If there exist more or less suitable times to quit smoking, there is probably no better time to do so than when people plan to have a baby. A healthy baby is guaranteed to be born to a healthy mother, but it is rare for those who have some kind of bad habits. It is proven that smoking influences a baby a lot: starting from mother’s ability to conceive and carry a baby for the full nine-month period and ending with high risks of SIDS and asthma.

It is good to know that smoking rates among Americans are going down, but it seems that men are more concerned about their health than women, because they stay away from cigarettes more often. The statistics shows, high school girls have high smoking rates and their numbers go down very slowly.

It is best to quit smoking when a woman just plans to have a baby, but even after she found out that she is pregnant, it is not too late to quit. In the modern time there are fewer smoking pregnant women than there used to be 20-30 years ago, but studies show that there are still around 10% women in the U.S. who keep smoking while carrying a baby. In the majority these are Native Americans and teenage girls of all races.

While there are no positive aspects of smoking there are a great number of drawbacks connected to it. First of all, it affects women’s fertility. Studies show that smokers have fewer chances to conceive a baby than non-smokers. However, if a woman quits, her fertility comes back to normal after a short period of time and t is easier to become pregnant.

There are several complications connected to smoking while expecting. The journal Obstetrics and Gynecology has published a study that proved pregnant women who stopped smoking in the first trimester had similar low-rate risk of delivering preterm or small infants as women who never smoked. Pre-term delivery and babies with low birth-weight are the most common side-effects of smoking during pregnancy. The main reason for early born babies is because smoking leads to premature (before 37 weeks) rupture of membranes or the sac with the baby.

Smoking also causes placental problems: placenta previa is a name for a case when placenta is too low and it blocks the opening in the uterus; placenta abruption is the time when placenta is not attached well enough and peels off before the delivery. While it might sound not dangerous for ordinary people, the professionals know that both of these cases result in excessive bleeding during delivery and might endanger both the mother and the baby. These placental problems also might lead to premature birth, fetal distress and/or fetal death.

It is a well-known fact that nicotine goes through placenta and affects baby’s health as much as mother’s. It hardens the walls of the arteries and influences blood flow which negatively affects fetus’ development and growth. The amount of oxygen in blood is low because it is mostly replaced with the chemicals from tobacco smoke. This, in its turn, reduces the number of nutrients that the baby could possibly receive.

Even if the baby is born without problems and survives the first days, the mother should still stay away from smoking and keep both herself and her baby away from tobacco smoke. Babies have very small lungs and exposure to smoke-filled air makes the airways even smaller. They start having difficulties with breathing which leads to such lung problems as bronchitis, pneumonia and various types of cold. The babies who inhale smoke also might have ear infections, respiratory symptoms and slow lung growth.

Many new studies show close connection of mother’s smoking and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). The reason is because babies who inhale tobacco smoke regularly are used to low amounts of oxygen in the air, so when they do not receive enough oxygen during sleep it does not bother them as it should and they do not wake up or turn around to receive more air which results in suffocation.

Every woman should be very concerned about her coming baby and quit smoking as soon as she can to restore her own health and provide healthy development for her baby.

Nicole Turner

Smoking has bad influence on all organs of human body. It is wrong to think that only lungs suffer from it and lung cancer is the only danger that might be brought by the bad habit. Scientists of different schools have been proving year after year that about a dozen of different variants of cancer: starting with lung and mouth and finishing with breast and bladder cancers might be brought by nicotine and 4,000 other chemicals that come in tobacco.

While cancer is a very important thing to be concerned about, every smoker should realize that it is not the only disease that comes as a “side-effect” of smoking. Almost all smokers have problems with heart which end in heart disease, blood vessel problems, strokes and heart attacks. Polluted lungs provoke excessive coughing, make it hard to be active, walk up and downstairs, do exercises, and lift heavy loads.

There are also numerous problems which as not as bad as these diseases, but still important: smoking reduces senses of smell and taste, gives unpleasant odor to breath, clothes and hair, sets accretion on teeth, and provokes coughing. No wonder that scientists found another “discomfort” caused by smoking: it appears that smoking might become the reason for hair loss.

In order to understand the connection between hair and smoking, one should understand the needs of hair follicles: they are “fed” by protein, oxygen, vitamins and minerals through tiny blood vessels which surround them. For healthy hair a person should receive good amount of oxygen from air and a set of essential nutrients from food or daily vitamin supplements. It is also important to have good blood flow in order to transport all these elements through the body.

Nicotine messes up with this really well. First of all, it increases the level of adrenaline which influences blood pressure and makes the heart beat faster. High blood pressure is not good because blood cells do not have enough time to give away all the nutrients they carry. Besides, nicotine constricts blood vessels and this gives two negative aspects: it is harder for the heart to pump the blood through arteries and the walls of the vessels are so hard that the vitamins cannot be given away to inner organs, hair muscles and other parts of the body.

Carbon monoxide inhaled from the cigarette smoke replaces oxygen in the blood causing its deficiency in the whole body. When it comes to hair, carbon monoxide slows down hair growth instead of vitalizing it as oxygen does.

Accelerated aging is one more side-effect of smoking. Unfortunately for smokers, the chemicals they inhale with cigarette smoke have a negative effect on skin, forming age spots and wrinkles quicker because the skin loses elasticity and they influence hair: smokers get gray hair earlier than they would being non-smokers and they lose hair earlier if by nature they tend to become bald.

A study held by scientists in Taiwan shows that tobacco influences hair loss. About 740 participants of an average age of 61 were offered a test where they answered questions about different aspects of their lives. After the results have been calculated the scientists have come to a conclusion that heredity is not the only reason for hair loss. To their opinion, environmental factors are important in this matter likewise and one of them is smoking.

For those who do not care about cancer or heart disease such minor thing as hair loss might not be a reason to quit smoking, but for others it is another major aspect to think about and work harder on eliminating the problem.

Greg Thomson

While the whole world was excited about the newly discovered tobacco, there were some people unhappy with it. King James I wrote, “Smoking is a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”

King James I of England was at rule when tobacco was first brought the Europe. He did not like the idea of smoking and tried a lot of things to stop tobacco. Since doctors were using tobacco to cure diseases, they were upset that people were buying it without prescription because they were losing money. Knowing James’ opinion about tobacco, they came to him for help. The next year, in 1604 the king increased the import tax on tobacco by 4,000 percent: from 2 pence/lb to 6 shillings 10 pence/lb.

At that point the tobacco industry grew so much that there were 7,000 sellers in London alone. However, the tax increase really did its job. People were not able to pay a high price like this. The country officials were working hard on proving to the king that tobacco tax could have brought a really high profit to the treasury if it went lower, so he lowered the tax to 2 shillings/lb and the tobacco fans started buying it again.

Although James I had to change his intension to eliminate tobacco use by high taxes, he was still a staunch anti-smoker. In 1604 he wrote a book, Counterblaste to Tobacco, which clearly showed his attitude to smoking and unveiled all known tobacco-use flaws.

First of all, the king pointed out that the herb was introduced neither by king, nor by great conqueror, nor by learned doctor of physics, but was adopted from “unbaptized barbarians [Indians in the Americas]”. Because of such doubtful origin of tobacco James wanted the users to “prove both necessary and profitable” application of it.

After the introduction he gave “false and erroneous grounds” which attracted people in tobacco. People in that time believed that “the brains of all men” were “naturally cold and wet” and the dry and hot substances as tobacco would work especially good for them. James argued saying that the herb could not “have a drying quality” and it definitely could not serve as something good for brain because it worked against nature and had “a certain venomous faculty”. The explanation to this was the following, “For the nose being the proper organ and convoy of the sense of smelling to the brains, which are the only fountain of the sense, doth ever serve us for an infallible witness, whether that odor which we smell be healthful or hurtful to the brain”.

Another thing that people in the seventeenth century really liked was that tobacco was able “to purge both the head and stomach of rheums and distillations” because during smoking or chewing they had an urge to spit the phlegm out. To James’ opinion the tobacco users “burdened” themselves because the herb was the reason for the formation and building-up of the rheum.

King James was very concerned about people who had to tolerate smoking. To his mind a smoker and a non-smoker could not be equally free in the same room. Moreover, if a man in the family smoked, his wife had a poor choice: “either she must also corrupt her sweet breath therewith, or else resolve to live n a perpetual stinking torment”.

And finally it is important to point out that King James I was sure that smoking killed a lot of people. Those who thought that smoking had healing powers were absolutely wrong, because even by that time the physicians found out that the inner organs of smokers were “infected” by “unctuous and oily kind of foot”. James compared smokers with old drunkards and harlots: it was foolish of people to believe “if a man smoke himself to death with it (as many have done) then some other disease must bear the blame for that fault”. It was the same as if “old harlots thanked their harlotry for their many years that custom being healthful (say they) to the purging of the loins, but never had mind how many died of the pox in the flower of their youth, and so did old drunkards thought they prolonged their days by their swine like diet, but never remembered how many died drowned in drink before they be half old.”

Steven Rogers

All people experience stress from time to time and they cope with it differently. For many of them cigarettes are great “helpers” which are claimed to calm down the nerves and to relax. As one of the old-time heavy smokers said, “Cigarettes are just adult pacifiers. You stick ‘em in your mouth when you get stressed.” At the same time Dr. Allen Carr, the author of Easy Way to Stop Smoking, thinks, “Smoking to relieve stress is like drinking alcohol to get sober.”

Tobacco Research and Invention Program has singled out three major reasons why smokers go to cigarettes at stressful times:

1.    They think that smoking gives them a much deserved break.
2.    They feel a sense of camaraderie because smoking is usually done in a group of people.
3.    They feel relief because smoking eliminates nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

Smoking in stressful times is based on common beliefs, not on scientific facts. There is no proven evidence that nicotine eases stress. For example, there have been studies on exercises and they actually help with stress in evident way: physical activity increases the production of endorphins, known as stress fighters, natural pain relievers, or hormones of happiness. There has been no evidence of the same in smoking. In fact, studies show opposite results: smokers usually have higher levels of stress than non-smokers.

Smoking does not improve stressful situation and might make things even worse. People with higher levels of stress go to a cigarette for help, but it will only reduce stress level to normal, but not eliminate it. Soon after smoking, there will be a need for another cigarette because the level of stress rises. If the body will not receive a dose of nicotine, the stress will affect even more with the combination of withdrawal symptoms: dryness of the mouth, nausea, irritability, insomnia, coughing and many others.

Unfortunately withdrawal symptoms cannot be recognized by many smokers. In the beginning they come in a very light form: a smoker might experience hunger or mild anxiety. After some time the symptoms get stronger and more numerous. When a smoker lights up a cigarette, the feeling of anxiety and restlessness disappears which leads to the thought that smoking relieves stress, although in reality it deals with the nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

Only when a smoker can see these facts and distinguish stress from nicotine addiction power, he or she will have a desire to quit, understanding that there are many ways to deal with stress, and smoking is not one of them. It is hard to find the will and strength to quit, because there will be a conflict between the two parts: one is addicted and wants to reach for a cigarette because nicotine withdrawal symptoms are too strong; the other one is the common sense and willpower which have to be strong enough and fight knowing that smoking is unhealthy and it does not eliminate stress.

While trying to quit smoking, a person can seek for healthy ways to cope with stress:
•    It has been mentioned above that exercises increase the production of endorphins, reduce anxiety and alleviate stress. Try to exercise at least 20 minutes every day.
•    Find positive side in changes and challenges. They are given to make us stronger and improve our abilities, but not to ruin us.
•    Do not worry about things you cannot influence or change: weather, war in a far away country, past events.
•    Ask for help from people who can support you: family, friends, specialists.
•    Do not set goals you cannot achieve. Let there be smaller goals, but you can rejoice every time you succeed.
•    Eat well-balanced healthy food and allow yourself to get enough rest.
•    Relax in any way that is best for you: try various meditation techniques, yoga, massage, listening to calm music, watching peaceful and happy videos.
•    Have a hobby which could make you forget about stress, conflicts and any negative emotions.
•    Socialize with people in other ways than smoking: have a cup of coffee, if you need a break at work, talk to people about bothersome events to relieve stress.

Larry Fox

Tobacco was probably the first American plant introduced to Europeans. When Columbus’ ship came to America in 1492, the sailors met Arawak and Taino Indians which smoked tobacco.

Historians have different opinions on the specific place where it happened first. It might be San Salvador Island or Samana Cay in the Bahamas or Gran Turk Island. The native people did not treat visitors as enemies; on contrary, they decided the gods came to see them. This is why they brought most treasured gifts to please the spirits. On this occasion Columbus wrote in his journal, “The natives brought fruit, wooden spears, and certain dry leaves which gave off a distinct fragrance”.

The sailors accepted the gifts and brought them to the ship because they saw the importance of the gift ceremony to the Indians. They ate the fruit, but dried tobacco leaves were not familiar to them, so they were thrown away.

Later they watched natives and figured out that tobacco was an important attribute of their lives. Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres are remembered as the first Europeans to discover smoking. They noticed that dried leaves of tobacco were wrapped in maize or palm leaves, lighted on one end and then the Indians were “drinking” the smoke from the other end. Jerez tried to do the same and became a definite smoker. He wanted to share this habit with the people he knew and brought tobacco to his hometown. Unfortunately the neighbors were so scared to see smoke coming out of his mouth and nose that Jerez was captured and imprisoned by the holy inquisitors for 7 years. He was greatly surprised that smoking became so popular within these years and nobody considered it as a crime or felt like smokers were possessed with demons after he came out of prison.

In 1499 Amerigo Vespucci made his trip to the New World where he noticed that natives did not only smoke, but also chewed tobacco leaves. In his journal Vespucci notes that Indians carried two gourds around their necks: one with green tobacco leaves, the other with some kind of white powder. If they wanted to have some, the natives would put a few leaves into their mouths and after they were covered with saliva, the leaves were dipped into the powder and chewed again.

Slowly Europeans got more into tobacco usage, but as they acquired the habit they wanted more of the herb for smoking, so people were sent to set colonies and grow tobacco. In every settlement they had small tobacco farms which satisfied their needs and could be sent back to the homelands for sale.

Indians claimed that tobacco kept them healthy and strong, so the Europeans decided tobacco could be used in medicinal treatments. Soon, it was announced as panacea for all diseases. Even kings and queens turned to tobacco, because it seemed t treat headaches by making them sneeze. A French adventurer Andre Thevet visited Brazil and caught the habit of smoking there. He wrote that tobacco cleaned “superfluous humours of the brain”. German doctors described the healing power of tobacco saying that tobacco clysters or enemas were good in treating colic, nephritis, hysteria, hernia, and dysentery. A Spanish doctor Nicolas Monardes wrote the first book on tobacco which was named “De Hierba Panacea”. It described wonderful healing powers of tobacco which was perfect in curing 36 different diseases!

Steven Rogers

Huron Indians have an ancient legend about the origin of tobacco. It says when the land was barren and the people were starving a woman was sent to the world by the Great Spirit to save the humanity. She walked everywhere on the land and touched the soil. At the places where her right hand reached, the soil started growing potatoes. At the reach of her left hand corn grew. When the land became rich and fertile, she sat down to rest. As the woman arose, the tobacco grew in that place.

All the Indian tribes believe in the sacred origin of tobacco. They have different opinions on its creation; however, the story is almost the same for all of them: it explains that tobacco came from powerful spirits or gods. Here is another legend about the origin of the plant. There was a great and powerful spirit that liked to come down to the world and stay there for a while. One evening he fell asleep near the fire in a forest. His enemy came and decided to eliminate the spirit by rolling him into the fire. As soon as the good spirit’s hair caught on fire he woke up and ran frightened through the forest. His burnt hair fell on the ground, took root and grew up tobacco.

Indians are very attached to their pipes. They take care of them as of the most scared things and when a person dies; his pipe goes with him to the grave because Indians believe that it will accompany the dead person “on the journey to the happy hunting ground”. It is believed that the Good Spirit was the first smoker; this is why the first pipe is involved in many sacred ceremonies and traditions.

There is a special story of the origin of a pipe too. Once upon a time the Spirit called all the people of the world. He stood on the precipice of the Red Pipe Stone Rock, broke a piece of the wall and made a huge pipe out of it. The Spirit smoke the pipe over the people to the east, west, north and south and explained to them that the rock was red like their flesh and they could come to that place and make their own pipes, but remember that the rock belonged to everybody equally which meant that there should not be any war equipment or scalping knives on the territory.

This legendary place is known as Pipe-stone Quarry. For many years North American Indians were coming there to get material for their pipes and they have never used anything else. George Catlin, the American artist who traveled with William Clark all over the North America in 1830s and set a goal to make as many paintings about Indian life as possible noted that the legend is so common to Indians that in all the tribes he visited (around 40) the pipes were carved out of the same red pipe-stone.

Every Indian adult had to make a journey to the sacred Rock and take a piece of it for his pipe. Some of the tribes lived thousands of miles from the place, but they were still coming there for the precious stone.

Pipe smoking was the primary use of tobacco, but not all. American Indians used it in different ways: besides smoking it on various occasions they were also chewing the leaves, making hallucinogenic mixtures out of the plant and considered tobacco as the most precious gift to others.

After tobacco came to Mayas and Aztecs the smokers were divided into two groups: the majority of the Indians of the South stuffed resin leaves with tobacco or smoked pipes with great ceremonies after evening meals; the others who moved closer to the north wrapped tobacco leaves in the forms of cigars. After Mayas spread to the Mississippi Valley, their smoking customs went to the neighboring tribes.

John Campbell

Doctor Cliff Kuhn offers unusual way to stop smoking. He has dealt with smokers for many years and believes that 7 out of 10 smokers want to quit, but cannot give up the habit completely because of the strong addiction to nicotine. He agrees that there are a lot of remedies for quitting smoking, but none of them has the universal success. His way to quit smoking is quick, easy, absolutely natural and does not cost a dime. Dr. Kuhn has taught his patients about the remedy and even tried it himself.

The secret technique is the medicine of humor which everybody learned from birth. Dr. Kuhn guarantees it will not only help to give up the habit, but will provoke the patient to solve other medical and personal problems.

The Laugh Medicine started when he dealt with a terminally ill cancer patient 25 years ago. He learned that enjoying their lives, having fun and experiencing pleasure, even chronically ill people started coming back to life. Dr. Kuhn has created Fun Commandments following which became the foundation of Fun Factor prescription, the approach which teaches “how to employ the amazing power of humor to supercharge every area of your life”.

Dr. Kuhn offers to try only three steps which are really easy, but they contain a lot of hidden power which helps to quit smoking once and forever.

Step 1: Go the Extra Smile

Anybody can agree that smiling is easy to control: a person can smile any time he or she wants to. Almost in any situation a good kind smile is welcome by people. Having more smiles than a person is used to will allow to get rid of physical and psychological pain. Dr. Kuhn is convinced that smiles provide extra energy and vitality, they are the major weapon in the fight with smoking.

Giving up cigarettes is not easy: nicotine withdrawal symptoms cause physical and psychological pain. It is important to collect all energy you can to fight addiction to cigarettes. This is when extra smiles become really handy. By forcing a smile the person changes psychology and physiology: the pain weakens, mood rises, and communications become easier.

It does not mean that one simple smile will kill withdrawal symptoms, but many of them will provide the necessary energy for quitting.

Step 2: Let Go Frequently

After learning to smile often the person goes to another step. Letting go frequently allows concentrating on the true goal. Usually ex-smokers feel an urge to have “just one more” cigarette, but letting go frequently helps to stay away from cigarettes longer and longer each time till one day the person can proudly say that he or she is a nonsmoker.

The idea of this step comes from the meditation technique called “catch-and-release”: the meditator holds a negative thought and then lets it go. It is the same with smoking: every time the smoker feels an urge to smoke, he or she acknowledges it and then lets it go. Every time the person quits smoking, it is important to say, “Just for this moment I am a nonsmoker!” Letting go of urges will take a while, but in the end it will be interesting to notice how hours without a cigarette turn into days, and days go into weeks.

Step 3: Celebrate Everything

The final step is to enjoy the success the person is making. The celebration of nonsmoking time brings optimistic approach to the problem. Children are the ones who rejoice at every little miracle, but adults usually take little success for granted. The celebration is important and as much as smiling it is strictly dependant on the person. Dr. Kuhn advises to turn into a child and be happy even with five minutes of non-smoking.

Creating a reward system along with celebrations is also important. When a person promises to himself a reward after each milestone, it is easier to go for the goal. These can be little low-fat snacks, watching a movie, visiting with people, going to a park or anything else the person really enjoys.

Following these few steps is not going to provide instant quitting, but it will bring smiles, joy and health into the person’s life where there will be no more room for cigarettes.

Stephanie Rose

From the very beginning smoking was a privilege of men. In the first dacedes of the 20th century there were a few women who tried a cigarette. After some time women started fighting for their rights saying they could do everything men could including jobs, activities and definitely smoking. In 2007, 19.8 million women smoked in the U.S.

Although there are still more smoking men than women, the number is very high. The female population should realize that taking men’s habits is not always as good as they might think. Woman’s body suffers from smoking more than man’s and therefore there are more smoking-related diseases in women. Every smoking woman should be aware of these facts:

•    80% of lung cancer deaths in women are directly connected to smoking. Although breast cancer has been female problem for centuries, in 1987, lung cancer overcame it by the number of deaths caused among women in the United States.
•    Emphysema and chronic bronchitis (COPD) happen 13 times more often in smokers than non-smoking females. Ninety percent of deaths connected to the disease are the result of smoking. Around 70,000 women die from lung and bronchus cancer every year. In fact, women have already outnumbered men in deaths connected to COPD for almost a decade.
•    173,940 women in the U.S. die annually from cigarette smoking.
•    Smoking females double their risks to develop coronary heart disease.
•    Smoking increases the risk of many types of cancer: oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, pancreas, kidney, bladder and uterine cervix.
•    Postmenopausal women have lower bone density if they smoke which increases the risk of hip fracture.
•    Although advertisements attract women and teenage girls with tempting facts making them think smoking is the way to look good, slim and athletic, cigarettes actually cause skin wrinkling which reduces attractiveness and makes women look prematurely old.
•    Many women smoke while they are pregnant: in 2005, 10.7% of future mothers smoked which is 40% less than in 1990. The primary number of smoking women in this case is made by American Indian/Alaska Native females. Since 1990 teenagers and young adults had high rates of maternal smoking. In 2005, 16.6% teens at age 15-19 and 18.6% young women at age 20-24 smoked while being pregnant.
•    Smoking mothers pass nicotine to babies though breast milk. Cigarettes are very bad for the fetus: nicotine goes through placenta poisoning the baby; it also blocks 25% of oxygen from reaching the placenta. Smoking is the result of low-birth weight, 14% of preterm deliveries and 10% of infant deaths.
•    Children become sick with colds, bronchitis, asthma and many other respiratory diseases if they are exposed to secondhand smoking at home, day care or school.
•    Quitting smoking reduces the risk of developing smoking-related diseases and premature deaths for all women and their children.
•    The reasons for coming back to cigarettes after quitting are different for women than men. Ladies relapse because of stress, weight gain and negative emotions.
•    Female smokers with mild or moderate chronic pulmonary disease tend to breathe easier after quitting. Lung work improves quicker for women than for men after a year of non-smoking.

Nicole Turner

It is an interesting fact that nearly every first use of tobacco happens before school graduation. In some respect it is good news for those who went through school years without a cigarette: as a rule, people who have not tried it as teens never come to smoking in adult years.

Although the society did its best to prevent children from smoking and the total number of young smokers is really going down, the surveys still say that 50% of all high school students have tried cigarettes. It has also been reported that one in seven high school boys and over 2% of girls use some form of smokeless tobacco.

Younger smokers have higher risks to stay smoking for the rest of their lives because they develop long-term nicotine addiction which is stronger than in people who start smoking later. The statistics shows that 90% of all adult smokers come to the habit before they turn 19. Each day more than 3,500 young people start smoking and 1,100 become regular smokers. About 30% of all these people will die in the future from smoking-related diseases.

The reason why many people use tobacco in the early age is because teens and children are more influenced and more vulnerable than adults. A boy wants to look cool, wants to be attractive and strong and if a TV commercial shows that a big tuff man smokes a cigarette after which he receives a kiss from a gorgeous woman, the boy understands that the only thing he has to go is to get that brand of cigarettes and smoke them. In fact the young people do not even realize how many barriers they have to go through in order to stay away from smoking: TV commercials, movies, billboards with advertisements, the opinion of friends – all of these make an impact on a weak child’s mind.

The teens are not explained and they do not realize the danger of smoking, the danger of all the diseases connected to it: cancer, emphysema, blindness and impotence are problems for adults and children do not think that smoking can bring a disease on them too. As soon as they begin smoking minor health problems occur including coughing, shortness of breath, respiratory problems, reduced physical activity, poor lung growth and addiction to nicotine.

Being very confident in themselves young people are absolutely sure they can quit any time. Besides, almost all of them start smoking and think that it will not last, but the statistics shows that 60 people out of 100 keep smoking for 7-9 years after they graduate while only 3 high school students out of 100 think they will be smoking for at least five year after have touched the first cigarette.

Here are a few more numbers about tobacco use among children. The data is taken from the 2007 CDC survey at the www.cancer.org: although the numbers are lower than in 2005, there is still a lot of work to be done to take the teens from the hands of nicotine. Besides, only high school students were taken into consideration: the percent of smokers who have dropped out of school is higher.

•    Every fourth student in the country (26%) uses some type of tobacco product: cigarette, cigar, smokeless tobacco, etc.
•    20% of high school students smoke cigarettes. Girls smoke almost as much as boys do. Among all the smokers 23%  are white, 12% Afro-American, 17% Hispanic/Latino, and 11% Asian students.
•    8% of the students use smokeless tobacco or spit: 13% of all boys and 2% of girls in American school admit they chew tobacco.
•    14% of high school students have had a cigar in the last 30 days before the survey. Boys were more likely to do so (19%) than girls (8%).
•    Half of the young smokers said they tried to quit within a year before the survey, but failed to give up smoking completely.
•    High school students also try alternative tobacco products: pipes (4%), bidis (3%) and kreteks (3%).

Elisa Jackson

Until just recently smoking was a privilege of men. A woman with a cigarette was not accepted and thought of as a vulgar one. Now things are different and the chances to see a smoking woman are as high as a man-smoker. Recently the researchers started talking about smoking being a reason for breast cancer, child birth defects and other harmful effects of nicotine of woman’s body, but not many people know that smoking affects men’s virility.

The studies of American scientists have shown that smokers have fewer chances to impregnate their partners than non-smokers. The odds reduce if a man smokes as little as four cigarettes a day for more than two years. The tests show that the problem is that nicotine reduces sperm function: binding capacity of sperm works only in 25% due to tobacco use. If a man wants to restore the function, he should immediately quit smoking and wait for at least three months to have some noticeable changes in binding capacity.

Besides, nicotine is so omnipresent that it even gets inside of sperm cells. Does any smoker think that he tries to make a baby with the semen full of toxic nicotine? Poisoned sperm is usually less active and less likely to reach the final goal: woman’s egg.

Smoking also affects erection. It is simple to explain: nicotine damages blood vessels the fine work of which is vitally important for good erection. Being a vasoconstrictor, nicotine constricts blood vessels preventing healthy blood flow. The chemicals in tobacco also reduce the production of hormones, such as testosterone, and therefore man’s drive for sex. Due to these reasons men who smoke have 60% more chances to come across erectile problems.

A study held in China in 2003 shows that if a man smokes more than 20 cigarettes a day he has 60% higher risk of erectile dysfunction than a non-smoker. The same study discovered that both current and ex-smokers have 30% more chances to suffer from impotence. A research in Australia has also shown bad results for smokers: according to them heavy smokers (more than a pack a day) were 40% more likely to receive erectile dysfunction; light smokers had a little lower chance: 24% more likely to get the problem.

Impotency is one more trouble that a man can have if he poisons the body with cigarettes and nicotine in particular. A study in Thailand where more than 90% of all male population smokes discovered that 2.2% of non-smokers and 3.7% of smokers are impotent. A recent report made by British Medical Association explains that around 120,000 men in the U.K. were impotent because of smoking.

Although it is believed that impotency happens with older men only, young smokers might be surprised one day that they have weaker erection than they used to have because of the nicotine constricted blood vessels. In fact, the connection between smoking and impotence is obvious: nicotine shrinks and hardens all arteries of the body including those which give the flow to the genitals when it is necessary. Damaged blood vessels lead to soft erections and eventually to no erection at all.

All of the above mentioned factors should be convincing to every man that plans to have active sexual life. Quitting smoking is the only cure and the first step for it is to make up the mind. If the person is determined to quit and has really good reasons for it, the smoking will soon be forgotten. Along with this the arteries and minor blood vessels are most likely to restore to the previous abilities delivering the desired result for every man.

Larry Fox