Smoking: Why You Shouldn’t Smoke

Today I’m going to talk to you about why you should never start smoking, and if you currently smoke why you should quit immediately. There are many drugs in the world today that are hurting us all. The drug that I am going to talk to you about today is the drug found in cigarettes: which is nicotine. Once a person inhales nicotine they are addicted to it. It is very hard to get off nicotine just as it would be to stop using any other drug. Every year we lose 4.9 million people worldwide, not from aids, homicides, or even auto accidents, but from smoking, smoking kills more than all of those combined.

Although some people do not think that smoking cigarettes will directly affect their lives, they are wrong, I believe that smoking is a hazard to not only the people who smoke, but also to the people around them as well. Just like smokers, a non-smoker breathing second hand smoke is exposed to roughly 3,700 different chemicals. Many of them can be poisonous; others are powerful cancer causing substances, such as formaldehyde. Have you ever taken a close look at the bottom of the cigarette box? Well, if you haven’t, this is what it says: SMOKING MAY CAUSE LUNG CANCER, HEART DISEASE AND MAY ALSO COMPLICATE PREGNANCY. Does it not shock people that the tobacco companies are giving them a warning?

Smoking does not only make people look bad, but it also effects their bodies internally in negative ways. Smoking can cause many life-threatening diseases. Some of those diseases include chronic lung and heart disease; and cancer of the lungs, larynx, esophagus, and mouth. It can also cause heart attacks and strokes. Cigarette smoking accounts for 30 percent of all heart disease deaths. The carbon monoxide in the burning smoke causes more cholesterol clogging in the arteries. Smoking causes the artery walls to stiffen, and the chance of an artery rupturing increases.

Nicotine can raise your blood pressure, heart rate, and the oxygen in your heart. A coronary spasm may occur during smoking, which may lead to chest pain, and a heart attack. When you smoke, the effects on your body are immediate. Your pulse increases and your breathing becomes faster and more shallow. Plus your circulation begins to drop. Inhaling tobacco can give you lung cancer and respiratory problems. When you inhale tobacco, the tobacco destroys the cilia in your esophagus. The cilia is what protects you from diseases, so therefore you are more likely to become sick, than a person who does not inhale tobacco. Tobacco destroys lung tissue so you are more prone to lung cancer. If tobacco gets into your blood stream it takes away oxygen in your blood, slowing down physical activity.

Not only does smoking effect people’s health, it also effects the way they look. First of all tobacco smoke has a drying effect on the skin and since smoking restricts blood vessels, it reduces the amount of blood flowing to the skin which denies the skin of oxygen and essential nutrients. Since these two things happen, the skin gets damaged which makes it have a grayish, wasted appearance. Not only does smoking effect the appearance of skin, it also effects the color of your teeth and the smell of your breath. Your teeth gradually change to an icky yellowish color and your breath wreaks of odor which could lead people away from you. Even though tobacco models display gleaming white teeth if you use tobacco your teeth will eventually turn yellow. Smoking can make you also have wrinkles and make you look about ten years older than you really are.

Tobacco has the same ingredients as rat poison which is (cyanide), dead frog preserver which is (formaldehyde) and toilet bowel cleaner which is (ammonia). Tobacco is even used by Some gardeners on their plants so the insects will stay away, and because insects are small it kills them instantly. Think about it if it can kill an insect then what do you think it is doing to you? Why would anyone want to inhale something that is used to kill insects and has such harmful chemicals in it. Research has proven that there are more than 250 harmful, toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke that can cause cancer. I guess smokers just don’t realize what they are inhaling or maybe they are asking to die? The best solution for a smoker’s addiction is to quit cold turkey, put them down and don’t’ look back. But of course just like anything else that is easier said than done, and that’s why there are so many other options to make it a reality to quit. There are many different products on the market, and also certain types of support groups.

Products such as nicotine patches, and nicoderm chewing gum, are good examples of non-smoking aids. Quitting smoking can be quit a challenge, and I know this from first hand experience. I smoked from the age of about twelve to about nineteen. And believe me when I decided to quit it wasn’t easy. Still to this day after not smoking for almost two years, if I’m around friends that are smoking I crave them. But I have to control that craving because I want to be healthy and I don’t want to die from lung cancer. And I can honestly tell you that I feel a hundred percent healthier since I’ve quit. So when someone tells me that they are addicted and can’t stop, I tell them that anyone can control their addiction to nicotine they just have to be willing to and they have to want it bad enough. They have to overcome the feeling that they need it because in all reality no one really needs it.

The question is, why do people start smoking? Is it because individuals give in to peer pressure, or do people just want to look cool? Maybe, they started smoking to calm their nerves, which then lead slowly to addiction. Seventy Seven percent of people who smoke do it out of stress and peer pressure, but that is not an excuse. There are many different things that people can do to relieve stress, that are not life threatening. By now, everybody should know the consequences of smoking, they should know that smoking is harmful and can also lead to death. So the next time your are tempted to start smoking, just picture yourself hooked up to an oxygen tank, and your family members around you with tears in their eyes. Remember always say no to smoking!

Works cited

http://rex.nci.nih.gov/NCI_Pub_interface/smoking_facts/about.html

http://www.be-health-smart.com/stop-smoking.html

http://smokingsides.com/