Thankfully, today I am a non smoker. A little over a year ago I was having sex in the shower and I almost passed out. So that was my turning point. I knew then that after 20 years of lighting up it was time to make a significant change in my life.
I felt the need to jot down this editorial not because I want to lecture, but rather that since I quit (12 months and counting) I have never felt healthier. My sex life has improved out of site, my wife is delighted, my kids are happy, I’m happy, my physician is happy and I feel like doing a Tom Cruise and jumping up and down on the couch with glee!
So to celebrate my first year off the fags I thought I would outline a few details about the effects of smoking for you to inhale.
It is no secret that smoking has an extremely damaging effect on male and female fertility. Smoking has a direct, negative effect on the sexuality of a man on every level. In fact, a recent study revealed that the effects of smoking in men are so drastic that male smokers returned a sperm count 17% lower than their non-smoking counterparts. Additionally, the health of their sperm was shown to be considerably degraded.
Females who smoke not only increase the time it takes them to conceive, but also increases their risk of miscarriage. They also jeopardise the health of their unborn baby. Female smokers are also at a bigger risk for delivering premature or low birth weight babies and developing further complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease.
Another survey found that sperm damaged by smoking may also result in more couples having baby girls than boys. The researchers suggest that the sperm cells carrying the Y chromosome are more at risk to the toxins in cigarette smoke.
Smokers are 30% less fertile and require a much higher dose of fertility drugs if they opt for fertility treatments than non-smokers. Second hand smoking, too, is equally dangerous to women and their pregnancy.
Impotence.
Impotence is the lack of ability to have or retain an erection. This condition effects roughly 1 in 10 men between the ages of 21 and 75. The risk of impotence is increased to nearly 50% by smoking cigarettes for men in their 30s and 40s. This is because during an erection, blood flows into the penile arteries causing the veins which drain the penis to become compressed, preventing blood from leaving the penis. This process is significantly impaired by smoking. Less blood flows into the penis if the path is blocked by fatty deposits in the arteries, (atherosclerosis) caused by smoking.
Some of the other male sexual dysfunctions caused by smoking cigarettes include: Lowered amount of ejaculate. Lower sperm count. Malformed sperm shape. Impaired sperm mobility.
General facts about smoking- smoking statistics 2008
· Smoking is a killer. Diseases caused by smoking kill 1 in 10 adults around the world which equates to four million deaths every year. By 2030, 1 in 6 individuals will die from smoking related diseases.
· Approximately 30% of the adult male population smoke.
· Eleven cancer causing chemicals are found in cigarette smoke.
· Somebody dies every 8 seconds as a consequence of smoking.
· About 1 in 5 teenagers smoke.
· 10 Million Cigarettes are sold every minute.
· Half of long-term smokers will die from tobacco. Every cigarette smoked cuts at least five minutes of life on average – about the time taken to smoke it.
· Smoking is the single most preventable cause of disease and early death.
· Tobacco is highly addictive. Users of other ‘hard drugs’ rate it as more addictive than heroin, methadone, amphetamines and barbiturates.
· More than 4,000 toxic or carcinogenic chemicals have been found in tobacco smoke.
· Cigarette smoke contains benzene, carbon monoxide, arsenic, hydrogen cyanide and polonium 210.
· At least a quarter of all deaths from heart diseases and about three-quarters of world’s chronic bronchitis are related to smoking.
· Approximately 50% of people who begin smoking in adolescent years go on to smoke for a further 15 to 20 years.
The effects of reducing or totally stopping smoking can produce noticeable results in days. In men, sperm count may increase by up to 800% while women are likely to get pregnant easier and faster.
Erectile Dysfunction, or ED, will affect 20% of all men at some time in their life. Smoking causes impotence because nicotine is a vasoconstrictor, tightening blood vessels and restricting blood flow.
So, do yourself, your wife, your kids and your Doctor a favour and work toward quitting starting today. I guarantee you it will be the best decision you’ll ever make.
Read competent hints in the sphere of lose 10 pounds per week – your personal guide.
One of the difficulties in trying to quit smoking is that smokers become physically dependant on nicotine. Smoking affects the parts of the brain that relate to reward and pleasure. It increases the amount of the neurotransmitter, dopamine, and the nature of nicotine is that it creates a cycle of positive reinforcement within your brain that makes you want more.
Scientists have found that when you withdraw from chronic nicotine use, it results in changes in these neural pleasure pathways. And the effect on the brain is similar to what someone addicted to cocaine, opiates and other drugs experiences. Hence, depression and anxiety are common.
Fortunately, some resourceful modern herbalists began applying traditional knowledge to a modern problem. In Ayurvedic medicine, common garden variety oats (but not oat straw), is used to treat opium withdrawal. The herbalist Anand, using a tincture (an alcoholic extract of the herb), applied this same reasoning to nicotine withdrawal, with significant results.
In a group of 26 heavy smokers, he gave an oat tincture, and in another group of 26, he gave a placebo. The group who took the oat tincture smoked less cigarettes, and this effect remained for two months after they stopped treatment. The herbalist Weiss theorizes that it is the sedative effect of oats. Oats contain as active constituents the indole alkaloid, gramine, and the alkaloids avenine and trigonelline. Oats are described in herbal medicine texts as helping create a feeling of well-being whilst simultaneously acting as a tonic to the nervous system. But unlike narcotics, these are mild, non-habit forming effects.
My herbal teacher, Ses Salmond, suggested the following formula for those trying to stop smoking. In a 50ml bottle, mix the following herbal tinctures:
15ml green oats
10ml white horehound
10ml mullein
5ml golden seal
10ml peppermint
Take 6 drops on the tongue whenever the craving to have a cigarette is felt.
Acupuncture is also an excellent support option. HerbMed offers the following herbal option, to be used on appropriate acupuncture points. Mix oil of cloves, oil of wintergreen, an extract of evodia fruit, an extract of sichuan lovage rhizome, and msg, and apply to specific acupuncture points. Unfortunately, they don’t say which acupuncture points, but this may be determined by what each person presents with.
To learn about the best way to quit smoking, visit Cigarrest.
Because of advertisements and other forms of media that promote smoking, many teens think it is okay and cool to smoke. And the result is that many teens are getting addicted to nicotine and cigarettes. All over the world, smoking begins as a teenage experience. Few smokers have begun smoking as adults. In the United States, on an average day, at least 3,000 young people become regular smokers, and more than 6,000 adolescents try to smoke their first cigarette. The outlook for regular smokers who began smoking as teenagers and continue into adulthood is grim. Research shows that people who start smoking before the age of 21 have the hardest time quitting. It is also estimated that about 30% of youth smokers who continue smoking well into adulthood would die early from a smoking-related disease. While smoking may be legal for adults, the medical costs associated with it are enormous. Many of those who suffer and die from smoking-related illnesses actually took up the habit in their teens.
In today’s health news, there seem to be startling new statistics regarding teen smoking. It appears nearly one in five 13-to-15-year-old students worldwide uses some form of tobacco, according to the global youth tobacco survey started seven years ago, as a joint effort by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Students from more than 130 countries responded to questions about tobacco, including personal use, secondhand exposure and advertising. The study found that Europe and the Americas had the highest rates of cigarette smoking, at approximately 18 percent. In all regions, the use of other tobacco products was generally more common among boys than among girls. Nearly a quarter of high school students in the US smoke cigarettes. Another 8% use smokeless tobacco. In addition to the innate dangers faced by the smoker, there are dangerous effects of secondhand smoke to non-smokers as well. Secondhand smoke causes many serious health problems. It contributes to as many as 300,000 cases of pneumonia, bronchitis, and other respiratory infections in infants and children every year. It is also one of the risk factors in the development of childhood asthma, causing 8,000 to 26,000 new cases each year. Smoking has many health risks for everyone. However, the younger a person starts to smoke, the more problems it can cause. The tobacco industry spends about $34 million per day to market cigarettes, and most of this marketing is targeted at kids. To stop this kind of unethical advertising, critics argue Congress should pass legislation that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products and marketing, as well as to ban candy-flavored cigarettes.
Combating teen smoking in America is a really serious public health issue. It is relevant as well to the problems in developing countries faced with smoking by children and adolescents. The issues on teen smoking clearly speaks to policy makers, health personnel, researchers, and young people. Each group has a role to play to address the growing health problems among minors.
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Smoking is something you defiantly do not need. Not only that you do not need, it is vital that you stop smoking cigarette trash right away. It is that habit that will damage your health and will ruin your young and fresh look. There is no better day than today to stop smoking and we will show you how in the lines below.
The first thing you should do to stop smoking cigarette killers is to find some very good reasons. It is a well know fact that finding a reason is the engine that drives the boat of our actions. The good news about this specific problem is that you do not need to think hard or to ask your friends and family for the reasons. Smoking can cause severe diseases, damages your appearance, and gives you a bad mouth smell, yellow smile, unpleasant clothes and home odor. All of these are enough to let you think about stop smoking cigarettes.
The second step is to let these reasons power the engine – meaning that you should take some action. Make a stop smoking plan. This is something simple that you can put together by yourself or check at the various internet resources to get some helpful ideas.
In general your smoking plan should include one thing only – “Today I will not light up a cigarette”.
The next step is to seek some help. It is a good idea to visit your doctor first. He will be able to prescribe you medication to help you stop smoking cigarettes. There are enough products available – from “fake” herbal cigarettes to injections that you can have to make you a non-smoker. Your doctor will be able to provide you with the best combination of medications for your circumstances. Moreover, he will be able to refer you to a good therapist for a behavior therapy.
So we have just mentioned the third very important step in your stop smoking cigarette journey – change your behavior and your daily routines to exclude the cigarettes. It is amazing but true – many smokers light up a cigarette not because they need it but because they have been used to the tradition. For example the morning coffee always goes with a cigarette (or a couple of cigarettes), the after lunch cigarette e is a must, than one more with the afternoon coffee, some with the evening cocktails… and you discover that the cigarette box is empty.
If you try to understand when and why you are reaching for your cigarette pack, you will be able to qui easily. Moreover, if you revise your daily routines you will quickly see where your smoking goes and just re-arrange your life to avoid them. This will help the cravings that go along with your stop smoking cigarette plan and it will help you to never start smoking again.
Finally one last advise – be patient but determined, show no weakness in front the habit. Anyone can start smoking and anyone can quit as long as this anyone has enough determination and will.
If you’re still hesitant in your journey in quitting cigarettes smoking, come to our main site quit-cigarettes-quit-smoking.com for more solutions and ideas! We offer you with various solutions to enhance your health as you quit smoking.
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Smoking cigarettes could cause lung cancer and increases the risk of cardiovascular and other diseases, but there is even more bad news for men who smoke regularly. Men are more likely to have an increased risk of experiencing sexual impotence or ED (Erectile Dysfunction), and the more they smoke cigarettes, the greater the risk, according to a study of researchers in Tulane University.
Even if sexual impotence, the consistent inability to maintain or achieve an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance, is not a life-threatening condition, it still compromises the well being and quality of life. The study that covers this have results that suggested smoking prevention as an important approach in reducing the risk of sexual impotence. The team of researchers from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine led by Jiang He, MD, PhD, examined the connection and association between cigarette smoking and sexual impotence in a one year study in China involving almost eight thousand men. They used questionnaires to be able to evaluate and assess the status of cigarette smoking and sexual impotence. The lead researcher, He, a professor and chair of epidemiology with his team of researchers who examined the relation between cigarette smoking and sexual impotence in men, said that the association between cigarette smoking and sexual impotence was found in earlier studies. However, most of those studies were only conducted in patients dealing with hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. This specific study differs from the previous since this is the first to find such association with healthy men.
Those men who were surveyed by the team of researchers were aged 35 to 74 and does not have vascular disease. This study also found out that there was a significant statistical connection between the number of cigarettes that the men smoked and the likelihood they would experience sexual impotence. According to the study, as a whole, it is an estimated 22.7 percent of sexual impotence cases among Chinese men might be attributable to cigarette smoking. Although this study was conducted in China, it would still be applicable to the US, says He.
There are more than 18 million American men (nearly one in every five) who are experiencing sexual impotence, according to another study from Bloomberg School of Public Health. There have been analysis done in the country that shows the same association between cigarette smoking and sexual impotence, but those were conducted in patients suffering from either diabetes, hypertension, or cardiovascular diseases. This particular study shows that even healthy men, the association is very strong. Both smoking and erectile dysfunction have often been associated individually with plaque build-up in the arteries, called atherosclerosis. The plaque obstructs blood flow through vessels, causing a host of circulatory problems throughout the body, such as erectile dysfunction.
Bringing further caution about the dangers of starting to smoke cigarettes, researchers found that even when cigarette smokers quit, their risk of developing sexual impotence did not decrease. The risk is about statistically the same for former cigarette smokers as for current cigarette smokers. This research study has a really strong message for young men. This might get their attention if they know that smoking cigarettes is associated with sexual impotence even in a healthy population. Young men should not even think about starting to smoke, for this would not bring any good for their health.
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