Kicking Butts: The Importance Of Quitting Smoking

Did you know that according to public health advocates, one in every two smokers will die from their cigarette habit, and that the likelihood of death occurring during the middle age years is 50%? While smoking rates have dropped in the U.S., the negative impacts these cigarettes create are moving on just as strong as they ever have before. Despite the increase in knowledge we have regarding smoking and the extensive harm it can cause to a person's health and well being, people still can't seem to drop the habit and live a healthier, cleaner lifestyle.

Each time you smoke a cigarette, your heart rate and blood pressure is temporarily increased as a result from the nicotine and carbon monoxide that each cigarette contains. This does not only occur in people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease or other health concerns- it happens to all smokers. This puts a large amount of strain on not only your heart, but the blood vessels throughout your entire body, putting you at an enormously high risk for a heart attack or stroke. These two events can not only leave you partially paralyzed, with brain damage, with an amputated limb or with a severe long term disability, but they are also very likely to kill you whether you have been smoking for 5 years, or 50 years.

According to the Mayo Clinic, cigarette use is also a large cause for the high number of cases of emphysema in the United States. This disease is a slow killer that over time rots your lungs, leading to increased cases of bronchitis and respiratory infections and eventually leads to failure of the heart and the lungs. Emphysema is the fourth common cause of death in the United States according to the American Lung Association and can plague a person long before symptoms even begin to appear.

Once diagnosed, treatment is limited to curing the symptoms of the disease, not the disease itself because once the damage has been done, there's really no turning back. Only preventing further deterioration of lung tissue is helpful and by the point of detection, it may be too late. Emphysema is often treated with use of steroid inhalers to open up the airways, allowing more oxygen to enter, constant oxygen at home may be required if the body is not able to gather enough on its own, and lung reduction surgery is often performed to remove the dead portions of the lungs. Emphysema commonly occurs in smokers who are 50 years of age or over, however it can present itself long before then in some cases.

According to the American Lung Association, lung cancer is the culprit for the most cancer deaths throughout the world. In smokers it is caused by the tar that is ingested through smoking every single cigarette. At one point, lung cancer was not commonly heard of but with the increase in cigarette sales over the years, lung cancer has made a dramatic increase. The ALA reports that 90% of all lung cancer cases are caused by smoking. Even low-tar cigarettes can cause lung cancer so convincing yourself you are doing some good by purchasing a certain brand of cigarettes is foolish. There is no safe cigarette to smoke. The only way to avoid smoking related cancers is to avoid smoking entirely.

There's positively no way those few cigarettes each day bring you so much pleasure that they are worth shortening your life, not being able to watch your children and your grandchildren grow up and not being able to live a long, healthy and happy life. The Washington Post reported back in 1997 that tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds and many of these are known to cause cancer.

Even for those smokers who have been smoking their entire life, stopping today can dramatically decrease the chances for developing lung cancer. As healthy new cells grow and replace the damaged cells, the risk of developing lung cancer decreases each year. Certain forms of lung cancer can silently grow and once diagnosed, can kill a person with 2-4 months because of the ability to grow at a rapid speed. Use of radiation, chemotherapy or drug therapy can slow down the process, however the survival rates among lung cancer patients is not relatively high.

The knowledge we have regarding the side effects of smoking is extensive, however it's not so extensive that medical professionals know how to cure those people who are suffering from smoking related illnesses. Smoking related illnesses still kill one in ten people globally and will continue to until the percentage of people who smoke goes down. There's no getting around the fact that cigarettes contain harmful chemicals that cause a number of diseases and health problems. The one thing that has improved regarding cigarette smokers is the help that is available to quit the habit. www.smokefree.gov is a great site to browse if you're contemplating quitting as is www.whyquit.com, www.cancer.org and www.lungusa.org. You can also turn to your physician and family members for help and support. It's not an easy process but when you way the possible outcomes of quitting versus not quitting, it's a very easy decision to make.