Tuesday, December 14, 2010

How & why to protect yourself from tobacco smoke....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 12-14-2010


A few days ago, The US Surgeon General issued a new report on smoking which gave details of the truly horrible impact of smoking and second hand smoke on people.

This report gives an official endorsement and some research details for why exposure to tobacco smoke is so harmful.

Most smokers have no clue. They know some smokers get cancer after many years of smoking. So, they mostly think they will be a smoker who doesn’t get cancer or if they do it will be years and years from now. Then they don’t quit.

If they knew they for sure they are already being harmed and more likely to die suddenly from every exposure to tobacco smoke, which they are, they would find quitting a good deal easier to do and be a good bit more motivated to try.

This report does a good job of highlighting that every exposure to tobacco smoke is immediately harmful and adds that it is the sharp increase of blood clotting factors exposure to tobacco smoke causes that triggers heart attacks that people could otherwise have avoided.

They also state that smoking’s total cost in negative impacts on health care costs and lost or reduced productivity at work is $193 billion a year.

These have been themes in this blog off and on for a long time.

For example, yesterday’s post was on upgraded guidelines for protecting your heart.

Here’s the section from yesterday’s post on why to include staying away from tobacco smoke is a huge part of protecting your heart successfully.:

Cancer from smoking and second hand smoke can be deadly and they cause 30 to 33 % of all cancers! But that, believe it or not is the LITTLE problem from smoking and second hand smoke.

They directly cause heart disease in EVERYONE exposed to them and do some damage EVERY time people are exposed to them. Worse, the pro-clotting effects the have recently have been found to trigger heart attacks in people who would otherwise have escaped them.

This too is as important as eating right.

1. So, if you smoke quit.

Knowing the BIG reason why to quit and how certain it is to be harming you with every single puff, makes it much easier to quit.

Believe it or not, beginning an easy, brief, and moderate exercise routine that you do a few times a week or continuing what you have been doing makes quitting twice as likely to work.

It gives you something positive to do instead and helps to lower stress and depression. So starting exercise and NOT smoking at the same time actually works better than just stopping smoking by itself. It also may help increase your circulation enough to clear nicotine and other poisons out of your system faster, so you feel better and healthier sooner.

If the side effects of withdrawal are no fun, try a nicotine replacement; and then once that cuts the side effects, gradually decrease it until you no longer need it. These are now available over the counter.

Zyban, also known as Wellbutrin also works to cut side effects from smoking withdrawal; but I recently found out has a very high amount of its own side effects. So, you might want to hold that in reserve and then have your doctor prescribe it if you need more than the nicotine replacement.

2. What if you don’t smoke and already stay away from tobacco smoke and businesses that allow it in their facilities?

You can help stop this problem too!

If every state and the United States itself were to add an extra and new dollar a pack tax on cigarettes and a comparable jump in taxes on other forms of tobacco, it might cut tobacco use about in half.

More people would quit. Fewer young people would start. And, the people who keep smoking would smoke less.

This would help the cash shortfalls in every state during the recession. It would help reduce the deficit for the United States.

And, it would boost the economy of every state and the United States! This is something badly needed now.

The money not spent on smoking would be spent on things that increase jobs in other parts of the economy.

But best of all, it would save the drain of half of $193 billion a year, $96.5 billion a year of the money that smoking now wastes!

Every part of that would boost our economy.

And, it would cut your exposure to second hand smoke in half and make it easier for you to avoid!

So, write your elected representatives to pass such a tax.

That has the added advantage of helping them not increase income tax and sales tax or cutting programs people want continued.

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