Saturday, September 25, 2010

5 Tips for Quitting Smoking

1. Commit Thyself Fully. In the quits that failed, I was only half into it. I told myself I wanted to quit, but I always felt in the back of my mind that I’d fail. I didn’t write anything down, I didn’t tell everybody (maybe my wife, but just her). This time, I wrote it down. I wrote down a plan. I blogged about it. I made a vow to my daughter. I told family and friends I was quitting. I went online and joined a quit forum. I had rewards. Many of these will be in the following tips, but the point is that I fully committed, and there was no turning back. I didn’t make it easy for myself to fail.

2. Make a Plan. You can’t just up and say, “I’m gonna quit today.” You have to prepare yourself. Plan it out. Have a system of rewards, a support system, a person to call if you’re in trouble. Write down what you’ll do when you get an urge. Print it out. Post it up on your wall, at home and at work. If you wait until you get the urge to figure out what you’re going to do, you’ve already lost. You have to be ready when those urges come.

3. Know Your Motivation. When the urge comes, your mind will rationalize. “What’s the harm?” And you’ll forget why you’re doing this. Know why you’re doing this BEFORE that urge comes. Is it for your kids? For your wife? For you health? So you can run? Because the girl you like doesn’t like smokers? Have a very good reason or reasons for quitting. List them out. Print them out. Put it on a wall. And remind yourself of those reasons every day, every urge.

4. Not One Puff, Ever (N.O.P.E.). The mind is a tricky thing. It will tell you that one cigarette won’t hurt. And it’s hard to argue with that logic, especially when you’re in the middle of an urge. And those urges are super hard to argue with. Don’t give in. Tell yourself, before the urges come, that you will not smoke a single puff, ever again. Because the truth is, that one puff WILL hurt. One puff leads to a second, and a third, and soon you’re not quitting, you’re smoking. Don’t fool yourself. A single puff will almost always lead to a recession. DO NOT TAKE A SINGLE PUFF!

5. Join a Forum. One of the things that helped the most in this quit was an online forum for quitters (quitsmoking.about.com) … you don’t feel so alone when you’re miserable. Misery loves company, after all. Go online, introduce yourself, get to know the others who are going through the exact same thing, post about your crappy experience, and read about others who are even worse than you. Best rule: Post Before You Smoke. If you set this rule and stick to it, you will make it through your urge. Others will talk you through it. And they’ll celebrate with you when you make it through your first day, day 2, 3, and 4, week 1 and beyond. It’s great fun.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Effects of Smoking on Human Health

The effects of smoking on human health are serious and in many cases, deadly. There are approximately 4000 chemicals in cigarettes, hundreds of which are toxic. The ingredients in cigarettes affect everything from the internal functioning of organs to the efficiency of the body's immune system. The effects of cigarette smoking are destructive and widespread.
Smoking Effects on the Human Body

* Toxic ingredients in cigarette smoke travel throughout the body, causing damage in several different ways.
* Nicotine reaches the brain within 10 seconds after smoke is inhaled. It has been found in every part of the body and in breast milk.
* Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin in red blood cells, preventing affected cells from carrying a full load of oxygen.
* Cancer-causing agents (carcinogens) in tobacco smoke damage important genes that control the growth of cells, causing them to grow abnormally or to reproduce too rapidly.
* The carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene binds to cells in the airways and major organs of smokers.
* Smoking affects the function of the immune system and may increase the risk for respiratory and other infections.
* There are several likely ways that cigarette smoke does its damage. One is oxidative stress that mutates DNA, promotes atherosclerosis, and leads to chronic lung injury. Oxidative stress is thought to be the general mechanism behind the aging process, contributing to the development of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and COPD.
* The body produces antioxidants to help repair damaged cells. Smokers have lower levels of antioxidants in their blood than do nonsmokers.
* Smoking is associated with higher levels of chronic inflammation, another damaging process that may result in oxidative stress.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Effect of smoke to the human lungs.

Smoking has a wide variety of health effects and can affect just about every organ in the body. But one of the organs that is most directly affected is the lungs. This is maybe not surprising as this is the organ in direct contact with cigarette smoke.

The lungs are organs of respiration. They are designed to carry air that contains oxygen and pass this oxygen to the blood stream. Everybody has two lungs that are divided into lobes.

When somebody starts smoking this causes irritation of the cells lining the air tubes within the lungs (the bronchi and bronchioles). One of the body's basic responses to this is to produce mucus. This mucus can reduce the diameter of the airtubes making it more difficult to breathe. Have you heard of a 'smoker's cough'? This is when a smoker coughs up this mucus.

In a healthy person, there are cells lining the lungs and upper respiratory tract that have small hair-like projections called cilia present. These beat to move dust and debris out of the lungs. They are a bit like the lung's own broom sweeping team. Smoking kills these cells so that their cleaning function is no longer carried out. Dust and particles can then accumulate which is one of the reasons that smokers often complain of respiratory diseases.

One of the gases in cigarette smoke is carbon monoxide. This gas interferes with the process of oxygenation of blood in the lungs. In fact if you inhale too much carbon monoxide you will suffocate and die. This gas is present in car exhaust fumes and is responsible for the deaths of many people each year using this as a form of suicide.

The air sacs in your lungs where oxygen is passed to the blood are called alveoli. These have a very large surface area - about the size of a tennis court. Every time that you smoke you kill some of these alveoli. These structures can't grow back, so once they are destroyed, that's it. Is it any wonder that smokers find it difficult to breathe due to minor exertion, such as walking up stairs?

The long-term effect of smoking on the lungs is quite well documented. Cancer of the lungs is largely due to smoking. It is estimated that 87% of cases of lung cancer in the US are smoking related. Smoking is the primary cause behind a condition called COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Patients with this condition find it very difficult to breathe because their airways have become so obstructed.