Smoking and its Effects on Your Body

Smoking cigarettes is both damaging to your body and to your bodybuilding goals. Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds. The most well known of these compounds is nicotine, which, despite some reported positive effects such as elevation of mood, is much more harmful than helpful. Nicotine increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, and has only a negative effect on growth. Aside from the above, nicotine and other well known agents in cigarette smoke are known to cause many other diseases and cancers. Lung cancer, gum cancer, and lip cancer are some examples. There are many well known health problems associated with cigarette smoke, but there are also general lifestyles accompanied with it. Smokers are known to be more irritable than nonsmokers, and normally see more problems with sleep patterns. Anxiety is also more predominant in smokers than in their nonsmoking counterparts. On a bodybuilding level, male smokers have been known to have higher estrogen and lower plasmatestosterone levels than nonsmokers do. Smokers will claim that there are benefits to smoking, but there are none. Smoking cigarettes is no different than scratching a mosquito bite. Whatever pleasure is gained from it would not be there if the bite wasn't there to begin with! Cigarettes don't give you any pleasure above and beyond what you had as a nonsmoker. Its effects on your body in terms of possible health effects are plentiful. Top it off, the hormonal and metabolic effects of tobacco cause lack of mental and physical energy, endurance and recovery, and you will experience these problems in both your everyday life and in the gym.

Facts About Smoking

Cigarette, cigar, and pipe-smoking are so debilitating that the immediate cessation of the habit is always the first step of any program to improve one's health - even more important than vitamins, diet, or exercise. International studies of millions of people by government, industry, universities, and private research institutions have determined that smoking can cause: stained teeth, fingers, and hair; increased frequency of colds, particularly chest colds and bronchitis; asthma; neuralgia; gastrointestinal difficulties, constipation, diarrhea, and colitis; headaches; nausea; convulsions; leukoflakia (smoker's patch); insomnia; heart murmur; Buerger's disease (inflammation of blood vessel linings);

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shortness of breath; arthritis; smoker's hack; nervousness; wrinkles and premature aging; tension; gastric, duodenal, and peptic ulcers; lung cancer; cancer of the lip, tongue, pharynx, larynx, and bladder; emphysema; high blood pressure; heart disease; artherosclerosis & arteriosclerosis (thickening and loss of . elasticity of the blood vessels with lessened blood flow); inflammation of the sinus passages; tobacco angina (nicotine angina pectoris); pneumonia; influenza; pulmonary tuberculosis; tobacco amblyopia; impared hearing; decreased sexual activity; and mental depression. Blood flow to the extremities is decreased (cold hands and feet). One puff lowers the temperature in the fingertips 1F to 3F in 3 minutes. Nicotine affects the nerve-muscle junctions, causing tremors and shaking. Nicotine causes narrowing and constriction of the arteries, adding to the heart's load. Nicotine, through its ability to stimulate, causes excitement and anxiety. But the effect wears off, often a period of depression follows, whereupon another cigarette is taken. Nicotine, an insecticide, makes the blood more viscous and decreases the available oxygen. It also adversely affects the breathing, sweating, intestinal, and heart actions of our autonomic nervous system, probably due to hindering the blood flow to the nerve centers in the brain. Two to four cigarettes in a row increase blood fats 200 to 400%. The average smoker (30 cigerettes per day) has 4 to 6 times the chance of having heart disease if he's in the 45-54 year age group. If the mother smoked during pregnancy, her baby will average 6 ounces less and its pulse will be 30% faster than a non-smoker's baby, and there'll be withdrawal symptoms in the baby after birth. Premature birth has been related to smoking by the mother. There is a direct link between parents' smoking and children's respiratory disease. Smoking causes widespread permanent destruction of the tiny air sacs (alveoli) and narrowing of small blood vessels in the lungs, decreasing the oxygen supply, requiring a higher blood pressure, thus causing extensive circulatory problems and premature heart attacks. Smokers have difficulty running and exercising. The cilia are tiny, delicate, hairlike coverings on the thin membrane of the surface of the lungs and trachea that, by means of their whipping, beating action, produce an upward current of foreign material and mucus from the lungs which is then swallowed or expectorated. This is the way the body cleans the lungs. This delicate lungcleaning mechanism, in a cigarette smoker, at first paralyzes, then deteriorates, and is eventually made inoperative, through the complete destruction of the cilia. The smoker then must resort to coughing as a lungcleaning method. This isn't efficient, and more than a cupful of tars will have accumulated in his lungs by the time of his premature death.

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Air pollution (auto exhausts, industry wastes, etc.) increases the lung cancer rate of the smoker, but not of the non-smoker. Apparently, the lung-cleaning cilia are alive and working for the non-smoker. The time to recover from any specific ill, whether caused by smoking or not, is much longer for the smoker. Often, a non-smoker will survive a sickness from which he would have died had he smoked. The non-smoker has no need to spend money to buy cigarettes, matches, lighters, holders, ashtrays, or to spend a dime a mile for that special trip to the store. Just the cigarettes alone amount to an average of $250 per year, after taxes - wasted. Add another $250 if the spouse smokes. This is hard-earned, after-tax, money of yours, used to pay for the above smoking paraphernalia - plus tax! (Please note: these are 1971 figures.) By dying earlier, the smoker will lose many tens of thousands of dollars in social security and other benefits which will naturally end up in the pockets of the non-smoker. The cigarette tax is more money from the smoker to the non-smoker. The smoker is sick more often, explaining why he misses an average of 7 work days per year, usually with a loss of pay, while the non-smoker will miss only 4 days. The smoker must spend valuable time looking for ashtrays, cigarettes, matches, retail stores, vending machines, or change for these machines. He experiences displeasure if they aren't immediately at hand. Just the process of deciding on "which brand" wastes vast amounts of mental, physical, and financial resources. The overall bad health of the smoker results, on average, in a decrease of 8.3 years in his life expectancy, or about 12 to 14 minutes per cigarette. Just in lost social security income alone, this amounts to about a 5 a cigarette. The actual cost of each cigarette when you include extra medical expenses, lost pay, etc., is of the order of 25 per cigarette (1971 figures). Just the extra medical expenses alone can be expected to eventually use up all of a smoker's hard-earned savings, already depleted by the high cost of smoking. By the time non-smokers get sick, Medicare will foot their medical bills. The smoker's body requires more sleep every night. This extra sleep must come from his spare time. Besides needing more sleep, smokers don't sleep as well. Smoking destroys vitamins, particularly vitamin C and the B's. Smoking has induced cancer in dogs. Insurance rates can be higher for smokers. Some 100,000 doctors stop smoking every year. Foods will taste much better to non-smokers. Many subtle flavors and aromas will be savored if your nasal and oral senses are freed of the effects of harsh chemicals, coal tars, and other combustion products. How long has it been since you've experienced the smell of fresh-cut grass or the delicate taste of lobster from Maine or Nova Scotia? Other disadvantages of smoking: You must always carry cigarettes and matches; your pockets bulge - or there's less space in your purse; smelly breath; smelly house; smelly clothes; messy rugs and furniture, often burned; cigarettes lying around for kids to smoke (and matches to light); you're a bad influence on kids; you're held in low esteem by your kids and your friends (even your smoking friends); the inside of your home and auto windows need cleaning more often; death or property loss due to smoking in bed. Some 120 persons have died in two airline crashes that have been attributed to ashtray and lighter-fluid fires. Cigarette smoke collects with lint and is known to gum up delicate mechanisms such as aircraft controls.

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Smokers get into more auto accidents due to being less alert, having slower reflexes, and also due to fussing around while driving (lighting up, etc.). In Czechoslovakia it's illegal to smoke while driving. Accidentproneness has been related to smoking. A non-smoker would have to put on an additional 150 pounds in order to increase his mortality rate to that of an average smoker. The fact that the tobacco industry provides work, that wouldn't exist without it, is a myth. The money now wasted on tobacco, if diverted elsewhere, would create a wealth of new job openings in industries producing goods and services more useful to the society than cigarettes. Smoking makes a person irritable and argumentative, partially due to a subconscious knowledge of all of the above facts. Smoking has been related to brain damage and premature senility. A smoker needs much more food and sleep since nicotine makes his body work harder and less efficiently and his heart beat faster, thus using more fuel and energy. This, together with the fact that a smoker loses much of his appetite and his taste for food, explains why smokers have less trouble keeping their weight down. When one quits smoking, it's IMPERATIVE that the intake of food is drastically reduced in order to keep the body weight normal. Having to eat less is of course an additional saving of time and money. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone quit smoking? There'd be less general litter, no more butts, ashes, or wrappers in the streets, grass, urinals, etc.; no more smoke in restaurants, theaters, airplanes or buses; a more alert society, with more spare time to enjoy or improve their lot in life; fewer auto, plane, on-the-job, and household accidents; fewer forest fires; less air pollution; lower auto and life insurance rates; and fewer people coughing and spitting in public. By inflicting smoke on your non-smoking friends, it's been shown that even THEIR health and life expectancy are adversely affected. Notice how many of your friends have quit smoking in the last 5 years. They're the smart ones (and you know it). Lower intelligence has been related to smoking. In fact, smoking is both a cause and an effect of lower intelligence, just as smoking is both a cause and effect of lower income. The (smoking)-(lower-intelligence)(lower-income)-(more smoking) vicious circle can unknowingly spiral a brainwashed young person down and down into the depths of poverty and despair. He'll not be as physically or mentally able to cope with life's challenges. Our successful capitalistic system is based on competition, and the physically-mentally handicapped smoker inevitably ends up at the bottom of the heap. So get smart, today, now, and join the happy, healthy ranks of the non-smokers.

Quitting the Filthy Habit

The smoker's body cells have become addicted to nicotine, and to quit smoking won't be easy, since withdrawal symptoms can be expected. Here are some helpful tips that might ease the quitting process: If you're a light smoker, you should quit immediately, only moderately shocking your system. The heavy smoker should allow two weeks for cutting down, then quit completely. An extended cutting-down period only prolongs the pain. Prepare for an agonizing month or two, though you might get off easily. The close family must give up, too, at least in your presence. It'd of course be best if the whole family quit at once. The pain and agony you'll suffer can be relieved completely in most persons by taking vitamin C to bowel tolerance. That means to take as little as one gram or as many as fifty grams (50,000 milligrams) every day until you reach the point of liquid diarrhea, then decrease the amount until your stools are normal. But "normal", for many smokers, means frequent constipation. Stools must always be soft, never, ever, necessitating any straining.

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If anti-smoking drugs help (Nikoban, Bantron, Pronicotyl), good, but be prepared to find they won't. Vitamins C and B1 and tranquilizers often help to decrease irritability and other withdrawal symptoms. After eating don't sit down. Take a walk instead. Try to avoid situations that you associate with smoking, such as sitting in your favorite chair, particularly after dinner. Try to avoid situations that are conducive to smoking, such as bars, meetings, and boredom. Don't invite smoking friends over during the critical first few months. Never, anytime, let them smoke in your soon-to-be smell-free home. In fact, after you've quit for a few months, you'll notice how your clothes still have a strong residual smell of an ashtray. It may be necessary to clean or clear away every source of that smell, usually from carpets and clothes. Then get ready for a new life of clean lungs and great health. Your non-smoking friends won't avoid you anymore now that you no longer smell like an ashtray. When you get that urge to smoke (and you will), drink some water. If that doesn't work, suck a prune and keep the pit in your mouth for an hour. Try the buddy system: phone a friend who's also trying to quit. Think of the satisfaction of not having given in to that filthy urge. Think how bad you'll feel if you do give in. Think about how your cigarette money helps support those hypocritical tobacco companies whose income is derived at the expense of the health, wealth, happiness, efficiency, and resources of the addicted smoker. Keep this sheet with you at all times, and re-read it when necessary, to refresh your memory of all the ugly disadvantages of smoking, and all the advantages of not smoking. Try to avoid calories, but if you find that substituting food for cigarettes helps you give up smoking, then by all means have an apple, gum, beef jerky, or a prune. If at all possible, exercise a bit every day, especially when you get the urge to smoke. It's a good substitute, and you'll find that exercising comes much easier as a non-smoker. After giving up, that filthy urge may remain for several years, so don't start again. Some people are lucky in that after a few months the thought of smoking makes them sick. But don't bank on being lucky. Cigarette displays, cigarette ads, cigarette machines, anything having to do with smoking, must be looked upon in your mind as existing only for those poor unfortunates who are addicted to that filthy habit. Life's too good and too short to waste on that filthy habit.

Smoking
Contents

Why people start smoking Why people continue to smoke Smoking and its effects What if you don't smoke tobacco? Giving up smoking Resources

Why people start smoking

So you have just been to the movies and your hero or heroine has been up there on the big screen looking really cool and fantastic, doing all sorts of amazingly athletic stuff, getting on with great looking girls or guys and then he or she lights up a cigarette! How cool is that??

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Well let's get real here

A smoker wouldn't have the breath to do all that athletic stuff. A smoker would smell like a dead ashtray, so what gorgeous girl or guy would want to be close to that? A smoker would not have great skin and hair.

It is more than likely that the actor or actress doesn't smoke in real life, because they have to look after their bodies to be able to get parts in movies where they can look fantastic, do all that athletic stuff and look good enough for it to be believable that they would get the girl/guy' who looks so amazing. Tobacco companies sponsor movies, and demand 'product placement' because they are not allowed to advertise their products any more and they really want to get people to smoke so that they can sell their product! 'Product placement' means getting their product seen in the movie rather than in a separate ad. So, why do people start smoking? There are many reasons why young people start to smoke.

Maybe their parents smoked. Maybe they think they will look like their super-cool hero. Maybe they feel that it makes them look older and more interesting. Maybe they believe that smoking can calm them down, relieve stress, help them to concentrate, help them have a good time or any of the dozens of reasons that smokers can come up with to hide the facts.

The fact is that if kids start smoking before they are 15, they are likely to still be smoking as adults.

Why? Because they have become addicted to the drug nicotine, one of more than 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke.

Why people continue to smoke

Some of the chemicals in cigarette smoke cause the release of natural sedatives or stimulants into the brain. These can affect the person's mood. Nicotine is an addictive drug, and not having it when you are addicted makes you have cravings, where you feel like they 'have' to have the drug. People also get into the habit of smoking at certain times, like at parties when friends are smoking and they can find it is hard to be the non-smoker.

Smoking and its effects

Apart from the smell, taste, effects on hair and skin, and on moods, cigarette smoke has even more unpleasant effects on the body. The senses of smell and taste are affected. Smokers can't smell how they smell to others, and their taste buds don't work so well, so they can't enjoy food properly. Smokers are ten times more likely to get heart disease, lung disease, major heart attack or stroke. They are also more likely to develop diabetes. Smoking is the most common cause of cancers of the lung, throat and mouth.

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Female smokers have more trouble becoming pregnant, and have more painful periods. Smoking can harm the baby if they get pregnant and continue to smoke. Male smokers have a lower sperm count and more abnormal sperm than other men, so it not going to be so easy for them to have children. Smokers can also have problems with narrowing of the veins in hands and feet, so blood circulation is poor. This can lead to gangrene and having to have limbs amputated. Passive smoking that is, breathing in other people's smoke rather than actually smoking yourself can cause health problems. Anti-smoking laws mean that smoking is not allowed inside most buildings, so smokers have to lurk about outside while their friends are inside having fun.

What if you don't smoke tobacco?

Some people think that if they don't smoke tobacco, then they won't get the diseases or effects that cigarette smokers can suffer.

Smoking 'herbal' tobacco or cannabis (marijuana, grass or pot) has many of the dangers of tobacco smoking plus more. See our topic on Cannabis for more information.

Giving up smoking

If you have decided that smoking is definitely something you don't want to start, good! If you are a smoker already and want to break the habit, our topic on Giving up smoking may be just what you need to read.

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