Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Important Reasons To Quit Smoking

The reasons to quit smoking are numerous, and can be seen on a daily basis. On the other hand, several smokers do not find any effective reasons to quit smoking cigarettes. Aside from the obvious risk of lung cancer, stroke and heart attacks there are other medical reasons to quit smoking. If improving your own health doesn't give you enough reasons to quit smoking, it may be interesting to note how smoking has an impact on those around you. The impact on the health of the children in a household where there is a smoker is evident and should be a consideration when looking at reasons to quit smoking. There are other reasons to quit smoking and some of these include just the monetary aspect of smoking.

If you smoke, you are more likely to wrinkle at an earlier age and have deeper wrinkles. You are more likely to become impotent or have difficulty in maintaining an erection when you reach middle age. You are almost four times as likely to develop cervical cancer compared with nonsmokers. You are three times more likely to get middle ear infections than nonsmokers. You are also more likely to snore, which your partners are sure to find anti-social.

Smoking accelerates the hardening and narrowing process in your arteries: it starts earlier and blood clots are two to four times more for those that smoke. A single cigarette can reduce the blood supply to your skin for over an hour. The blood vessels in the eye are sensitive and can be easily damaged by smoke, causing a bloodshot appearance and itchiness. Smoking damages blood vessels, inhibiting blood flow.

Lungs that are constantly irritated by tobacco smoke often start producing too much mucus, which narrows the breathing passages and makes it harder to breathe. This can lead to an uncontrollable cough (so common its easily recognizable as smokers cough), and other breathing problems as the lungs struggle to cope with all the chemicals in tobacco smoke. Your lungs are filling with icky black tar; your heart is working harder to pump blood around your body. Besides doing damage to the lungs that can lead to cancer, smoking hurts the lung's fragile tissues in other ways.

Cigarettes contain more than 4000 chemical compounds and at least 400 toxic substances. Cigarettes have dozens of cancer causing chemicals in each one. As a smoker you are more likely to develop over 14 different types of cancer, and damage nearly every part of your body. Nicotine is addictive and increases cholesterol levels in your body. Nicotine and toxins in tobacco kill nerve endings around the mouth and nose, reducing your ability to taste and smell. Nicotine is more addictive than heroine or cocaine.

Health benefits of quitting smoking are unlimited. The health benefits of quitting begin 20-minutes after your last puff, and once you quit smoking, you can immediately feel the health benefits of your decision within 24 hours, which could lead you to be free from smoking cigarettes forever!

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dawn_Ryals

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