This is exerpts from another great article by George Malkumus . This is one of the hardest things to give up when transferring to another diet but, as you’ll read, will make you feel a lot better.
Let me preface this week’s article by saying that
everything we place into our body through our mouth,
affects the health of our physical body - either for good
or for bad. Thus, if we desire good health, we MUST
carefully consider what we place into our mouth.
What most people do not realize is that almost every
physical problem they experience through life, other than
accidents of course, is CAUSED by something THEY placed
into their MOUTH.
In this Health Tip we are going to turn our attention to
NICOTINE, a non-food substance that DOES A BODY “BAD.”
Let’s begin by turning to Webster’s Dictionary for a
definition of “Nicotine”: “a colorless, oily, water-
soluble, HIGHLY TOXIC liquid alkaloid, C10H14N2, found in
tobacco and valued as an insecticide.”
Please note the words “HIGHLY TOXIC”. Again we turn to
Webster for the definition of another word, “TOXIC”:
“acting as or having the effect of a POISON; poisonous, a
TOXIC DRUG.”
SOME OF THE THINGS SMOKING WILL DO FOR AND TO YOU
*Nearly 500,000 (one-half million) people die prematurely
each year from tobacco-related diseases. This accounts for
a greater number of deaths than those caused by alcohol,
cocaine, crack, heroin, AIDS, homicides, suicides, car
crashes and fires COMBINED!
*Tobacco use is the Number One cause of preventable deaths
in our country, while one in every five deaths can be
attributed to smoking. That is 20% of all deaths in our
country could be prevented, if only people would stop
smoking.
*Tobacco use shortens the user’s life by an average of 21
years.
*Tobacco is a highly toxic and addicting drug! The U. S.
Government has issued a statement that tobacco is every bit
as addicting as heroin. (Smokeless tobacco is every bit as
addictive and dangerous to the body as is tobacco that is
smoked.)
*The American Lung Association states that tobacco
contains over 500 known toxins, the worst being nicotine,
tars, and carbon monoxide. These cytoplasmic poisons are
drawn into the lungs and absorbed into the blood stream
with every puff on the cigarette by the smoker.
*It is not unusual for a cigarette smoker to look a good
10 to 15 years older than others in the same age bracket.
WHY DO PEOPLE SMOKE?
Most cigarette smokers begin their addiction with the very
first cigarette! That first cigarette usually takes place
as an adolescent, often because of peer pressure, a desire
to act grown up, or not wanting to be different from the
crowd.
However, while that first cigarette often causes violent
coughing, if the person continues to smoke, it isn’t long
before the coughing subsides and the drug nicotine,
contained within the smoke of that cigarette, starts
bringing a feeling of pleasure. Not realizing that nicotine
is among the most powerful of all known stimulant drugs,
smoking quickly becomes an addiction.
No one has ever become a nicotine addict who refused that
first cigarette (or chew)! But a non-smoker who lights up
more than 2 cigarettes in a row has only a 15% chance of
remaining a non-smoker. In other words, a person who lights
up just 2 cigarettes in a row has an 85% chance of becoming
addicted.
Eighty percent of men and sixty percent of women smokers
average at least a pack of 20 cigarettes a day - that’s
over one cigarette per waking hour. Heavy smokers need a
fix every 20 to 30 minutes - and often smoke 2-3 packs a
day.
The primary reason people continue to smoke, even after
they have learned how harmful smoking is to their body, is
because of a biochemical ADDICTION.
The curse of this addicting drug is that it makes the
smoker feel good as long as they are taking the drug into
their body and rotten when they stop. When a person tries
to stop the nicotine (drug) intake, and as the body
attempts to free itself of the drug, the body, because of
the addiction, DEMANDS more.
If a cigarette is not smoked within a given amount of
time, that person can begin to experience any of the
following drug withdrawal symptoms: nervousness,
drowsiness, anxiety, headaches, energy loss, sweating,
hostility, heart palpitations, cramps, tremors, and/or
irrationality. Not wanting to suffer through these
withdrawal symptoms, 85% of smokers who attempt to quit,
fail!
Besides the ADDICTION, other reasons people continue to
smoke include: stimulation, relaxation, tension coping,
habit, biochemical addiction, and possibly even an
unconscious need for self-destruction or possibly even
punishment due to a poor self-image. But for whatever
reason, cigarette smoking is one of the most destructive,
addictive habits a person can ever enslave himself or
herself to!
Of the 50,000,000 (fifty million) Americans who smoke,
between 33% and 50% of them will die, SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY
SMOKE. One pack a day smokers are twice as likely to die
from lung cancer, bronchitis, emphysema, and heart disease
than nonsmokers! 91% of lung cancer patients die within 5
years!
The average, potentially FATAL “cancer stick dose” is
125,000 cigarettes! Smoking just one pack a day for 17
years adds up to approximately 125,000 cigarettes (6,250
packs), costing approximately $20,000. If a person starts
smoking at age 13 and lives long enough to reach age 63,
they will have put a match to 365,000 cigarettes, at a cost
of over $60,000 dollars, producing nothing more than TOXIC
SMOKE!
Women on birth control pills who smoke, run an even higher
risk of developing hardening of the arteries, blood
clotting, and heart disease than those women who do not
smoke. Pregnant women who smoke endanger the health of the
unborn fetus through “passive smoking.”
