Smoking Causes Many Diseases

What will lead you to finally make the decision to stop smoking? Will it be the financial cost (the Federal tax is now $1.01 per pack, not to mention your State tax)? Or will it be the stigma of your being a smoker (All smokers must stand 20 feet from this building!)? But your health and the health of those you love who breathe your secondhand smoke is the best reason for you to stop smoking. You want to live a long, healthy life, don’t you? Everyone knows that lung cancer is the number one cancer among smokers, attributable for 87% of deaths from this hard-to-treat disease. If you’re a smoker who needs a new set of lungs, you’ll be way down on the transplant list. Smoking is the cause of 30% of all cancer deaths and it kills both men and women. Since the ‘80s, cancers of the mouth, larynx, throat, esophagus and bladder have been commonly found in smokers. Since that time, doctors have discovered that acute myeloid leukemia can also be caused by smoking, as well as cancers of the kidney, cervix, kidney, stomach and pancreas. Smoking can also cause non-cancerous diseases, such as pneumonia, abdominal aortic aneurysm (one of the vessels leading from your heart to the rest of your body can burst), chronic lung disease (including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which used to be called emphysema), chronic heart diseases and cardiovascular diseases. Smoking has also been linked to eye problems such as cataracts and macular degeneration, as well as the bone-thinning disease of osteoporosis. These diseases may not kill you, but they can diminish your quality of life. If you’re thinking of getting pregnant, you should know that smoking can reduce the chances of pregnancy. If you do conceive, then you’re risking a miscarriage. If you get as far as the third trimester, you’re risking a stillbirth or an early delivery resulting in a low-weight baby. Finally, smoking has also been associated with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Is the risk of these diseases enough of a reason for you to finally stop smoking? If so, you’ll not only have a lot more money in your pocket, you’ll be spending a lot less time 20’ feet from the nearest door. And chances are you’ll be spending a lot less time in the hospital or attached to some tube when you get older. And the silver lining is that you’ll get to live a lot longer life.