SATURDAY, DAY 6
LIFESTYLE AND PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
Smoking is bad for your health, whether you smoke cigars, cigarettes, or a pipe. It affects every organ in your body and is responsible for lung cancer, lung disease, heart and blood vessel disease, stroke, and cataracts. Women who smoke have a higher risk of developing problems during pregnancy and a greater risk of having a baby die of sudden infant death syndrome. Additionally, inhaling secondhand smoke—the smoke from others nearby who are smoking—results in many of the same problems that smoking does. Even smoking just one to four cigarettes a day will increase your risk of disease and of dying younger than you would otherwise.
To reduce your risk from all of these health problems, you must quit smoking. This is no easy task, because smoking is addictive. Cigarettes contain nicotine, which is an addictive drug. Small amounts of nicotine create pleasant feelings that make the smoker want to smoke more. These sensations wear off in a few minutes, which usually causes the smoker to crave another cigarette. Unless another cigarette is smoked, withdrawal symptoms occur, including irritability, nervousness, headaches, and difficulty sleeping.
People usually begin to smoke as teenagers because of curiosity and peer pressure. If your friends or parents smoke, you are more likely to start smoking. The tobacco industry’s promotion of its product with advertisements also influences teenagers.
Anyone who starts smoking is at risk for becoming addicted. The younger someone is when he or she starts smoking, the more likely it is that he or she will become addicted. Close to 90 percent of adult smokers took up the habit before age 19.