Quit smoking tips: Negative health effects of smoking

I know I don’t advocate using bad news about smoking as method to help you quit, but it should be used as a motivation for finding out how to quit.

Here are some of the negative health effects of smoking:

  1. Smokers’ bone density declines by between 3% and 5% every year that they smoke. Why this happens is not understood but it is thought that one or more of the chemicals in the cigarette smoke binds with the bone forming cells (osteoblasts) of the body and prevents them doing their job.
  2. Women’s chances of conceiving whilst smoking are drastically reduced. Although the reduction in fertility is somewhat dependent upon age, smoking whilst trying to have a baby is like doing it with one hand behind your back. (I am not suggesting that you do or don’t ‘do it’ with one hand tied behind your back – I don’t have an opinion on that!)
  3. Smoking is responsible for more than 30% of all cancer deaths. In western society, the number of smokers is reducing rapidly but this doesn’t take away from the fact that over 90% of lung cancer deaths are directly attributed to smoking.
  4. On average smokers live 8 years less than no smoker. Note that I said on average. Also, on average, half of smokers will die young because of cigarette smoking. This means that ‘on average’ if you are unlucky enought o be a smoker who will die young from a smoking related illness, the chances are that you will die 16 years earlier than normal.
  5. Cigarette smoke has high levels of free radicals in it. As a result, cigarette smoke oxidezes the tissues of smokers. This increases the chance of cell damage which can lead to cancer.
  6. Cigarette smokers are more likely to suffer from virtually all forms of cancer including mouth, throat, bladder, stomach, pancreatic and kidney.
  7. The smoke from an average cigarette contains over 4,000 chemicals, of which over 40 are known to be carcinogenic (cause cancer). These cancer causing chemicals bind to the cells in the lungs (and nose and mouth and throat) and cause cell damage leading to cancer.

I’m going to stop here and let you think about that. There are a million good reasons to quit smoking so never stop trying to quit.