Cigarettes Will Eventually Kill You

Reasons to Quit Smoking besides Death

Most people who smoke cigarettes are aware of at least some of the reasons smoking is considered bad for their personal health, including death. Health issues aren’t the only thing to take into consideration though because in this economy smoking doesn’t just concern your lungs but also your wallet. Cigarette prices are on the rise and still climbing but those who are addicted continue to spend hundreds every year keeping up with their habit. Why is smoking so appealing? Why would someone want to risk the major health issues involved and spend $100,000 to $200,000 during their lifetime (60 years) on what is essentially unclean air?

The main question one needs to ask themselves before they light up is more or less if they want to become a smoker because there really isn’t much choice after beginning. Most people who make it to 25 without becoming addicted to smoking cigarettes will more than likely continue the rest of their lives cigarette-free. Those who do begin smoking will soon see how living life as a cigarette addict alters their choices as they must find time to have a cigarette before, during or after events through-out their day. A habitual smoker isn’t just killing off their own lungs but affects non-smokers around them too. Unhappily non-smokers must live in an environment they aren’t choosing and attempt to avoid it at all costs to keep their lungs clean. They must change course on the sidewalk to avoid a smoke cloud, request a different part of the restaurant to avoid tasting Camels with their meal, and roll up the windows on a nice day because someone couldn’t wait until they got home from work to receive a fix.

Smoking, as a health hazard, will reduce the average lifespan of a person by 12 years. “400,000 deaths each year around the world are caused directly from smoking” says online source Wrong Diagnosis. The serious effects of smoking or what every elementary class is warned about include a long list of illnesses one will receive with age but one thing is common for every smoker and is noticed from the first second the habit is picked up; shortness of breath. Once a smoker reaches old age, or if they reach it, a vast array of diseases and cancers await them including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, strokes, tongue cancer, lung cancer, and heart attacks just to name a few. Most people in today’s world die during a hospital stay instead of at home bed with simple old age.

Lifestyles also vary greatly for smokers and non-smokers. Today’s economy is costing a lot of people their jobs or at the very least the “extras” like Friday night movies or eating out once a week, but something most don’t consider is the $4 they spend on just one pack of cigarettes. Even marital status can depend on cigarettes because non-smokers don’t enjoy smelling and tasting a spouse’s latest craving. Non-smokers also try to limit their children’s exposure to the “tar air” since their lungs aren’t complete in growing and even more defenseless than an adults. To take it a step further, pets and other animals have no say at all about the type of air they breathe in. Why do you think dogs stick their heads out of a car window?

The overall notion behind smoking and all of the information facts about smoking is plainly that it will eventually kill or harm you in some way if not right away. Anyone who smokes and has the ability to read can also plainly see the Surgeon General’s warning right on the side of the box informing all that smoking cigarettes is a health risk for everyone. Cigarettes have had criticism since the late 1500’s when they first began to become popular, but even now that all the risks are known people still continue to produce them. The reason laws have been made restricting smoking in hospitals, restaurants, schools and most public places are because most people don’t want to inhale it. Making the choice to smoke is like deciding to drive your car over a cliff on purpose; it’s a risk that if not killing you, will seriously you impair you for the rest of your life.

Health Awareness Is Rising In America

By simply typing “health” into the now ever convenient World Wide Web, one will instantly see news, advertising, and tons of medical information on various sites. One such site, known as WebMD, will even give you a basic diagnosis of your symptoms should you be feeling sick or general health tips such as how to avoid a cold. Fifty years ago health concerns weren’t a number one priority for people in America. In today’s world, we have commercials about the Butterton’s telling us we shouldn’t eat so much saturated fats and McDonald’s adding apples to their Happy Meals. What has changed? Why within the last fifty years has health become so important to America?

One of the largest, more prominent reasons health has become important to the American people is the widespread disease called cancer. It comes in many forms, some are even inherited, and as many people watch their family members die from it, they feel a growing fear that it could actually happen to them. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and this year the founders celebrate twenty-five years of spreading information on symptoms, self-checks, and when to see your doctor about this disease that has taken so many loving and needed family members, co-workers, and friends from our mists. Though cancer is incurable it can be treated with radiation, chemo and sometimes surgery if discovered soon enough, but for a countless amount of women it’s often too late.

Majority of cancer survivors chose to devote the remainder of their lives to educating the population and encouraging others to get themselves checked routinely. Generally it seems those who care about it most are the ones who have had a personal experience with a family member hospitalized or pass on. Smokers that have witnessed an elder lifetime-smoking relative receive the news that they have lung cancer, as one fourth of the population does, may be influenced to put down the tobacco sticks themselves. Because the information is so easily available, the cancer survival rates in the last few years have been slowly declining as stated in the National Cancer Institute online.

Health awareness has changed the way in which Americans look at food, exercise habits, and socializing. Today we teach our children about calories, fats and the differences between fast food and food prepared at home. Families attempt to spend more time together outdoors playing physical games instead of staying inside with movies or videogames. Most importantly we talk with those we care about and extend our knowledge to continue lowering the number of disease- or cancer-related deaths. Being acquainted with the major illnesses in the world also brings people to help in whatever ways they can to repress their continuation. After all, awareness to the important health issues is what helps people discover that they have it and receive the proper care in time.