Smoking - What You Need To Know
For many people it is love at first puff. Cigarettes contain 4,000+ deadly toxins including nicotine. A nicotine "high" reaches the brain within seven seconds. Nicotine, when first ingested, causes a person to feel awake and alert, shortly after that person feels calm and relaxed. This is due to an elevation in endorphins, which are the body's natural pain reduction and pleasure chemicals that are produced in the brain. After time, more and more nicotine is needed to achieve the same pleasurable feeling, leaving the smoker addicted. The usage of this narcotic creates a roller coaster effect in your system that is very hard to break free from.
Once you are a habitual smoker, your mind and body develop a physical dependence for nicotine. Smoking excites your body's pleasure chemicals, endorphins, and puts them into high gear. This makes you feel very good - until your body summons you to replenish the depletion of nicotine in your system. So you smoke again, and again, and again. It is a vicious cycle that never stops until you quit smoking for good.
Laser therapy is currently under investigation in the U.S. to see if it stimulates the release of endorphins in a healthy way, mimicking similar endorphin rush caused by nicotine, without harmful effects.
Dying for a smoke?
An estimated 46.5 million adults in the United States smoke cigarettes, regardless of its dangers. Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death. Nearly 70% of the more than 46.5 million American adults who smoke cigarettes want to quit, but few are able to quit permanently. According to the American Lung Association, an estimated 442,398 Americans die each year from diseases directly related to smoking. Smoking is responsible for heart disease and strokes that can leave you dead within seconds. If those facts do not scare you, there is always the possibility of emphysema or lung cancer, which will both, accomplish ultimately death - only these diseases are extremely slow and quite painful.
9 Deadly Facts
1. Tobacco companies make a narcotic, which kills 1,200 Americans every day. *
2. 4.9 million people die each year from tobacco products. *
3. In 1990, a tobacco company put together a plan to stop coroners from listing tobacco as a cause of death on death certificates. *
4. About 1 out of every 5 deaths in the US can be attributed to tobacco products. *
5. In 2001, tobacco companies spent about $11 billion marketing their products. That's about $1.5 billion more than the year before. *
6.Unlike food and drug companies, tobacco companies are not required to include a list of ingredients on their packaging. *
7.Secondhand cigarette smoke kills about 53,000 Americans each year. *
8.Tobacco kills more Americans than AIDS, drugs, homicides, fires, and auto accidents combined. *
9.Cigarettes will eventually kill half of the people who use if used for many decades. *
*TheTruth.com gathers the nine deadly facts
Obvious Reasons to Quit
We are often judged by our physical appearance. Beyond the health battles smoking presents, there are several social challenges you will have to contend with:
Bad smelling breath, hair, and clothes
Yellow stains on teeth and fingers
Problem skin
Chronic cough/phlegm
Ashes scattered in car, home and office
Premature aging
Smoking limits where you dine and hinders your ability to taste and smell your food. It raises your medical insurance premiums. It will rob you of vitality, pleasure, and wastes your precious time.
Pregnancy and Smoking is Risky Business
The American Lung Association has warned that smoking during pregnancy can cause low birth weight, birth defects, and even Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It also increases the risk of damage to your baby's immune system. Low-level laser therapy is not an option once you are pregnant so plan to quit prior to trying to conceive a child.
Avoiding Weight Gain
When you quit smoking, your metabolism slows down, because it is no longer fighting to force toxins out of your body. Do not compound your problem by replacing cigarettes with overeating. You must watch your intake of food and only eat small portions at each mealtime. Frequent meals with smaller portions will work best to avoid weight gain upon quitting. At first not smoking may feel strange to your mind and body, so give your body a chance in become healthy again. Get moving! Take a walk, take the stairs, don’t try to find the closest parking space.
