Advice - Smoking Cessation Advice

Advice - Smoking Cessation ADVICE to QUIT SMOKING Smoking is one of the worst possible habits that a person can develop. It is responsible for more serious illness and is the number one cause of preventable death in the modern world. In the United States, smoking is thought to cost the country as much as $100 billion annually in healthcare and work productivity lost.

Smoking-related fatalities exceed the number of deaths attributable to all diseases, traffic accidents (including drunk driving), and all forms of crime (including both violent crime and all drug abuse), combined (Brody 2008). In addition to serious medical illness, smoking has also been directly implicated in premature aging of the skin and it is fast becoming outlawed in so many areas of modern life that those who continue to smoke may decreases their job opportunities and even their choice of residence in residential areas of several major cities (O'Neill & Jordan 2008).

The vast majority of all adult smokers have tried to quit several times unsuccessfully and recent evidence suggests that smoking may be even more addictive in adolescents and young adults than in older adults for specific biochemical reasons having to do with the way nicotine addiction develops within the neural structure and functions of the brain.

Whereas nicotine dependence and addiction develops more gradually in adults, "dependence-related tolerance" or the time between cigarettes without addictive cravings develops very rapidly in younger people, meaning that they can much more easily become addicted even from the occasional cigarette (Brody 2008). Smoking directly damages the entire circulatory and respiratory system including all of the major blood vessels and both the heart and lungs by continually stressing them by virtue of increased heart rate and the same biochemical and hormonal changes normally associated with the "fight or flight" reflex.

In addition to these immediate changes, smoking also reduces the elasticity of blood vessels and contributes to the development of congestive heart failure and heart disease (Brody 2008). Besides the most serious medical consequences, smoking causes bad breath, yellowing of teeth and is considered equally damaging to the skin in terms of premature aging and wrinkles as overexposure to the sun.

Finally, the increased awareness of the dangers of second-hand smoke have already led to laws prohibiting smoking in the workplace, in restaurants and other public areas, and even in residential buildings. In general, smoking is becoming something that many people consider evidence of poor decision making or even low intelligence. The decision to start smoking is just not consistent with good judgment and intelligent choices.

The fact that so many people who already smoke wish they had never started and the difficulty they experience in trying to quit should be enough proof to anybody that starting is a very bad idea. Healthcare costs are one of the most expensive bills that Americans pay and a substantial amount of their increasing costs every year.