QUIT SMOKING!!! #FACTS

QUIT SMOKING!!! #FACTS

via sharecare.com

1. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) -- the smoke released into the air when a person smokes a cigarette -- as a Group A carcinogen, meaning it is known to cause cancer. This is because there are at least 43 substances in ETS that can cause cancer.
2.  If you would like to quit smoking, it is best not to do it alone. First, set yourself a quit date to aim toward. Speak to your doctor about pills or patches that might make it easier for you to manage cravings and discuss the side effects of nicotine withdrawal. Start exercising, as this will give you something else to focus on, and consider speaking to a quit support group.
3.  Smoking damages the arteries that supply blood to the retina, which can lead to the development of age-related macular degeneration. Smoking also increases your risk of developing cataracts and may cause damage to the optic nerve, which can lead to blindness.
4. Studies show that male smokers lose an average of 13.2 years of life, while female smokers lose about 14.5 years of life. Smoking can cause more than 50 different diseases and is responsible for around a fifth of deaths in the U.S. each year.
5. Smoking is considered responsible for approximately 90 percent of cases of lung cancer. Other cancers commonly caused by smoking are cancers of the larynx, oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, cervix, kidneys, bladder and acute myeloid leukemia.
6. When you quit smoking, your heart and lungs will become healthier, so you will be able to exercise more, which can make you look healthier. When you quit smoking you may find you are less sensitive to pain and that some of your wrinkles have disappeared, which will make you look and feel younger and healthier.
7. Days 3 to 5 are usually the hardest days after quitting smoking. If you can make it to day seven without a cigarette, you can rest assured that you have survived the hardest part and it should get easier from this point on.
8. Smoking triggers the release of dopamine, a substance that dulls pain and causes pleasure. This is why smoking can become physiologically and psychologically addictive.
9. Hemoglobin is a substance in the blood that binds with oxygen to carry it throughout the body. When people exert themselves, their oxygen requirement increases. However, smoking releases carbon monoxide, which binds with hemoglobin, leaving it unavailable to carry oxygen throughout the body. This means smokers will have less oxygen in their bodies and therefore become short of breath very quickly when they exert themselves.
10. Smoking can cause the bones to become brittle and lose their density, leading to osteoporosis.
11. More than 4 million people die from smoking-related causes each year. Smoking is the leading cause of death in the world and kills more people than infectious diseases, obesity or guns.
12. Nicotine-replacement therapies are the most commonly used treatments for quitting smoking and they are FDA approved. Hypnosis, acupuncture and herbal supplements are also used, but there is no proof to support their value in assisting a person to quit smoking.
13. Smoking causes arteries around the body to harden, including those that supply blood to the penis. If blood flow is limited, it may be difficult to get an erection.
14. Before you quit, you may want to try to wean down the number of cigarettes you smoke each day. But once you reach your quitting date, that's it! You can't have any more cigarettes after you quit, since "just one puff" can quickly lead you back to smoking.
15. Hospital admissions for heart attacks have decreased by 17 percent in communities that have implemented smoke-free zones. Smoke-free zones also protect nonsmokers from inhaling smoke.
16. Eight hours of passive smoking is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes and leads to the same side effects caused by firsthand smoking. In fact, some people say that passive or secondhand smoking is even more dangerous than firsthand smoking.
17. Children are four times more likely to smoke if their parents smoke. Interestingly, children whose parents quit smoking are as likely to smoke as children whose parents never smoked.
18. If you quit smoking before your reach 35 years old, you can eventually get back all the years of life you have potentially lost. For example, after three months of quitting smoking, you can get back one year; after five months you can get back two years, etc. However, once you reach the age of 35, you can never get back all of the life lost from your years of smoking.
19. While smoking does all of these things, it causes cancer by altering your genetic disposition and changing the way your genes function. This makes you more likely to develop a mutation that develops into cancer.
20. Quit-smoking support groups may help to motivate you by providing a forum for you to meet with other people who are facing the same challenge as you. You may also learn some useful strategies from the people in the group.