EMAIL A FRIEND As the actual price of cigarettes steadily rises, so too do the health care costs associated with nicotine. related conditions. It is estimated that in the United States alone nearly $80 billion is spent treating diseases caused by nicotine.
What You Need To Know Before You Light Up Your Next Cigarette
- Smoking cigarettes is the foremost preventable cause of all deaths.
- It is never too late to stop smoking cigarettes. Just minutes after you put out your last cigarette, your blood pressure and heart rate will already have lowered and your circulation improved. 24 nicotine free hours and your risks of having a heart attack have decreased. Within a few days of quitting, any lung tissue not yet permanently damaged will begin healing itself.
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- After 15 years of being completely smoke-free, an ex-smoker has about the same chances of having a stroke as someone who has never smoked in their lifetime.
- Smoking spikes carbon monoxide levels in the blood, causing chronic fatigue and lethargy.
- Besides the obvious lung cancer, smoking also contributes to cancer of the mouth, esophagus, larynx, pharynx, pancreas, and bladder.
- Nicotine can cause illnesses such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, depression, diabetes, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer's disease.
- Beating the habit can clear up chronic coughing and shortness of breath and reduce your susceptibility to sinus infections.
- Smoking during pregnancy is highly correlated with stillbirth, sudden infant death syndrome, and lower than average birth weight.
Little Known Smoking Facts
- One in every four men smokes even in the face of these alarming risks.
- Secondhand smoke, or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is linked to 3,000 deaths each year in the United States.
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- Smoking impairs fertility in both men and women.
- One cigarette contains over 4,000 chemicals including formaldehyde, insecticide, acetone(which you may recognize as nail polish remover) and hydrazine(rocket fuel.)
- 8 out of 10 smokers began their smoking habit before their 18th birthday.
- People who have beaten addictions to both cigarettes and the powerful narcotic heroin report finding it more difficult to quit cigarettes than heroin.
- Nicotine replacement therapy in the form of patches gums, and lozenges is one of the more successful methods of beating the habit, along with prescription meds like carenicline and buproprion.
- Each day nearly 5,000 teenagers begin smoking.
