Source: Las Vegas Review - Journal
Publication date: 2001-12-26
Arrival time: 2002-01-15
Smokers can no longer claim they are unaware of the health dangers involved with smoking. Warnings are everywhere. In every form of media and even on the package, smoking cigarettes is a health danger.
If you are a smoker, here are some reasons to quit, some of which you have heard. Hopefully, this will encourage you to quit now.
Smoking causes wrinkles. Smoking reduces the flow of oxygen and nutrients to skin cells by shrinking blood vessels. Premature wrinkling is largely irreversible even with the technology available with current cosmetic surgery techniques. Instead of undergoing the pain and cost of surgery, stop smoking now.
Since smoking does reduce the flow of blood to vital areas, impotence can also be a side effect. As many as one-in-two American men older than 40 have experienced impotence to some degree. Smoking is believed to be one of the main physical causes of erectile dysfunction. Trading a healthy sex life for cigarettes is not a choice most people would willingly make.
Particles from cigarette smoke stain teeth brown and yellow, and they trap odor-producing bacteria in your mouth.
Gum disease and tooth loss are common in smokers. Since cigarettes contain more than 200 chemical additives, it is no wonder smokers generally stink. Although the smokers themselves might not notice the cloud of odor that surrounds them, other people definitely do. It is common for the nasal passages of smokers to become damaged over time so it is likely they can't smell themselves.
Risk factors for the crippling condition of osteoporosis are well- known these days: There is being female, white or Asian, inactive and past menopause. Then there is having a small frame, calcium deficiency and genetic predisposition. They all are contributors to low bone-mineral density. And so is smoking.
A 1997 study that looked at 4,000 hip fractures in elderly women concluded that one out of every eight fractures was due to smoking- related bone loss. Once lost, bone density cannot be fully recovered.
The reasons people smoke can usually be contributed to emotional factors rather than physical ones. The American Lung Association believes there's a good chance you're stressed or depressed when you reach for that cigarette. In fact, the connection between smoking and depression has been well established.
Even if you do not have children yourself, kids still look at adults as role models. Every day, an estimated 3,000 children in the U.S. become addicted to cigarettes. If they keep smoking, 1,000 of them eventually will die from the diseases connected to their addiction.
Anti-tobacco organizations claim cigarette companies deliberately target children in their advertising campaigns. If you smoke, you are a walking billboard for these companies. And you are paying them.
If you are at all concerned with your health and fitness, you have to quit now. Smoking decreases the lung's capacity to work so even if you exercise regularly, you are actually sabotaging your own efforts.
Smokers often claim the reason they do not quit is that they fear weight gain. Even if you were to gain 20 pounds after quitting smoking, you still would have made an improvement in your health. Smoking is more detrimental to your health than extra weight.
Quitting smoking is the best way you can show your own self-love. Quit now for your health now and for good health down the road.
Kim Springer and her husband, Mike, are Certified Personal Trainers and owners of Springer Training. They can be reached at 233- 9442 or at their Web site www.springertraining.com.

