes Are Expensive
Traditional cigarettes contain filters, papers, and tobacco leaves. With all the advertising, lobbying, and branding thrown into the mix, the cost of putting cigarettes on the market has never been higher before. On top of that, consumers are burdened by heavy tobacco taxes. Sin tax, as some may call it, is considered as a pretty unfair tax in this free country.

3. Second Hand Smoke Affects Children and Newborns
Cigarette smoke Contains 4,000+ chemicals and small particulates, and a good amount of them still get out of your lungs and get inhaled by nearby people. Second hand smoke not only causes cancer, but stunts growth in children and produce birth defects in newborns. In fact, inhaling second hand smoke is deadlier than smoking the actual cigarette. The reason is that cigarette smoke contains free radicals, which induce cellular damage and cause cancer. Because second hand smoke is lower in temperature, the free radicals adhere to the lung tissue better and inflict greater damage to the victims.

4. Cigarettes Stain Teeth
Among the substances in cigarette smoke is the tar and other particulates. These things stick to your teeth and gradually discolor them.

5. Cigarettes Accelerate the Aging Process
Aging is a process of gradual cellular deterioration. Because the chemicals in cigarette also inflict cellular damage, smoking compounds the aging effects. Cigarettes essentially accelerate this natural process and make you a lot older than you actually are.

March 9th, 2010

A loser once said â??To stop smoking cigarette is not difficult; I have done it several times!â?? Facts â?? The cigarette is actually a carefully designed product and designed in such a way as to make the smoking process as palatable as possible.

Also, the tobacco leaf part of the cigarette is actually composed of two main leaf types, one which has higher nicotine content than the other. These are therefore basically very tricky ways so the cigarette can have a magnet-like effect on you, the steel smoker. It thus proves that you are only wise to stop smoking cigarette.

Even though volumes of literature are available on how and why to stop smoking cigarette seems like it still never inspires enough. It is alarming that the world has tobacco as the third reason for highest number of deaths! An estimated one in every five deaths in the world occurs due to tobacco use. The good news is however slowly coming in majority of developed countries, health and beauty consciousness is pushing people to give up the dreadful practice.

Smoking is the single biggest avoidable menace to good health. It causes infertility and impotence besides narrowing and hardening arteries. The impish act is also responsible for paralytic stroke, brain haemorrhage, angina, heart attack, chronic bronchitis, ulcers, cancer, etc. Nicotine is a drug that is present naturally in the tobacco leaf. In higher doses, nicotine like any other addictive drugs including heroin and cocaine is a recipe to kill. Nicotine has a powerful effect on the brain and the central nervous system. It causes an increase in the heart rate and in the rate of breathing â?? thereby making the heart work harder.

Smoking is killing more people every year than all other drugs and alcohol habits combined.Non-smokers who are exposed to smoke suffer more than the smokers themselves because of passive smoking. The spreading of this fact is partially helping by forcing smokers to stop smoking cigarette among crowds or gatherings. Nicotine is a harmful drug that takes you high and then drops you flat. It makes you want more. It gets you hooked. Then you get into real trouble.

Trouble such as it makes the brain tissues sluggish, dull, numb and inactive making the person incompetent for brain work. Finally, there can be no more affirmative ways of explaining the reasons for anyone to stop smoking cigarette. Quit smoking today – Click here

March 4th, 2010

For the past few weeks I’ve been working in the pathway used by some very dedicated people: smokers! All day long, at each and every break they faithfully come past me. After a while I got to thinking that maybe I should start smoking and stress will just vanish. It must be, considering how many times a day these same people traipse back and forth from the opposite end of the building. Plus, I would get an extra break or two, since management seems to wink at some of these little pauses.

I’ve also noticed that they look and walk a little differently when they come and when they go. A little slower, a little more of a stare on their face, on their way back. Is that what nicotine, oxygen deprivation, and some of the 4000 chemicals contained in tobacco smoke does to people?

If everybody knows there are cancer causing chemicals in the smoke, why do they keep doing it? I read that there are 69 cancer causing chemicals in the smoke! It isn’t as easy as saying, â??It’s the nicotine, they are just hooked.â? No, there are other reasons, otherwise why would they make the trek every few hours, even when it is raining sleet outside?

Stress and smoking

It doesn’t take much observation to see that people smoke when they are stressed. You have to do something when you are stressed, but smoking cigarettes just makes more stress on the body.

This is why people think smoking reduces stress: When they feel tense, they smoke a cigarette and immediately after the nicotine buzz begins to diminish, they feel relaxed. What actually happens is that the nicotine increases the tension temporarily and then, when it lets up, you feel relaxed.

Kind of reminds me of my few months living and working part-time on a dairy farm. When a cow was bothered by a bad udder or something and had a hard time letting down the milk, the farmer would twist her ear. The cow would let down the milk because she forgot about her udder discomfort when her ear hurt more!

There must be some kinda way outta here

When you take something away from your belief system, you need to replace it with something better, otherwise you will surely return to the thing familiar. That’s why people stay in religious cults, but I digress. So, if you are going to quit smoking, you need to do something else instead.

Cold turkey, warm turkey, what about the turkey method? It works great for some people. They decide to quit and just quit, right here and now. They suffer the withdrawal symptoms for a short time and that’s that, they are done.

Other people quit over and over again, maybe eventually they manage to finally finish forever. But most people need some help. They need a plan, a method that works for their own needs. Maybe a patch, maybe gum, maybe supplements, there are a number of well documented methods that can help somebody to once and for all quit.

February 28th, 2010

Smoking is indeed a problem, because it can lead to all sort of complications and diseases such as lung cancer. That is why if you do smoke, you should quit smoking now.

Although you may think you know why you should quit, you need to know that there are hundreds of other reasons you’ve never thought about them. Besides the cancer and heart diseases that smoking causes, you’ll have to consider what effects will this have both on the long run and on the short run on your body.

Many people say that they don’t need to quit smoking now, and they all give all sort of explanations. Some of them say that they are too young and so they could easily give up smoking when they would be older. Others, on the contrary, they say that they are too old and so they don’t need to quit smoking now or that they can’t quit smoking now.

In fact, it really doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, or if you started smoking a few days ago or twenty years ago. The truth is smoking has a disastrous effect on everybody, regardless of his age or physical conditions.

Why Is It So Hard to Quit Smoking Now?

Before starting the actual process of quitting, you’ll first have to want to quit. You’ll have to say “I want to quit smoking now”. Once you’ve decided that this is what you really wish, you’ll have to get ready for the process, because as you probably already know, this isn’t easy.

Quitting is hard mainly due to two major reasons: the physical addiction and the psychological addiction, the one we call it “habit”. In order to completely escape from the need to smoke you’ll have to break both of these addictions. Unfortunately there isn’t any other way.

Reasons Why You Should Quit Smoking Now

You can’t really quit smoking if you don’t have a couple of reasons. You can’t just say “I want to quit smoking now” and the next day when you’ll wake up the urge will be gone. It just doesn’t work this way. You have to fight for it. You have to prove yourself that you really want to quit smoking now, that this is indeed the thing you want to do.

That is why when deciding to quit you should make a list of reasons. They will be the reasons for which you want to quit smoking now. These reasons are easy to find. They can be personal reasons, health reasons or obligations.

For example, one reason could be the aging process. Ask yourself if you really want to see yourself aging quickly. Because this is what smoking does to your body. So, one reason for which you should say that you want to quit smoking now can be this one.

Another one can be the way you smell. Tobacco in general has a bad smell, why should you have to put up with this? All you have to do is quit smoking now.

One more reason why you should quit smoking now and definitely the most important one, can be your health. The sooner you’ll quit this nasty habit the more your health will benefit from it.

It’s not easy, but it isn’t impossible either. All you have to do is find some good reasons and really wish to live a longer and happier life. This should be enough to make you say you want to quit smoking now.

February 27th, 2010

Smoking can hurt people in a number of ways including being an addiction, with; it is believed more than 400,000 deaths resulting from smoking in the United States. It also hurts those around smokers, and involuntary smoking can cause, it is believed, as many as 300,000 cases of pneumonia as well as bronchitis annually.


Many people try to stop smoking, but may fail in the effort. However, they need to take heart from the fact that they may have to make several attempts before they are able to successfully stop smoking. Every time you try and fail to stop smoking it may be viewed as a part of the overall effort of stopping to smoke, and not a lesson in failure. It is important for you, at the outset, to realize that your smoking habit is an addiction that needs to be cured.


A Matter Of Personal Choice And Liking


Many people believe that they smoke due to liking the feeling, or because they choose to smoke and this may be due to the heavy advertising that tobacco companies use to promote the belief that smoking is a matter of personal choice. The point that needs to be considered is whether this choice or liking to smoke has turned into an addiction, which if it is the case, will prove to be difficult to break the habit. In fact stopping to smoke is as difficult as giving up on a heroin addiction, or cocaine addiction.


If you do make the wise choice of stopping to smoke, you will be well advised to try out a new tool that will help you in your endeavor. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved of Chantix as a means to stop smoking. This is not a magic pill that will end a person’s habit of smoking, but it will considerably ease the process of stopping to smoke, and will certainly require you to be persistent as well as committed to achieve your goal.


Smoking causes nicotine from the cigarette to make the receptors within the brain to release dopamine, which is a chemical that causes positive feelings in smokers. If you do stop smoking, the lack of dopamine will trigger misery in you as well as make you feel certain withdrawal symptoms, which include irritation, insomnia as well as difficulty to concentrate. There are nicotine replacement products that you may turn to, which help in continuing to release some few dopamine in the brain and thus lessens craving for nicotine.


You can use Chantix in this way as it also releases low amounts of dopamine so that you do not experience withdrawal symptoms, while it also blocks nicotine receptors within the brain. In fact, the occasional cigarette that you may smoke while taking Chantix will not stimulate your brain’s receptors as it would have if you were not using Chantix. In fact, smoking becomes less pleasurable and there is thus less desire to return to smoking.


To get the best from your Chantix intake, you could begin by taking it a week prior to when you wish to stop smoking. It is often prescribed for twelve weeks, and at first, you may need to take it once daily and then progress on to twice daily. With an increase in dosage, you will also not be at much risk of side effects. If you do manage to stop smoking after the twelve weeks are up, another twelve weeks course may also be required to ensure that you do not go back to your old smoking habits again.

February 27th, 2010

It has been more than 4 decades ago since smoking was proven to cause lung cancer and other serious diseases. Almost at the same time, the negative perception that second hand smoke can cause serious disease and premature death in both adults and children have been confirmed. Thanks to the report of the United States Surgeon General entitled “The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke,” it has strengthened our view on the ill effects of cigarettes to people who smoke as well as to those who do not smoke.

The report came up with major conclusions on the health risks of second hand smoke, such as:

Second hand smoke is a proven cause of lung cancer and heart disease in non-smoking adults and of sudden infant death syndrome, low birth weight, acute respiratory infections, ear infections and asthma attacks in infants and children. It is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in the United States of America each year.

There is no risk-free level of exposure to second hand smoke.

Exposure to second hand smoke has substantial and immediate adverse effects on cardiovascular and respiratory health.

Second hand smoke contains more than 50 carcinogens

Comprehensive smoke-free workplace policies are the only effective way to protect non-smokers from second hand smoke. Other approaches, such as air ventilation systems, and smoking and non-smoking sections of rooms, are not effective and do not not eliminate exposure.

Their conclusion is that it is about time that a comprehensive smoke-free law is enacted that will be applied to all workplaces and public places. The report also reaches another very important statement: “Evidence from peer-reviewed studies shows that smoke-free policies and regulations do not have an adverse economic impact on the hospitality industry.”

With this report, all arguments and excuses not to take action are eliminated. Many research and hard economic data have revealed that smoke-free laws do not harm sales or employment in restaurants and bars. In fact, they sometimes have positive feedbacks, such as what happened in New York City after the law has taken effect, business receipts for bars and restaurants increased, their job employment rose, and the number of liquor licenses increased. This happened despite the fact that most establishments complied with the law, and the great majority of New Yorkers supported the law.

Another positive outcome is that smoke-free laws resulted in money savings. According to statistics from the Society of Actuaries in the United States, second hand smoke resulted US$ 10 billion a year in health care bills, lost wages, and costs.

All over the world, there is a concerted effort from different government agencies to enact laws due mainly to the overwhelming evidence that smoke-free laws protect the health of the general public without harming the business sector. Even the corporate world have joined the bandwagon by maintaining smoke-free workplaces and providing a specified area for smoking. Some countries, states, provinces, territories, and districts have adopted full smoking bans inside restaurants and bars.

Passive smoking is a major but preventable cause of death. Since smoking hurts more people than just smokers, smoke-free laws need to be upheld at all times to protect everyone’s right to breathe clean air.

February 26th, 2010

Many people don’t realize what a burden their smoking habit is, but if you do, you probably want to stop and are looking for ways to quit smoking. A lot of people who want to stop smoking wish they had never even started. So why do people begin smoking in the first place?

Upwards of 50 million people in the United States are smokers, which costs $15 billion each year- $5 billion of it going to taxes. Not only is it an expensive habit, it’s a growing one as well- people in 1914 smoked 144 cigarettes a year, but in 1963 that number had jumped to 4,346 cigarettes per person, annually. While the Surgeon General made an announcement around that time about the consequences that caused many people to stop smoking (or at least cut back), the young smokers that make up most of today’s addicts didn’t take it seriously and the number of yearly cigarettes per person has risen alarmingly high. In fact, many smokers ignore the warnings printed directly on the label of their pack of cigarettes.

Smoking became widespread when Columbus seized land, and its customs, from the native people. Travelers that had been with him returned to their home lands, and the practice spread. In those days, smokers simply inhaled the smoke from tobacco from a bowl. Cigarettes as we know them, rolled with paper and containing many dangerous chemicals such as nicotine and formaldehyde, did not become popular until World War I.

Most teenagers are pressured by their peers to start smoking, whether to prove their manliness or to fit in with the crowd. There is also the notion that younger smokers will appear older, and vice versa, which is why many older smokers avoid seeking ways to quit smoking even though they know the consequences. Many people begin smoking simply because those around them are doing so, and consequently form an addiction. It has also been shown that many cigarette campaigns are geared toward young people, who are more likely to take up the habit.

Dr. Raymond Pearl discovered in 1938 that smoking and life expectancy are directly related. He showed that at the age a 30, the death rate for a heavy smoker is twice as much as a non-smoker or a moderate one. He also found that heavy smokers can only expect to live around 27 more years, while non smokers can expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 38. Even with these shocking statistics, not too many are convinced that they should start experimenting with ways to quit smoking.

If you stop smoking, you can lengthen not only your life expectancy, but the life span of the people you spend your life with. You will create a healthier, cleaner environment for both, yourself and others, and give yourself and everyone in your life the opportunity to enjoy the short time we all have on this planet. Smoking is a habit that affects you and the people around you, so be kind to those you love (and to yourself) and start experimenting with the variety of ways to quit smoking.

February 25th, 2010

The benefits that are obtained when stopping to smoke are multiple and immediate, and as the old Chinese aphorism says: “The man that can conquers itself, is worth more than the one that has conquered a thousand times a thousand armies”


The benefits of stopping to smoke are many, and they embrace many aspects among which we can highlight: It improves your health, it improves your body aspect, and it improves your economy


How Does Your Health Improve


* Stopping to smoke only 20 minutes, recovers the normal level of the arterial pressure, the heart frequency and the feet and hands temperature.

* 8 hours after stopping to smoke we begin to have a better lung oxygenation normalizing the monoxide of carbon and oxygen levels.

* After 24 hours it diminishes the risk of a sudden death.

* After 48 hours you begin to recover the senses of smell and taste

* 72 hours later, the breathing function is normalized

* 1 to 3 months later, your physical capacity will be increased, that is to say that you will be less tired

* 9 months later the risk of infections will decrease and the bronchial drainage will improve

* Only 5 YEARS after stopping to smoke, the risk of suffering a lung cancer will be similar to that of the non smokers

* 10 years later the risk off having mouth cancer, throat cancer, esophagus and bladder will low to one half

* Only 15 YEARS after having stopped to smoke you will have the same risk of having a coronary inadequacy that a person that doesn’t smoke.


How Does Your Body Aspect Improve


* Your breath, hair and clothes will stop having tobacco scent.

* Your car, house and work place, will stop to have tobacco scent

* Your fingernails and hands will stop to have yellow color

* Your skin will improve in all senses, it will change the coloration becoming rosier (the skin of the smokers is grizzly), it will improve its smoothness and become more hydrated, and as a consequence of that you will have less wrinkles


How Will Your Economy Improve


Obviously this point depends on the quantity of cigarettes that you consume daily, but a person that smokes during 30 years a package per day, does not spend less than 15,000 dollars in cigarettes, plus lighters, matches, ashtrays, burnt clothes, treatments against the asthma, treatments against the allergy, bronchitis and cold treatments, etc.


Some companies prefer to hire non smokers, because the smokers get ill more frequently and they cause more maintenance expenses, since the scents of the cigarettes should be eliminated, and the residuals of the smoke stick in the curtains, carpets and cloths in general.

February 24th, 2010

Why do we smoke?

Why do we smoke, when we all know that it is not good for health? There are very many reasons to it but in this article we will ponder over the biggest reason in today’s times and that is to release STRESS. What is stress, can we remove it through smoking, if not then how can we remove it, lets talk a little in the light of these questions.

What is Stress?

What is Stress? Stress is the situation when we feel helpless, incapable to perform, not able to meet the deadlines and pressurized. Stress could be due to any reason, be it work pressure, differences at personal front, may be due to financial crisis, or it could be due to anything.

Can we remove it through smoking?

Can we remove it through smoking? Can we smoke away our blues in the air and relax? Perhaps the answer is in the negative. If I have to submit a report to my boss in an hour, which I know, is just impossible and I am thus nervous, will smoking a complete cigarette down my lungs make me build a ginnee of that smoke that will do some miracle for me. Perhaps that could have happened, but alas it is not so. Then why am I smoking, if it is doing no good to me?

Then what to do?

Then what should I do in a stressful situation? The answer is confront it. Face the problem and find a solution to it. As for in my case above I would have talked to my boss, for some more time to prepare the report or if that could not have been possible to, provide me with some helping hand. Thus in a nutshell it is only positive attitude and logical thinking that helps you come out of a crisis situation. That’s why it is rightly said that it’s your attitude and not your aptitude that decides your altitude.

Dangers of smoking

Smoking not only does no good to us but it is bad for us, it thus does double harm to us. Smoking increases the chances of death due to lungs and breast cancer by a number of times. It wrecks the lungs during sports.

Tobacco the chemical contained in the cigar narrows the blood vessels and strains our heart. The biggest harm of tobacco is that it makes a person addictive to its use. So one should watch out, so as not to become addictive to its use in his plight to get rid of his worries and frustration.

February 24th, 2010

I was just reading a question about someone who didn’t have any reason to stop smoking marijuana. Do any of you have real reasons to smoke pot? I want to know why someone would want to do it…not saying that I will.