- THE REAL POINT ABOUT SMOKING AND HEALTH -


You probably know plenty about the way smoking compromises your health. We do not want to go over familiar ground again, but there is more to it than you may realize.

Everybody knows about the big serial killers like lung cancer and heart disease. And the really horrible humiliating things like chronic bronchitis and emphysema. But it's possible to push those out of your mind, or convince yourself that it's an acceptable risk.

What no smoker can avoid is the gradual, bit by bit erosion of your general physical condition. It's not just about your chest getting clogged up with tar, making you tired and wheezy.

Every time you smoke, along with the nicotine, you're putting all sorts of poisonous chemicals into your bloodstream. So you're constantly starving every organ and muscle in your body of oxygen and other things it needs.

Your skin, your eyes, and your hair are all ageing more quickly. You're growing old before your time: smoking is linked with premature menopause and with impotence. If you hurt yourself it takes longer for the wound to heal.

On top of that, you're laying yourself more open to any other disease that might come along. You're more prone to skin cancer, diabetes, varicose veins, eyesight problems, and fertility problems - even tooth decay.

Of course, all this is rather remote. Lots of smokers just can't - or won't - see what it is doing to them with every day that passes. I used to kid myself that as long as I kept my lungs working running, I would get away with it. Of course, all that deep breathing just made it worse.

I fell for all the usual stories at first. I couldn't see any real difference between my capabilities and those of the non-smokers around me.

We all hear about people smoking all their lives without apparently suffering any ill effects. And we all manage to keep the really bad news at a distance.

It worked pretty well for me: I ignored the problem, and it really did seem to go away. But of course it wasn't going away. It was there all the time, gradually eating away at me.

That is a very important point to understand: that smoking isn't a game of chance, that lighting a cigarette isn't playing Ludo with the possibility of lung cancer or a heart attack, it is self harming behavior, repeated several times a day, thousands of times a year.

When you stop smoking, the improvements happen gradually too, almost imperceptibly.

But just let somebody else notice after a couple of weeks how much better you're looking, and it will become obvious to you too.

At that point, once you're out of the woods, you can safely look back and remember how you used to feel, how you used to look, and finally realize what it must have been doing to you all those years. And feel the joy of knowing that those days are over for good.

Keep a date with me for a continuation of this very interesting topic. Tomorrow I will be talking about “THE GRAND ILLUSION!” Don’t miss it! Visit our blog on http://www.favourhouse..com/ . WELCOME!