Excerpt from Chapter 4: Smoking – A Deadly Habit

With all these nearly inescapable health hazards, smog, etc, in the world to overcome, it's incredible that millions of people harm their lungs even more by inhaling deadly tobacco smoke into their lungs.

Nicotine is poison! It immediately affects lung function and constricts your cardiovascular system. It destroys vitamin C, which is vital to your health and immune system. After only 12 hours of not smoking, nicotine blood levels fall and the heart and lungs begin healing. If you smoke, please stop now and be loving to your body.

The lungs' air sacs are further damaged by tobacco tars and carbon particles. These lodge in the walls of the lungs' important balloon-like cells, causing them to lose their natural elasticity and eventually breaking them down altogether. The result? Emphysema—the killer disease in which destruction of the breathing mechanism slowly smothers its victim from within.

Of the over 50 million Americans who smoke, one third to one half will die from smoking-related diseases! Smoking also introduces at least two deadly poisons into the body: arsenic and carbon monoxide, as well as other toxins. Compounding these health hazards, smoking creates a desire for caffeine and sugar. Moreover, twice as many smokers drink alcohol compared to non-smokers. Smokers have a far greater incidence of cancer of the lungs, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, mouth, colon and breast. All tobacco products should be banned—they are killers!

If you insist on committing a slow suicide by smoking, no one can stop you. If you really want to save your lungs, health and life, stop smoking by using your strong will and persistence. Start today to make the effort to stop as a positive step towards living The Bragg Healthy Lifestyle.

In our Bragg Health Crusade Lectures throughout the world, we have had thousands of health students who were smokers; some for as long as 40 years. We inspired them to stop smoking and take charge of their health. You can too! Smokers should read about the deadly effects of smoking to the heart and overall health in our book, Healthy Heart: Keep Your Cardiovascular System Healthy and Fit at Any Age.

Here's a tip from a writer friend of ours who, over the years, had acquired the habit of lighting a cigarette whenever she paused to compose her next sequence of thoughts. She said, "When it dawned on me what I was doing, I felt like a complete fool. I stopped smoking! It was destroying my health. Now, instead of a cigarette, I take a full, deep breath and I'm healthier and my thoughts come faster and more clearly than ever!"

She finally realized that she did this because her brain was calling for more oxygen. What she actually needed and wanted was a deep breath – but she was inhaling smoke instead of oxygen, thus defeating her purpose.

If you are a smoker, try this! When you want to smoke a cigarette or cigar or pipe—stop! Instead, take a long, slow, deep breath, filling every air sac in your lungs, and hold it, allowing your red blood cells to become more oxygenated. Then exxhale slowly and completely. Empty every bit of poisonous carbon dioxide from your lungs. You will feel a new surge of energy from the top of your scalp to the soles of your feet...a relaxing and incredibly rejuvenating sensation which you can never get from using tobacco or any other artificial stimulant. The surest way to quit a bad habit is to replace it with a good one.

The greatest benefit to your life and health would be to replace smoking with deep breathing!

Teens Talk About Stopping Smoking

Ex-smoking teens testify that their life is better, self-esteem higher and hope and joy for the future more profound after they quit smoking! Often these misguided, unfortunate children begin smoking before they are old enough to appreciate their hard-working lungs. They begin filling their miracle breathing lungs with health destroying tobacco, some when they are 16, 14 and even 10 years old! Stan B. recalls, "I started smoking when I was 12, to look cool." Susan W. says, "I smoked 2 packs a day from the time I was 16."

As horrifying as these stories are, we can take heart from these youngsters and learn a lesson from their resiliency. Though they are young and the challenge they face is difficult, many teen smokers are winning the battle against the smoking habit and feeling healthier and happier as a result! When it comes to quitting, Stan B. admits, "It's not easy, but I look at my parents who've smoked for over 20 years! I know I don't want to be sucking smoke into my lungs and coughing like them."

Every smoking teen should remember that they are not alone in the struggle to quit, and that their goal is within reach. Many young adults now choose a healthy quality of life over one of the greatest destroyers of our time—smoking! And, should any smoking teens find themselves wavering in their efforts to quit, they should remember the words of ex-smoking teen Ann S., who explains, "The biggest reward was that my self-esteem became so much better—I don't need a cigarette to make everything okay. I have made positive changes, enjoy a healthy lifestyle and have more money, time and energy!"

Quit Smoking – See the Difference it Makes!

• 20 MINUTES AFTER QUITTING: Your blood pressure and pulse rate drop to normal. The temperature of your hands and feet increases to normal.
  
  
• 8 HOURS AFTER QUITTING: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal. The oxygen level in your blood increases to normal.
  
  
• 24 HOURS AFTER QUITTING: Your chance for heart attack decreases.
• 48 HOURS AFTER QUITTING: Your ability to taste and smell is enhanced.
  
  
• 2 WEEKS TO 3 MONTHS AFTER QUITTING: Your circulation improves. Walking becomes easier. Your lung function increases as much as 30 percent.
  
  
• 1 TO 9 MONTHS AFTER QUITTING: coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue and shortness of breath decrease. Your lungs and body are cleaner and more resistant to infection.
  
  
• 1 YEAR AFTER QUITTING: Excess risk for coronary heart disease decreases to 50 percent of that of a smoker's.
  
  
• 2 TO 3 YEARS AFTER QUITTING: The risk for coronary heart disease and stroke decrease compared to those of people who have never smoked. Also less chance of osteoporosis.
  
  
• 5 YEARS AFTER QUITTING: Lung cancer death rate for the formal one-pack-per-day smoker decreases by almost half. Risks of mouth and throat cancer are half those of smokers.
  
  
• 10 TO 15 YEARS AFTER QUITTING: Lung cancer death rate is almost that of non-smokers. Pre-cancerous cells are replaced. Risks for mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas cancer decrease. – Prevention Magazine

Fast Return to Health When You Stop Smoking

The risk of lung cancer steadily decreases when you stop smoking. After 10 to 15 years, your risk is almost back to ta non-smoker's level. Visit www.lungusa.org for more information.

Deadly Smoking Facts!

Tobacco use and second-hand smoke will eventually kill over one fifth of the population now living in the developed world: about 250 million people.

• Of the 50 million Americans who smoke, one third to one half will die from a smoke-related disease and all will reduce their life expectancy by an average of nine years.
  
  
• Smoking acts as either a stimulant or a depressant, depending on the user's emotional state.
  
  
• The average pack-a-day smoker takes about 70,000 hits of nicotine each year.
  
  
• "Second hand smoke" hurts non-smokers: it speeds up the heart rate, raises blood pressure and doubles the amount of deadly carbon monoxide in their blood.
  
  
• Secondary smoke contains more nicotine, tar and cadmium (leading to hypertension, bronchitis and emphysema) than mainstream smoke.
  
  
• Babies born to mothers who smoke tend to be lighter, and have smaller lungs and poor health.
  
  
• Lung illnesses are twice as common in smokers' children.
  
  
• Children and teenagers make up 90% of the new smokers in the United States, and teenage smoking is on the rise!
  
  
• The death rate from breast cancer ranges from 25% to 75% higher among women who smoke.
  
  
• Female smokers may face a higher risk of lung cancer—as much as twice the risk of male smokers, according to a study done by Dr. Harvey Risch at Yale University.
  
  
• Your body contains almost 100,000 miles of blood vessels. Smoking ages & constricts those vessels, depriving your body of important, rich oxygen it needs, this lack causes illness.
  
  
• Tobacco is the main introduction to more deadly drugs!!!
  
  
• Teens who smoke are far more likely to engage in other risky and life-threatening behaviors (including the use of other drugs; violence; gang involvement; carrying weapons; and engaging in premarital sex which often results in pregnancy or disease) than non-smoking teens.
  
  
• Cataracts, cancer, angina, arteriosclerosis, osteoporosis, chronic bronchitis, high blood pressure, impotence and respiratory ailments are linked to all forms of smoking.\

Health Hazards to Avoid – Deadly Smoking: What it Does to You and Those Around You

When people inhale deadly tobacco smoke into their miracle lungs, the protective cilia hairs filter out much of the smoke's harmful substances before it is exhaled. This means that while harmful toxins are trapped in the delicate linings of the smokers' lungs, fewer of these toxins are re-released into the air for others to breathe in. However, between a smoker's deadly puffs, the cigarette burns directly into the air. This smoke is known as "secondhand, side-stream" smoke, but it should be called "direct" smoke. Smoke that burns directly into the air is completely unfiltered and more deadly than the smokers' smoke! Stay away from all deadly smoke!

Recent studies establish that people who live or work around smokers are more likely to develop lung and sinus damage than smokers. For asthma or bronchitis sufferers, this exposure is very damaging. In addition to these dangers, "direct" smoke irritates the eyes, nose and throat and smells up everything it touches (rooms, hotels, offices, carpets, drapes, cars and everything around smoking).

For the cigarette smoker, whose miracle lungs have unfortunately become the filters protecting the body from the deadly smoke, the effects are equally–if not more–damaging. Tar begins to collect in the lungs once there is too much to be removed through the lungs' normal cleaning processes. This means the over-burdened lungs can no longer clean normal contaminants they have to deal with. Dirt inhaled into the alveoli—normally trapped in a layer of sticky mucus and carried out of the lungs by the wavelike motions of the tiny cilia hairs—becomes trapped and stuck in the lungs. The cilia hairs become paralyzed by tar, so the normal cleansing (drain) procedures break down and the airways become clogged. This makes the lungs resort to coughing, spitting and respiratory-breathing attacks, flu, etc. in an effort to expel the contaminated, clogging toxins, tar and mucus.

There is good news. When a person stops smoking the cilia hairs begin to heal and move again. Smokers—stop now and begin cleansing and healing immediately!

Footnotes

Smoking is Robbing Millions of their Sight
Long-term smokers have over double the risk of developing macular degeneration than nonsmokers. Over 13 million Americans have this and it's the leading cause of vision loss. Boston Researchers speculate that smoking's blinding effects of macular degeneration may be due to a reduction in vital blood flow to the retina, as well as low levels of healthy antioxidants in the body. – AMA Journal

All Tobacco Should Be Banned – It's a Killer!
Shocking Sad Facts: Children and teenagers make up 90% of the new smokers in the United States. Teenage and college smoking is on the rise!

The Teenage Self-Destruction Craze – Smoking, Alcohol & Pot
These are "gateway" habits that can lead to harder drugs and other very dangerous activites. Over 60% of the children who smoke pot before the age of 15 move into the deadly drugs: cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, etc.

QUIT SMOKING! All smokers must stop this vicious, deadly habit that destroys health, youth, energy and life.

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