I smoked for 50 years. Willie "The Moose" Steinberg challenged me to smoke one of his Kools in Lyon Park one summer afternoon when I was 15 years old, and of course I wasn't going to let him call me "chicken", so I puffed, coughed, puffed again. And I was hooked.
This Spring with achy lungs and trouble breathing after even the most minimal exercise - walking the dog for 10 minutes, for example - I was still smoking. Then, thank Fortune, the Obama Administration approved a large tax increase on tobacco products. It was enough to get me looking for ways to stop smoking. Like most smokers I know I'd tried many times and failed. This time I wanted it to be different.
Florida had a smoking-cessation program which included counseling along with free patches or lozenges or gum. I signed for patches and on April 28, 2009 smoked my last so far. I'm putting this on a One-Day-at-a-Time basis, so that I don't get over-confident about it. Financial concerns was the tipping point for me, There are, and we all know it, many good reasons to stop. Whatever will do it for you is good enough.
Therefore I'm including all the reasons below, taken from the Cancer Society site. Please read them once more. One can never see them too many times. I hope and pray one of them will be enough for you.
Roy
Understanding Addiction
There are more than 4,000 chemicals found in the smoke of tobacco products. Of these, nicotine, first identified in the early 1800s, is the primary reinforcing component of tobacco that acts on the brain.
Cigarette smoking is the most popular method of using tobacco; however, there has also been a recent increase in the sale and consumption of smokeless tobacco products, such as snuff and chewing tobacco. These smokeless products also contain nicotine, as well as many toxic chemicals.
The cigarette is a very efficient and highly engineered drug delivery system. By inhaling tobacco smoke, the average smoker takes in 1 to 2 mg of nicotine per cigarette. When tobacco is smoked, nicotine rapidly reaches peak levels in the bloodstream and enters the brain. A typical smoker will take 10 puffs on a cigarette over a period of 5 minutes that the cigarette is lit. Thus, a person who smokes about 1-1/2 packs (30 cigarettes) daily gets 300 "hits" of nicotine to the brain each day. In those who typically do not inhale the smoke—such as cigar and pipe smokers and smokeless tobacco users––nicotine is absorbed through the mucosal membranes and reaches peak blood levels and the brain more slowly.
Immediately after exposure to nicotine, there is a "kick" caused in part by the drug's stimulation of the adrenal glands and resulting discharge of epinephrine (adrenaline). The rush of adrenaline stimulates the body and causes a sudden release of glucose, as well as an increase in blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate. Nicotine also suppresses insulin output from the pancreas, which means that smokers are always slightly hyperglycemic (i.e., they have elevated blood sugar levels). The calming effect of nicotine reported by many users is usually associated with a decline in withdrawal effects rather than direct effects of nicotine
Immediate and Long Term Benefits
Within 20 minutes after you smoke that last cigarette, your body begins a series of changes that continue for years.
20 Minutes After Quitting
Your heart rate drops.
12 hours After Quitting
Carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
2 Weeks to 3 Months After Quitting
Your heart attack risk begins to drop.
Your lung function begins to improve.
1 to 9 Months After Quitting
Your Coughing and shortness of breath decrease.
1 Year After Quitting
Your added risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's.
5 Years After Quitting
Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker's 5-15 years after quitting.
10 Years After Quitting
Your lung cancer death rate is about half that of a smoker's.
Your risk of cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas decreases.
15 Years After Quitting
Your risk of coronary heart disease is back to that of a nonsmoker's.
Need more convincing?
Compared to smokers, your…
* Stroke risk is reduced to that of a person who never smoked after 5 to 15 years of not smoking
* Cancers of the mouth, throat, and esophagus risks are halved 5 years after quitting
* Cancer of the larynx risk is reduced after quitting
* Coronary heart disease risk is cut by half 1 year after quitting and is nearly the same as someone who never smoked 15 years after quitting
* Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk of death is reduced after you quit Lung cancer risk drops by as much as half 10 years after quitting
* Ulcer risk drops after quitting
* Bladder cancer risk is halved a few years after quitting
* Peripheral artery disease goes down after quitting
* Cervical cancer risk is reduced a few years after quitting
* Low birth weight baby risk drops to normal if you quit before pregnancy or during your first trimester the benefits of quitting
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