Health

20 Reasons why smoking cigarettes should be on your ‘things not to do’ list…

Cigarettes-64kbWe all know that smoking is bad for us yet some people still insist on making cigarettes their daily bread. There’s a huge difference between a need and an addiction and if you need to have a cigarette every hour to be able to deal with the stresses of the day then you my friend are addicted.

Tobacco smoke contains very tiny amounts of nicotine that aren’t deadly but, are still very bad for your health and the people around you on a daily basis. Tobacco smoke also contains over 4,000 chemicals, many of which are known causes of cancer. Just a few of these chemicals are:

  • Carbon Monoxide (found in car exhaust)
  • Arsenic (rat poison)
  • Ammonia (found in window cleaner)
  • Acetone (found in nail polish remover)
  • Hydrogen Cyanide (gas chamber poison)
  • Naphthalene (found in mothballs)                                                    15_fmt

 

You’re putting into your body what people use to remove fake nails, I don’t know how much sense that makes but right now it makes none. Here are 20 reasons that should help you reconsider your favourite activity of each day:

  1. Not smoking reduces the chances of getting lung cancer, emphysema, and other lung related diseases.
  2. You will have better smelling clothes, hair; your car will smell better and most importantly fresher breath, everyone wants to talk to someone with good breath.
  3. You’ll be able to climb those stairs at work without running out of breath.
  4. Reduces the chances of getting wrinkles before ‘your time’.
  5. You’ll say goodbye to that morning cough so people can stop thinking you’ve had a horrible cough all year.
  6. Gives you the opportunity to pursuit more sporting and physical activities.
  7. The average South African smoker spends R1 600.00 per month on cigarettes; you get to use that R1 600.00 to spoil yourself to something greater like a good book or a day out with friends. .
  8. Reduces the chances of getting a heart attack or stroke.Girl kicking a cigarette butt
  9. Smoking causes your teeth to yellow.
  10. Smoking severely increases risk to blood clots
  11. Cigarette smoking appears to be a substantial risk factor for the development of diabetes.
  12. Smokers are 1.5 times more likely than non-smokers to suffer fractures, sprains, and other physical injuries, basically smokers have weak joints.
  13. When you quit for twenty minutes … your blood pressure drops to near the level before you had your last cigarette.
  14. After eight hours … the carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
  15. After twenty-four hours … your chance of heart attack decreases.
  16. After two weeks to three months … your circulation improves. Lung function increases up to 30%.
  17. After one year … your chance of heart attack is cut almost into half.
  18. After five years … stroke risk is reduced to level of a non-smoker.
  19. After ten years of quitting, precancerous cells are replaced and cancers such as mouth, larynx, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas decrease.
  20. After fifteen years off cigarettes, the risk of death for ex-smokers returns to nearly the level of persons who have never smoked before.

smoking-skeletonIf you do stop smoking after reading all those points over and over again well you’ll need to thank me for adding at least another 15 years to your life. Forget the doctor, not having a cigarette a day keeps a lot of diseases away.

 

Mbali Ntuli

 

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