Smoking: How will it Affect You?
With all the information that is available, anybody would be hard pressed not to know that smoking is harmful to your health. Yet people still take up smoking and continue to smoke. I have always found this difficult to understand, especially when you see the real cost of smoking – the pain and suffering caused both to the smoker and to their family.
Many young people who take up smoking think that:
- the diseases associated with smoking only occur in old age, or
- you have to smoke a lot for the diseases to happen to you, or
- they can stop smoking whenever they choose, and
- they are not or will not become addicted to smoking.
Sadly none of these ideas hold true. I have been involved with some tragic cases where smoking has cost the smoker and their family dearly.
One such case was a 29 year old mother of three young children. She was suffering from severe emphysema, which is a form of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). It is caused by the chemicals contained in cigarette smoke. In emphysema the wall of the air sacs in the lungs has been destroyed and the natural elasticity of the lungs is lost. This causes difficulty with breathing and the person needs to ‘push’ the air out of their lungs with their abdominal and rib cage muscles. This young mother sat on the side of her hospital bed and had to lean over the bed table so that she could breath. She was attached to her oxygen (set at a low level) and could not walk to the bathroom. Her children could only make short visits – she was unable to cope physically and emotionally with seeing them. When they left she would always be in tears as she knew that she would not see them grow up.
Emphysema is an irreversible condition and although it is often seen in people who have been smoking for many years it can also affect younger people as is seen in the case above. The young mother was only 29. She had started smoking in her late teens and did not consider herself to be a heavy smoker. Her smoking cost her life, deprived her children of their mother and her partner of his relationship (and these losses are only the beginning as many other people were affected as well).
In another case a 24 year old smoker had a heart attack. Prior to his heart attack he was considered fit and healthy. He had worked as a diver in the Navy. When I came into contact with him he was undergoing heart surgery to deal with clogged arteries. His smoking habit had significantly contributed to his arterial disease. As well as loosing his health, he also lost his work as a diver – a job that he had worked hard to gain and one that he greatly enjoyed.
Smoking is a major cause of atherosclerosis - a buildup of fatty substances in the arteries. Atherosclerosis occurs when the normal lining of the arteries deteriorates, the walls of the arteries thicken and deposits of fat and plaque block the flow of blood. A person’s risk of heart attack greatly increases with the number of cigarettes he or she smokes. There is no safe amount of smoking. Smokers continue to increase their risk of heart attack the longer they smoke, however as you can see from the cases above young people are also at risk. People who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day have more than twice the risk of heart attack than non-smokers.
Emphysema and heart disease are just two of the serious conditions that are caused by cigarette smoking. Smoking costs – it is difficult to tell when or what it will cost you but it does not come free from consequences and it always extracts its price. It is best never to start smoking but if you do smoke you need to quit – the sooner the better.
The sooner you quit the sooner you will reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and emphysema. Quitting smoking reduces the risk of repeat heart attacks and death from heart disease by 50 percent or more.
The most essential step in any treatment plan for smokers with emphysema is stopping smoking; it's the only way to stop the damage to your lungs from becoming worse.
Quitting smoking is never easy, and people often need the help of a comprehensive smoking cessation plan, support and encouragement. You will find such assistance by becoming a member of Growerz. Allow them to take you through the quit process. Be a non-smoker and live.
23.07.2007. 02:00
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