Tobacco Use

"Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times." - Mark Twain

I bet almost all of you have already heard someone saying "Smoking is bad for you", right? But have you ever wonder why smoking is bad for you? Don't get me wrong here, smoking will definitely kill you. But what is it that's harmful about tobacco? And why are people still smoking even though most of them probably know that it will reduce your life? That's what I'm going to talk about today.

Ok, let's start with some general facts. Do you know that the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that approximately 15 billion cigarettes are smoked worldwide everyday? Holy crap! That's twice the population of Earth. And out of all that, 1 in 3 cigarettes smoked in the world today is smoked in China. That''s 5 billion cigarettes per day in a country of 1 billion, meaning that everyone in China is smoking 5 cigarettes per day. Talk about serious health issues.Not only do they have to worry about toxic factory gases, now they have to be aware of the millions of people around them smoking? China is like a torture cell for your lung or something.

But seriously, why do people smoke so much? And what are the harms of smoking? Let's start by analysing what cigarette is. Wikipedia identified a cigarette as "...a small cylinder of finely cut tobacco leaves rolled in thin paper for smoking." It might sounds like nothing, but a study shown that a cigarette contains more than 7000 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause lung cancer. Because of its toxicity, it's known for causing 1 in 5 deaths in the US every year (or about 400,000 people). Out of that, 50,000 people died due to "secondary" smoking, meaning that you breath in the smoke that the smoker releases. Not only that, smoking also reduce your life expectancy. People who smoked are expected to live a shorter life than those who don't by up to 13.2 years for men and 14.5 years for women. But that's not all, smoking also increase the risk of having heart diseases and many types of cancer, affects your circulation, fertility, and even give you sex problems.

So why do people smoke so much? Insofar as we know, smoking causes huge problems to your body. Well, the answer is Nicotine. Nicotine is a psychoactive chemical found in tobacco, and it's addictive. That means that when you're used to smoking, it's very hard for you to quit. A study shows that 69% of smokers want to quit completely. But they couldn't because smoking is just so addicting. Moreover, a study has discovered that every day, nearly 4000 teens in the U.S. smoke their first cigarette, while 1000 start smoking in a daily basis. This is alarming because a) Your not-fully-developed body can't take the tolls of cigarettes like an adult's body can, b) when these kids get addicted to smoking, it's going to be harder to quit once they grow up and realize the damage of smoking and c) smoking is going to ruin your future. People tends to avoid hanging out or hiring someone who smoke. My friend once told me that when he returned to his primary school to visit, he saw a 5-grader smoking. That's just wrong. What have society become that small children have already begin to smoke at the age of 10?

So what can you do if you want to quit smoking? First of all, get rid of all of your cigarettes. Then try to ask for your friends and family to help you with quitting smoking. While it's true that you can accomplish this task by yourself, it's always better to have someone to look after you and stop you if you try to smoke again. Then try to develop a plan to eat healthy and work out so your body can recover from all the smoking. If you eat healthy and exercise, in a couple of months, your body will return to normal. But if there are times when you just can't fight back the urge to smoke, try one of these methods: a) Try chewing gum, b) Medicine (must be prescribed by your doctor), c)Nicotine Replacement Therapy (works best if you get behavioral therapy and support from family). Below I've list some links that can help you to quit smoking.

This is just a quick blog showing you some of the effects of smoking and how you can quit it. Smoking is harmful for your body and you shouldn't try to smoke, even if someone offers it to you or your friends told you it's cool to do it. If you know someone who smoke a lot, be sure to share with them things that you've read in this blog so they can understand what the risks of smoking are. If you want to know more about tobacco usage, you can find them in the links at the bottom. See you later and remember: "Smoking is bad for you."

Links:
http://www.patient.co.uk/health/smoking-the-facts
http://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/about-smoking/facts-figures/general-smoking-facts.html
http://www.factslides.com/s-Smoking#
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette
http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/quit-smoking
http://www.helpguide.org/articles/addiction/how-to-quit-smoking.htm