I Will Quit Smoking – With Determination Anyone Could Do It!

There is strong evidence that suggests that people who smoke cigarettes on a regular basis for a long period of time are at an extremely high risk of developing larynx and lung cancer. Researchers are still trying to figure out exactly how it is that smoking causes these types of cancer, as it is not yet understood clearly.

Normal cells may be damaged, but they have the ability to repair themselves. In other cases, the cells are sloughed off and eliminated by the lymph system, then replaced by new ones. But this process can go awry.

Cells can grow abnormally, taking on inappropriate shapes and performing incorrectly. When they do, and that growth reaches a certain level that the body can’t cope with, the result is cancer.

It is known that cigarette smoke contains many carcinogenic substances.

Tar, for example, is present in cigarette smoke chiefly from the burning paper that holds the tobacco, about 10-14 mg per cigarette. It gradually builds up in the alveoli, the small sacs in the lung that make possible absorption of oxygen into the blood stream. It’s believed that their presence is a continual irritant to the cells. That irritation eventually leads to uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells.

Other compounds, called nitrosamines, are present in varying amounts. They’re known to be carcinogenic from hundreds of clinical studies on small mammals. NNK is present in a very low concentration: 56.53 nanograms per cigarette. Other nitrosamines, like NNN and NAT, are present in roughly similar amounts.

One nanogram is equal to one billionth of one gram. Even though that seems like an extremely insignificant amount of something, even these small amounts can cause problems. Like dogs noses that can detect scents from just a few molecules, some parts of the human body are extremely sensitive. Remember too that these small amounts add up over time and eventually can become serious.

No study has found any link between cancer and consuming one or two cigarettes per day. But such smokers are extremely rare and the odds of them catching some other serious disease are so much higher it may be masked. A smoker who consumes a pack a day for 20 years has 2-4 times the chances of getting lung cancer than a non-smoker.

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