Smoking Effects from Head to Toe
Do you know that smoking do more harms than goodness?
Of course, being a die hard smoker, you will not care about the effects as you are way too addicted to realise what smoking can do to you and your body. In fact, you don’t care what the smoke can do to your family and friends as well.
The truth is, you harm yourself and everyone around you when you smoke.
Let’s read this up to wake up your mind and know the truth about smoking. Smoking is the worst enemy of mankind, destroying lives and family. Below is a list of what smoking can do to you if you don’t smoking now!
After reading it, ask yourself of you want all these to happen to you and your family and friends?
Hair:
- Smell and staining
Brain and Mental Effects:
- Stroke
- Addiction/nicotine withdrawal
- Altered brain chemistry
- Anxiety about harm caused by smoking
Eyes:
- Eyes that sting, water and blink more
- Macular degeneration
- Cataracts
Nose:
- Less sense of smell
Thyroid
- Graves Disease
- Thyroid Disease
Skin:
- Wrinkles
- Premature aging
Teeth:
- Discoloration and stains
- Plaque
- Loose teeth
- Gum disease (gingivitis)
Mouth and Throat:
- Cancers of the lips, mouth, throat and larynx
- Cancer of the esophagus
- Sore throat
- Reduced sense of taste
- Breath smells of smoke
Hands:
- Poor circulation(cold fingers)
- Peripheral vascular disease
- Tar stained fingers
Respiration and Lungs:
- Lung Cancer
- COPD (includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema)
- Cough and sputum
- Shortness of breath
- Colds and flu
- Pneumonia
- Asthma
- Complicates Tuberculosis
Heart:
- Harms, blocks and weakens arteries of the heart
- Heart attack
Liver:
- Cancer
Abdomen:
- Stomach and duodenal ulcers
- Cancer of stomach, pancreas and colon
- Aortic aneurysm
Kidneys and bladder:
- Kidney cancer
- Bladder cancer
Bones:
- Osteoporosis
- Spine and hip fractures
Spine:
- Degenerative Disc Disease
Male reproduction:
- Sperm: deformity, loss of motility, reduced number
- Infertility
- Impotence
Female reproduction:
- Period pains
- Earlier menopause
- Cancer of cervix
- Infertility and delay in conception
Blood:
- Leukemia
Legs and Feet:
- Gangrene
- Peripheral vascular disease
- Beurger Disease
Immune System:
- Weakened immune system
The effects of smoking hold additional risks for women. Those who smoke throughout their pregnancies increase the risk of:
- Spontaneous abortion/miscarriage
- Ectopic pregnancy
- Abruptio placentae
- Placenta previa
- Premature rupture of the membranes
- Premature birth
Risks to the fetus include:
- Smaller infant(for gestational age)
- Stillborn infant
- Birth defects, e.g. congenital limb reduction
- Increased nicotine receptors in baby’s brain
- Increased likelihood of child smoking as a teenager
- Possible predisposition to adult anxiety disorders
Better Things To Do Than Smoking
Do you know that there are many other activities that are way better than smoking. When you smoke, you don’t get any benefits at all but when you do other activities, you might gain something like knowledge. If you do not know what activities to do, check out the list below. I am sure you can find at least one activity that is to your liking.
- Read a book.
- Wash the car.
- Wash the dog.
- Go for a walk.
- Knit a scarf.
- Do a crossword puzzle.
- Take a nap.
- Call a friend.
- Turn the bathroom into a spa and do all those beauty treatments.
- Listen to a relaxation tape or some favorite music.
- Go to a store and get a free make-up session.
- Give yourself a manicure and pedicure.
- Try out a new hair-do
- Go to the movies.
- Hang out at a mall.
- Work in the garden.
- Eat a popscicle.
- Spend time with a kid.
- Whistle “Don’t Worry - Be Happy.”
How To Curb Your Cravings To Smoke
When you are have just started to quit smoking, you will suffer the cravings for cigarette. You feel like you can’t live without it but the truth is you can avoid the cravings with some simple steps. Below are the steps you can try and see which is suitable for you.
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Go for a walk.
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Take a mini mental vacation.
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Drink a glass of water.
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Review your list of reasons to quit smoking.
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Have a portable hobby.
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Grab some support.
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Count your blessings.
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Eat a healthy snack.
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Call a friend.
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Accept and let it go.
How To Stay Motivated When Quit Smoking
When you are on a quit smoking program, there times when you find it difficult to focus and stay motivated in quit smoking. There might be distractions that take away your focus thus making you lose track of your progress. However, there are ways you can do to make sure you are motivated all the time to achieve success in quit smoking.
Get involved in your community. Join a support group and attend all the meeting they have every week so that you can interact with other members and perhaps share a few tips on how to quit smoking. If you are not a very socialize person, you can go online and join online forum that discuss about quit smoking.
Talk to someone about you quit smoking. When you tell someone else about what you are doing, naturally you are more aware of what you are doing in reality and stay focus on your journey.
To see your progress with the help of statistic or reports, make you own quit smoking chart and track on how many days you have quit smoking and how much money have you saved from not buying any cigarettes.
Remember to keep yourself busy by doing activities you enjoy maybe like gardening or playing games in the park or simply go meet up with friends and family. When you are surrounded by activities, you are likely to forget about smoking at all.
Posted in Quit Smoking Mindset | No comments Choosing The Right Time To Quit
When you finally decided to quit smoking, that will be a historical day of your life. It is never easy to choose the right date so below are some guidelines on which days you should choose to quit smoking and which days you should not.
The days you should avoid are the days when you are experience either one of the following events:
- A big event such as an upcoming marriage, graduation, finals etc.
- A loss or traumatic event, such as a death in the family or a divorce
- Other particularly stressful events in your life.
However, the days you should choose are as below:
- Your birthday
- New year
- World No Tobacco Day
Get free email course on preparing to quit smoking now.
Posted in Uncategorized | No comments How To Know If Your Kid Is Smoking?
There are many ways you can find out whether your kid is smoking or not. Below is a list of questions that indicate whether your kid smokes or not. Just answer Yes or No for each questions.
1. Have you found lighters, matchbox or even crushed tobacco in your kid’s pants, or bag?
2. Does your kid’s room smells like smoke?
3. Does your kid spray air freshener all the time?
4. Do you find any towel being used to block the gap between the door and the floor?
5. Does your kid smells like smoke when he or she comes back from school?
6. Are the friends of your kid smokers?
7. Does your teen have an unexplained cough or morning cough?
8. Has your teen lost weight?
9. Does your teen brush his/her teeth more often and at odd times of the day?
If your answers are all Yes, then I am sorry to inform you that your kid is smoking. Therefore you need to take action earlier to prevent this from being worse.
If you have a mix of Yes and No, chances are your kid might be smoking and might not be smoking. The only way to find out is to sit down and talk to your kid. Ask him or her directly in a more friendly way rather than offensive.
If your answers are all No, congratulations, your kid is not smoking and you need to make sure that your kid will never light a cigarette in the future even though he or she is not smoking now.
Posted in Quit Smoking Mindset | No comments Teen Smoking - The Truth
Teen smoking is not a new issue. In fact, it has started a long time ago and today, there are millions of teenagers around the world are smoking. Of course, there are many reasons why teenagers smoke and the biggest reason is due to peer pressure. Teens who have started smoking will drag even more teens to join them. It seems like the coolest thing to do because everyone is doing it.
However, there are a few things we need to keep in mind in order to prevent teen smoking.
First of all, any teens can start smoking anytime. This can happen to your teens or someone else’s teens. Again, the main attraction that pulls them into smoking is the misconception of being the coolest kid in town.
Secondly, most of the first timer smoke before high school graduation. The good news is that if your kid has not started smoking anytime before finishing high school, chances are she or he is unlikely to smoke in the future.
Thirdly, helping your kid to build self confidence and self esteem can help to prevent him or her from smoking. Usually kids smoke because lack of confidence and self esteem. Through smoking, they find their courage and confidence.
Fourthly, you need to inform your kid about the danger of smoking. Study shows that parents who explain the danger of cigarettes to their kids are likely to prevent the kids from smoking. The key is that your kids want to hear it from you.
Lastly, once your kid started to smoke, there is no way he or she can stop just because you ask. Once your kid is addicted, it will be very difficult to quit smoking and you will need to refer your kid to a professional to help him or her to quit smoking.
Posted in Quit Smoking Mindset | No comments Quit Meter
an example of a quit meter software
When you have decided to quit smoking, there must be a way for you to track your success in quit smoking program. For example, you would want to calculate how many hours you have quit smoking, the amount of money not spent on cigarettes and the time you have saved by not smoking.
By having a quit meter, you can keep track of your progress and motivate yourself to stay focus in your quit smoking program by looking at the statistic of your progress. When you have seen how much money you have saved, I am sure that you are very motivated to successfully quit smoking so that you will not have to spend another dime on cigarettes.
There are a few site meters that you can try out.
Silk Quit Meter is one of the site meters you should try. The features:
- Designed to be unobtrusive by minimising to a small icon on your taskbar
- The only meter in the world that calculates calendar months correctly
- Tracks your true quit time; does not add/remove an hour during daylight savings and standard time changes
- International currencies and time formats supported automatically
- One-touch operation to “hot-paste” your quit details into any document
- Calculates time quit in years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds
- Calculates number of cigarettes not smoked since you quit
- Calculates money saved in your local currency
- Calculates time saved by not smoking
- Customise the text which appears in your quit details
- Single click access to SilkQuit Chat
All you need to do is to download the software which is compatible with Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows ME, Windows 98, and Windows 95.
Another useful quit meter which is very reliable is the Quit Keeper. The features of this quit meter:
- A quit meter that is absolutely free!
- Use a hotkey to put your quitting statistics into an email message, a forum posting or a chat room.
- Tracks the increasing price of cigarettes
(the only quit meter that can do that). - Tracks your milestones and those of your buddies.
- A great tool to help you as you quit smoking.
- Easy to install - easy to use.
- Small, fast and efficient.
- Easy to customize.
- Quick, small download (about 100k!)
Using a quit meter to track your progress is really effective in helping you successfully quit smoking. Try it and see the difference.
Posted in Quit Smoking Software | No comments More Benefits of Quit Smoking 2
What do you think will happen after one or two years you quit smoking?
Do you think that you are getting better with higher chances of preventing any medical problems?
The chances are you will have a very high percentage of preventing diseases such as coronary disease. Your risk of getting coronary disease will be reduced at least 50% compared to before you quit smoking.
Of course this is the best news for a successful quit smoking candidate. However, there must be other benefits as well.
Below is the list of other improvements:
- Better health
- No more difficulty in breathing
- No more serious sinus congestion
- Better focus
- Taste bud works better than ever
- Less fatigue or tiredness and more energy
- Engage in social life
- Have more friends in your circle
- Excellent focus at everything around you
Basically, once you have managed to make it up to one or two years, it means you are successful in quit smoking and you are determined to make sure that you stay cigarette-free for the rest of your life.
Posted in Quit Smoking Effects | No comments More Benefits of Quit Smoking
If you have made it to 9 months of your quit smoking program, you are near success. I must congratulate you and let us get back to the benefits of quit smoking. Once you have reached the 9-month mark, your body is bound to be healthier if you take good care of it apart from quit smoking.
What you can benefit from:
- You will have less coughing, if you experience worse coughing before (most smokers experience this syndrome)
- You will have improved sinus congestion (this is will lead to better breathing)
- Less fatigue, more energy (no more dependency on nicotine or caffeine)
- Overcoming short of breath
Of course, you cannot expect to make full recovery of your addiction and the damage caused by nicotine and other chemicals to your body but you can improve it and gain a healthier body in time to come. All you need is patience, guidance and support.
Posted in Quit Smoking Effects | No comments
