This topic of discussion is rather quite sensitive to speak about; however it is important for people to understand the ill effects of this bad habit. This is probably one of the most common habits that people get into in spite of knowing the health risks.
Well! Not sure if I am the right person to speak about this topic as I am already a member of the gang. However, considering experts’ opinion on practical experience’s recognition than book knowledge, I wish to write a few words on this topic.
It is admitted by almost all smokers that smoking is injurious to health but they still continue. What is the cause? Let’s get to the basics.
Well! When someone yells that JACK’SMOKES’, it means that JACK has lit a cigarette and is puffing away smoke that just circled through his lungs like a recycling process leaving all the dirt and dust to settle down in his lungs and the plain clear white fume coming out of his lungs.
If this guide has to act as a Smokers’ quitting guide then as a part of the quitting process, it is important for us to understand what a Cigarette smoke is all about.
Cigarette smoke contains over 4, 000 chemicals, including 43 known cancer causing compounds and 400 other toxins. These include nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, as well as hydrogen cyanide and DDT.
Nicotine is highly addictive. Smoke containing nicotine is inhaled into the lungs, and can you believe that nicotine reaches your brain in just six seconds.
As a cigarette is smoked, the amount of tar inhaled into the lungs increases, forming a sticky substance leaving the lungs heavy all the time. Carbon monoxide makes it harder for red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body.
So as the RBC cannot carry enough oxygen chances are high for heart attacks and other such diseases. At the same time as and when tar accumulates in the lungs it leads to destruction of the walls of the lungs. The rest 4000 chemicals have expertises in their own field of cancers.
Let’s name a few of them:
Ammonia: Household cleaner
Angelica root extract: Known to cause cancer in animals
Arsenic: Used in rat poisons
Benzene: Used in making dyes, synthetic rubber
Butane: Gas; used in lighter fluid
Carbon monoxide: Poisonous gas
Cadmium: Used in batteries
Cyanide: Deadly poison
DDT: A banned insecticide
Ethyl Furoate: Causes liver damage in animals
Lead: Poisonous in high doses
Formaldehyde: Used to preserve dead specimens
Methoprene: Insecticide
Megastigmatrienone: Chemical naturally found in grapefruit juice
Maltitol: Sweetener for diabetics
Naphthalene: Ingredient in mothballs
Methyl isocyanate: Its accidental release killed 2000 people in Bhopal, India in 1984
Polonium: Cancer-causing radioactive element
Now that we have understood the scaring truth on cigarette smoke, it is high time we realise the health risks and decide to quit.
But how do we quit? It’s not easy.
Years back, when I was hardly 16. I once read a billboard on anti-smoking, close to the Chinna Swamy Cricket Stadium, Bangalore. It said.
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’YOU BUY A CIGARETTE FOR THE FIRST TIME’.
The next time
’THEY BUY YOU’.
So. Don’t ever attempt to buy them or even take them if offered.
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I feel it was right, now its too late.The mistake is committed and only rectification is possible. And high time we look out for options. and I recommend the following:
Be honest to your self when you decide. Set a date and commit yourself to it and TRY it out.
Look at quitting cigarettes as giving yourself a gift-a very big gift.
Initially stay away from other smokers and importantly from worrying situations which tempt you to smoke.
Cigarette quitting can never increase weight(only quitting gym does). So No Excuses please.
Start quitting easily by committing yourself that you wouldn’t smoke until lunch break and then keep on extending it until you have the mindset to ignore cigarettes.
For Smokers in UK, Quit smoking immediately. Look at it as an investment. God! I spend a good £60 a month.(A pack costs approx 5 pounds)
Don’t drink alcohol while you are quitting or even go to a disco. Smokers in UK. really face this problem while quitting smoking.
Drink Orange Juice when you feel like smoking. I feel comfortable for at least for 30 minutes. I lose the urge. Moreover Orange Juice also washes the poison out of your system.
If you still feel it’s difficult at least save your lungs by not smoking but keep up the nicotine content level in the blood by using’Nicorette’. a plaster that is stuck in the body and will not urge you to smoke and as time pases slowly reduce the number of plasters that is used.
I wish this particular review of mine make people think twice before they light the next cigarette(including myself).
Cigarette smoking is a true addiction, more powerful than a dependence on alcohol, heroin or cocaine. It’s YOUR life and YOU Save it. YOUR family needs it.