What Smoking does to you...

    Smoking and You

    Your body cannot work at full efficiency if you smoke. Do you really want to coat your lungs with dangerous tars from the condensed smoke? Starve your body of oxygen? Put your heart under strain from nicotine and carbon monoxide?

    SMOKING AND LUNG CANCER:

    Smoke from cigarettes contains over a thousand different chemicals, many of which are capable of causing cancer. The present lung cancer epidemic would not exist but for cigarette smoking. It is an extremely rare disease in non-smokers. The risk of lung cancer is greatly reduced if you give up smoking.

    SMOKING AND HEART DISEASE:

    Cigarette smoking contributes substantially to death from heart disease. Smokers have been shown to have more atherosclerosis (narrowing and plugging of arteries) than non-smokers. Atherosclerosis can lead to a crippling or fatal heart attack. Smokers are two to three times more likely to suffer a heart attack than non-smokers. The risk is greatly reduced if you give up smoking.

    SMOKING AND CHRONIC BRONCHITIS:

    Smokers have a lot more bronchitis than non-smokers. Bronchitis leads to smoker’s cough and shortness of breath and may predispose you to pneumonia. Giving up smoking hastens recovery from bronchitis and reduces the chance of recurrence.

    SMOKING AND EMPHYSEMA:

    Emphysema is a rare disease in non-smokers, but is common in heavy smokers. With emphysema, the lungs start to "rot". The lung tissue hardens and the pressure of breathing blows holes in it. When this happens, the emphysema victim cannot breathe normally, and as the disease progresses, he becomes a breathless invalid. Emphysema is incurable.

    SMOKING AND UNFITNESS:

    Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide - a poisonous gas which replaces oxygen in the bloodstream. When this happens, as it does in smokers, the muscles don’t get enough oxygen to work efficiently. Also the brain and heart are starved for oxygen. This, along with smokers’ bronchitis and emphysema, is what makes smokers so much less fit than they should be.

    SMOKING AND PREGNANCY:

    Babies born to smoking mothers are more likely to be born dead (stillborn); more likely to be born underweight; more likely to die soon after birth.

    Give your body a chance to get well - GIVE UP SMOKING NOW!


    TRY ONE OF THESE METHODS

    1. Quit "cold turkey". That is, decide not to have another cigarette ever, and stick to that decision.

    2. Switch to a low tar brand of cigarette. Cigarettes are less dangerous if they contain less tar and nicotine. If you find it impossible to quit smoking, it will at least be some benefit to switch to a low tar brand.

    3. Form or join an "I Quit" club - a group of people who have kicked the habit and who are helping each other to stay off cigarettes.

    4. Enrol in a course sponsored by the Anti-Cancer Council.

    Compiled from information supplied by the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria with permission.

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